Perhaps the biggest challenge after a blowout victory is to forget about it. The Little Giants will try to forget about their 69-0 win over Hanover last Saturday in preparation for Denison this weekend.

The game is part of the College's annual Homecoming celebration and is also the North Coast Athletic Conference opener for the Little Giants.

"We have 33 seniors, and they have taken to our team mantra, 'One at a time,'" Coach Erik Raeburn said. "Hopefully they'll buy into that motto, and make sure our young guys do as well."

Despite the lopsided result, quarterback Michael Putko found plenty to critique after reviewing the film of his first start.

"Our goal is one turnover per game, and we had two, so that is something we'll have to fix," Putko said. "I feel like did a good job distributing the ball evenly and minimizing the mistakes. But there were a couple of plays I could have hit a different receiver and gained more yards."

Putko contributed to one of the team's turnovers. He fumbled the ball while fighting to gain a first down. However, the fumble was his only glaring mistake. Putko completed 12-of-15 passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns.

Raeburn also found improvements to be made.

"In terms of penalties, we were much better as a team that we were a year ago in the opening game of the season, but we still finished with nine Saturday, including two foolish 15-yard penalties and too many pre-snap penalties," Raeburn said. "All the other areas, we need to sharpen up. Whether it be special teams, offense, or defense. Some of our alignments were a little off, some of our footwork was bad. We had little mistakes that in a closer game can cost you."

Putko knows the mistakes need to be cut down this Saturday.

"I know Denison will be a tougher team than Hanover and it has some pretty good size at linebacker," Putko said.

Denison will enter the contest undefeated after wins versus Earlham and Hiram. The Big Red's run defense was stout in its two contests, and is allowing the second fewest rush yards-per-game in the NCAC, only behind Wabash.

"Last year, Hanover did the best job of any team we faced in terms of run defense, but Denison was second," Raeburn said. "We'll have to do a better job up front to make sure that doesn't happen again."

Senior defensive lineman Teddy Kuntz has four-and-a-half tackles-for-loss on the year including two sacks. His senior linemate Winters Heafey NCAC Defensive Player of the Week honors last week with five tackles, two sacks, and three-and-a-half tackles-for-loss.
The Big Red offense is led by sophomore quarterback Brandon Sklenar. He has completed over 70 percent of his passes through two games and distributed the ball evenly — 11 different Denison receivers have caught a pass this season.

"They have some young guys who can be explosive if they aren't contained," linebacker AJ Akinribade said. "The quarterback is elusive, but we feel we can bait him into making big mistakes and get pressure on him in the pocket."

Saturday will mark the beginning of conference play. For the first time since Wabash joined the league, the NCAC will have every team play each other once in a round-robin format. Raeburn is pleased with the new schedule.

"I think you should play everybody in your conference," Raeburn said. "I think to win the conference championship, you have to play everyone. Our conference is getting better top to bottom and that means any given Saturday, someone can get you. We certainly learned that last year."

The Little Giants kickoff Saturday at 2 p.m. Jim Amidon '87 and Steve Hoffman '85 will announce the game with Clayton Randolph '16 as the sideline reporter. View the live broadcast of Saturday's contest here. Live statistics from the game are available here.

Gamenotes - Wabash vs. Denison (pdf)