A nine-week stretch of conference games begins Saturday for the Wabash football team when it travels to Denison.

The Big Red (1-1, 0-1 NCAC) opened the conference portion of their schedule last Saturday with a turnover-plagued loss at Hiram. Denison quarterback Brandon Sklenar contributed six interceptions to the team's eight turnovers.

"Well obviously we wish that would have happened in our game," Coach Erik Raeburn said. "Typically a game like that refocuses your team. You preach all the time as a coach about how important protecting the football is, but sometimes it takes a game like that where you turn it over a ton before you totally buy in. Unfortunately, the probably means they're going to take great care of the football against us."

While the Big Red took their licks last weekend, the Little Giants (1-0) used their bye week for self-improvement and healing after their season-opening win against Hampden-Sydney. Wabash focused on improving its play inside the 20.

"Offensively, we were a little disappointed to have to kick those two field goals in the red zone," Raeburn said. "We wish we would have finished those drives off and got in the end zone. Defensively, we were only in the red zone one time, but we gave up a touchdown."

Raeburn also noted the need for an improvement in the punting game going forward. He put punters in a variety of pressure situations during the bye.

Despite the Denison quarterback's rough start, Sklenar still puts plenty of pressure on the defense. The senior leads the Big Red is rushing with 206 yards this season while throwing for another 500. He has also scored five touchdowns in two games.

"We feel like their quarterback is a really good player," Raeburn said. "He had a bad day from a turnover standpoint last Saturday, but he was the conference player of the week a few times last year. We're expecting that type of performance out of him against us."

The Little Giants' defensive speed should help contain Sklenar when he scrambles.

"If he has a bad day, I think their offense will have a bad day," Ethan Buresh said. "We just have to contain him and then we should be able to win the game. We're going to always have a player assigned to him to try and slow down his rushing."

Buresh gave the opposing offense a bad day the last time he took the field. The sophomore linebacker scored a touchdown on a 41-yard interception return, sacked the quarterback 1-1/2 times, and recorded seven tackles — three for loss. This performance earned him numerous awards, including North Coast Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week and being named to D3football.com's Team of the Week. Despite his week one success, and Sklenar's week two struggles, Buresh said he won't take more risks or play overly aggressive.

"I'm not going to change what I do based on the mistakes he made," Buresh said. "We just need to focus on our own roles and the turnovers will come."

Defensively, the Big Red were stingy in a 35-6 victory at Earlham College in week one. The defense surrendered 37 points to Hiram in week two, but Raeburn pointed out it often played with its back against the wall due to the eight turnovers.

"If you have eight turnovers, you're going to give up some points — they got stuck with some bad field position," Raeburn said. "But they only gave up a couple of big plays. Hiram's quarterback didn't complete a high percentage of this throws — Denison had pretty good coverage. We're hoping that we can create some explosive plays in the passing game, but complete a higher percentage than what Denison gave up on Saturday."

Wabash quarterback Michael Putko completed 15-of-22 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown in week one. Putko also avoided interceptions as the Little Giants committed zero turnovers in the game.

"Our guys realize offensively that it doesn't matter if we get two or three takeaways if we're careless with the football too," Raeburn said. "Last week, we did a great job protecting the football and not turning it over, and we need that same kind of focus this week."

The Little Giants have had two weeks to live down their emotional win. Raeburn felt the time off would help prevent a letdown performance this Saturday.

"This early in the season, you'd like to think that the guys are excited to get back out there and play," Raeburn said. "With only one game under our belt, it's hard to tell where we're at compared to the rest of the conference. Hopefully that will keep our guys motivated to fight any letdown."

Saturday will present the first chance Wabash has to make a statement to the NCAC in 2014. Kickoff will be at 1 p.m. from Granville, OH.

View Wabash gamenotes for Saturday's game here. The game will be broadcast on WNDY (91.3 FM) beginning at 12:45 p.m. with the pregame show. An audio stream of the broadcast is available here. Denison will also provide live video and live statistics updates.