It was once said by Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

This is exactly how it has felt and looked when the West Texas A&M University football team has taken the field the majority of the season. Granted there still are six games left in the season, the same problems remain and have shown no sight of getting fixed anytime soon. According to WT athletics, the Buffs committed nine penalties for a total of 100 yards.

The Buffaloes don’t have the luxury of committing that many penalties because they don’t have a consistent enough offense to overcome them.

As seen in the previous game to Colorado School Of The Mines, the Buffs can get ahead but not consistently enough and comfortable enough to really put teams away. Why is this the case? The reason is because their biggest enemy is themselves.

It was frequently shown a handful of rushing plays by Western Oregon where contact was made behind the line of scrimmage, but poor tackling led into a first down or more.
I asked Aryton Payne, junior defensive back, how he felt his defense was doing in the tackling department.

“A lot of guys are going for kill shots instead of wrapping up,” Payne said.

This really sums up the defense as a whole and it’s biggest problem for the season. The Buffs are not even ranked in the top 50 in division II football. 23.60 points per game is what they are giving up, which ranks 68 in the country per the National College Athletics Association.

The cornerbacks are allowing wide receivers too much free reign in running their routes and are not being physical enough at the start of the play. Nick Gerber, junior quarterback, threw an interception when the Buffs were knocking on the door of a touchdown or at minimum a field goal.

That’s seven points, if not three, that are never put on the board for the Buffs. The players aren’t all at fault, however. There are simply too many times on first and 10 the ball is being run. Khalil Harris, sophomore running back, is having a good season in his own right.

However, to repeatedly run the same play with the same running back in the same situation is a poor choice of decisiveness. The score was 38-41 Western Oregon unfortunately it’s hard to feel any confidence, even in a back and forth game when there are so many opportunities being missed and boneheaded penalties being made.

Tyrie Tipton, freshman wide receiver, was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after a touchdown because he got into it verbally with the fans of Western Oregon. That was then taken out on the kickoff, which cost the Buffs field position. In turn that led to an Oregon touchdown.

With every step forward, the Buffs take three steps back. Next game up is versus Angelo State University for the Buffs Homecoming game.

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