LORMAN &045; Just because the next Southwestern Athletic Conference game for Alcorn is just under three weeks away doesn’t mean it’s time to yawn.

Especially since the Braves’ last game was enough to make you cringe.

The Braves hit the road Friday for a Saturday battle against Stephen F. Austin, a member of the Southland Conference, in Nacogdoches, Texas, before an Oct. 4 battle at Division II Fort Valley State.

They won’t get back into SWAC play until an Oct. 11 date at home against struggling Prairie View A&M, but that starts the real meat of their schedule with six of their last seven games counting in the SWAC standings.

&uot;You’ve got to win to get confidence,&uot; Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas said Monday. &uot;You go into every game trying to win. This would give us a great deal of momentum. It would give us confidence in what we’re doing. You can’t lose a football game and go into a conference game and say you’re going to win. We’ve got to get some confidence and faith back in this football team.&uot;

The biggest hurdle in doing so is the key injuries the Braves have suffered so far. They lost defensive back Jeremy Stockdale in the first half of their 49-28 loss to Alabama State back on Sept. 13 with an ACL injury is out for the season.

Linebacker Dwan Wilson is still two weeks away, and receiver Clifford Perry might be out for the entire season after missing most of last season with a knee injury.

&uot;That’s the biggest thing,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;You’ve also got your bo-bos, strains and contusions. (Charlie) Spiller had a slight concussion, but he’s back. We’re hoping (Wilson) can be back in the next two weeks.&uot;

Aside from the physical pain, there’s also the mental strain from that loss to Alabama State where watching the turnovers in the second half was pretty excruciating. The Braves had six turnovers &045; five in the third quarter, one interception returned for a touchdown &045; that turned a 14-7 Alcorn lead at halftime to a 35-21 Alabama State lead heading into the fourth quarter.

&uot;That’s been our downfall,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;It’s not the fact we’re not playing good football. It’s the fact we turned the ball over when we shouldn’t. We’ve got to do a better job with that, and I think we can recover. If we can stop doing that to ourselves, we can have a pretty good football team.&uot;

The game was hard on quarterback Donald Carrie, who had three interceptions after playing probably his best game the week before in the loss to Grambling. The junior still threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another but had three passes picked off, which gave the Hornets at times some short fields to work with and overshadowed Corvin Johnson’s huge night of five catches for 139 yards and two scores.

Erlin Sanders, however, picked one off in the third quarter and returned it 33 yards to the house. The three picks make seven on the year for Carrie, who is tied for the conference lead in that category while also being third in TD passes and fourth in quarterback efficiency.

Of the three turnovers in the third quarter of that game, Alabama State got the ball at the Alcorn 16 on the first one, second on the second one and got the ball at the Alcorn 32 on the third one. A fumble in the fourth quarter put the Hornets at the Alcorn 5.

&uot;We had guys open. We just overthrew the football,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;It’s just that simple. We’ve got to protect the football better. It’s very tough to play a good football team and let them play on your end of the field. It puts a lot of stress on the defense. When they got the ball inside our territory, they ran the ball pretty well. That’s what happens when you play a good football team and give them the ball deep in your territory. It’s hard to contain them.&uot;

Saturday’s opponent had similar problems in its 38-24 loss last week at home to Northern Iowa. The Lumberjacks, now 1-2 on the year after opening with a win over La.-Monroe, had two critical turnovers in the loss, including one fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

Nonetheless, the Lumberjacks are formidable opponents for Alcorn, winless against Southland opponents since 1995.