LORMAN &045; The positive from Saturday night?

One drive in the first quarter that netted a touchdown.

The negative?

Everything else.

At least Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas and his staff know it’s only the first week of the season and plenty of time to get everything corrected. Yet when it came to assessing what went right and what went wrong in a 48-21 loss at Southeastern Louisiana Saturday, the wrongs ran the gamut.

The Braves went back to work Monday for Saturday’s home opener against Langston.

&uot;We didn’t execute our fundamentals on offense, defense and special teams very well,&uot; Thomas said during Monday’s SWAC teleconference. &uot;When you don’t execute your fundamentals, it’s going to make for an embarrassing and frustrating night. And it was for us. That’s what makes it so disappointing after going through training camp and in our minds as coaches and having worked on those things.

&uot;Having the team not going out and not executing basic skills of football was very, very frustrating, disappointing and embarrassing.&uot;

Little went right save a drive in the first quarter when the Braves went 77 yards on 11 plays for a touchdown. Oliver Bozeman three of four pass attempts, the Lions had a pass interference penalty and Jeremy McCoy had a 17-yard run to set up a 3-yard run for a touchdown for the game’s first score.

After that things went downhill with Bozeman and the offense. The Braves brought in Tony Hobson in the second half, put Bozeman back in after four possessions and re-inserted Hobson at the end of the game.

Bozeman fumbled the snap on four occasions, and the Braves’ inability to get the passing game going overshadowed McCoy’s first 110 yards rushing in his first 100-yard game of his career.

&uot;On offense we fumbled the ball on the center-quarterback exchange five to seven times,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;That was Oliver Bozeman. He just was not grasping the ball when the center snapped it to him. Instead of having three downs to make a first down, we had two downs to make a first down.&uot;

Hobson struggled in his first taste of college football, although coaches admitted he was rushed a bit into action after missing a good bit of training camp with a bruised back. His first collegiate pass resulted in an interception, and he had another pass batted up in the air at the line of scrimmage before coming down in the hands of SLU linebacker Damien Huren.

Bozeman connected on 10 of 21 passes for only 59 yards.

&uot;We wanted to give (Bozeman) an opportunity to relax and settle down,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;He had a good second series of the game, which was very, very impressive. We realized we would have growing pains coming in but not to that extent. We got a little frustrated with him, and we brought in Tony Hobson. The quarterback play on one series was outstanding but for the rest of the game was not very impressive.&uot;

The other sore spot for the Braves came on defense as the Lions moved the football well with the run and the short passing game en route to 459 yards total offense. It was a stark contrast from the past two seasons for the Lions, who passed it a ton under former head coach Hal Mumme.

With head coach Dennis Roland and a new staff in place Saturday, the Lions established the run with 223 yards.

&uot;I’m sure they were thinking pass,&uot; Roland said afterward. &uot;We worked hard this spring to establish more balance in the offense. We were trying to take advantage of what they were giving us, and I felt we had to take advantage of that. We want to be a little more balanced.&uot;

The Braves lined up Saturday with little experience at their three linebacker spots with Antonio Cooper at middle, Lester Mosley at strongside linebacker and true freshman Lee Robinson at weakside. The Lions converted on eight of 17 third downs.

The defense played the second half with Preseason All-SWAC cornerback Taurian Parks due to a badly sprained ankle.

&uot;We had Southeast in second and long and third and long in four or five different situations,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;Out of those situations, they were able to capitalize on whatever plays they ran for a first down.&uot;