LORMAN &8212; If you can&8217;t win a championship, you might as well bring someone else down with you.

That will be the goal of the Alcorn State Braves (4-5, 3-4 SWAC) this week as they travel to Jackson to take on the Jackson State Tigers (6-4, 5-3) in the 14th Annual Capital City Classic Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

The Braves were eliminated from the SWAC East Division championship hunt last week after a 35-26 loss at Alabama A&M, and now will work to end any chance for Jackson State to get there.

Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas said the Braves&8217; ultimate goal for the year would be to finish strong.

&8220;We&8217;re playing for a winning record,&8221; he said. &8220;Beating Jackson could help salvage our season. The guys are motivated and they want to do a better job than last week.&8221;

Thomas said this year had ultimately boiled down to inconsistency.

&8220;That&8217;s a good way to put it,&8221; he said. &8220;At the beginning of the season we had some injuries on offense and the offense really struggled, while the defense played really well. We had a lot of inconsistency at quarterback from Tony (Hobson Jr.) for three or four games, and when he gets that straightened out he gets hurt. (Backup) Chris Walker came in and did some good things for us.

&8220;The last couple games the offense has played very well, but our defense hasn&8217;t. Last week they didn&8217;t do anything. It&8217;s been a year of inconsistency and injuries.&8221;

To get back on the winning track, the Braves will have to defeat a team that does things on both sides of the ball they haven&8217;t seen all that often this season.

&8220;They like to spread you out and throw,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;They&8217;ll throw the ball and run from the spread. They&8217;ve got a multiple offense.&8221;

While Thomas is confident his defense can defend the Tiger offense, he said it can&8217;t play like the last two games.

&8220;What&8217;s been hurting us is not executing our assignments,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;We&8217;ve been missing assignments and not getting in the right alignments, and it&8217;s been hurting us. If we don&8217;t do that this week, we&8217;ll be fine.&8221;

Defensively, Thomas said the Tigers attack more than most defenses he has seen this season.

&8220;They&8217;re a very aggressive defense,&8221; he said. &8220;They&8217;re an attacking defense. They&8217;re run blitzes and zones, and they have some good defensive linemen.

&8220;We&8217;ve protected the passer well this year, so I feel pretty good on that.&8221;

Walker will once again start in place of injured Hobson for the Braves.