The (0-6) Dayton Wolfpack travel down to Jacksonville, FL to face the undefeated (9-0) Jacksonville Sharks! But coils Dayton Wolfpack Upset Jacksonville Sharks?

Could Dayton Wolfpack Upset Jacksonville Sharks?

The Wolfpack are coming off of a bye week after a gruesome 77-0 loss to the Columbus Lions. This was the first time the Wolfpack have been shut out this season. The Wolfpack don’t have much dreaming to do as their playoff hopes are gone. They can at least hope that they can beat the Sharks in their last game of the season.

The Jacksonville Sharks keep the ball rolling under new head coach Siaha Burley, moving to 9-0 this season. Burley looked like he knew exactly what he was doing as he previously beat the (0-8) Corpus Christi Rage 71-6 in Week 11 over in Corpus Christi.

There’s not much to do for this, but let’s get started with the keys for each team.

Keys For The Dayton Wolfpack

1. Shotgun Snaps

In previous games, Jacksonville has been pretty dangerous when the opposing quarterback is under center, but they’re pretty quiet when the quarterback is in shotgun formation. By doing this, the offensive line allows the quarterback to get a good read of the field. This will help the quarterback find his receiver for a gain.

2. Short Passes

Jacksonville still plays a lot of zone defense to keep their opponent off the field. There’s one trick with this. Zone Defense (especially Jacksonville’s defense) isn’t the greatest against screens or short passes. Corpus Christi moved the ball somewhat decent last week against Jacksonville when they did quick and short passes, opposed to their turnovers and incomplete passes when going down the field.

3. Force Penalties on Jacksonville

Jacksonville is the worst team when it comes to penalties. To throw them off and get a first down, you must make them jump offsides, draw the pass interference, or do something to get their team to get laundry on the field. Jacksonville has allowed a lot of first downs due to penalties. First downs give teams more and more opportunities to score, so take advantage of it while you can!

4. Keep the ball as long as possible

Jacksonville can’t score if they’re not touching the ball, right? So you might as well run the clock down and take control of the game that way. Jacksonville is great at getting quick scores and racking up points because teams don’t keep the ball for very long. If you go back to April 1, Jacksonville blew a huge lead in the third quarter to tie it all up against the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. How did this happen? It happened because Lehigh Valley kept the ball for a good while on each drive. The Wolfpack need to do exactly that.

Keys For The Jacksonville Sharks:

1. Nick Belcher

Nick Belcher alone can beat the Dayton Wolfpack with his ability to nail those deuces. Sure, a kicker can’t kick a deuce if his team doesn’t score any points. Although that’s correct, there is a way to score a deuce without scoring.

That is opening kickoffs and allowing safeties. But all of that is besides the point. When Jacksonville scores, Belcher quickly racks up points, making it look like he can win alone on the stats and be a one man army.

2. Rushing

Derrick Ross and Damien Fleming both have the great ability to run the ball. Ross can hurdle over defenders all day and get in the endzone real easily. When giving Fleming room to run, he can turn an inch into a mile. This is the dynamic duo that Jacksonville has been looking for with running.

3. Defensive Interceptions

Last week against the Rage, Jacksonville had a feast with interceptions and pick-sixes. If Jacksonville can get these guys on defense going, they will score an easy 70+ points just like last week.

4. Controlling the game

Jacksonville is a scary team, especially in the second half. Although they have scored less than 100 points in the third quarter in all of their games combined, they use the third quarter to run the clock down and control the fourth quarter. Points aren’t everything in a game, it’s how you manage the clock to score those points when you need them the most, not scoring as soon as possible to give your opponent a chance to score.