So far, SK defense offensive

South Kitsap head football coach D.J. Sigurdson is quite aware of his team’s stats.

He knows that through four games this year the Wolves have allowed 180 points, second worse in the Narrows League next to Bremerton, which has allowed 204.

He knows that the Wolves have given up at least 47 points and 500 yards of total offense in three of the four games they’ve played this year.

He also knows his team, off to a 1-3 overall start and after Friday night’s 47-18 loss to Shelton, sit at 1-1 in the Narrows League Bridge Division.

All of that tells him that he doesn’t have a very good defensive football team. At least not right now.

“We didn’t play well on defense,” Sigurdson said Saturday after watching film of the Shelton game. “Not only was it (Shelton’s) good personal, but we didn’t help ourselves out at all. We (as coaches) haven’t done a good job of teaching them. I don’t know what else to say. I know I’ve said that before but it’s still the same damn problem.”

The numbers are disturbing and Sigurdson knows that if things don’t change soon, South is looking at a very long, difficult season. But no one is more disturbed by the numbers than the coach himself. And if asked, he can tick off a number of things that are wrong.

“There’s a list of things,“ Sigurdson said. “You would look at our defense and go ‘what are they doing?’ To me, you’d say ’what are they doing? Are they coaching these kids at all?’ ”

Sigurdson, in his seventh year as head coach of the Wolves, is taking all of this very personally. He is, after all, a defensive minded coach. He was the Wolves defensive coordinator before getting the head coaching job.

To him, defense is the key and when that unit doesn’t perform well, it all comes back on the coaching staff.

“I get frustrated because we coached them and coached them but they obviously didn’t understand it,” Sigurdson said. “They didn’t respond very well. The kids don’t line up right at times and when they do line up right, they don’t react.

“You would watch us play defense and go ’their coaches don’t know anything about defense,” Sigurdson said. “They’re not defending the field how it should be defended. With this defense, it’s not happening.”

It’s not like the kids don’t want to win, Sigurdson said. But things are not working out as planned and everyone is to blame, including himself.

“I coach linebackers. I’m the head coach and I should be the best assistant coach,” Sigurdson said. “Well, our linebacker were at 50 percent at best. They were at 50 percent at best. Those are my guys. And it’s not like they don’t want to win, I know they want to do it.”

So things will be changing at practice, starting immediately.

The Wolves usual practice begins with stretching and agilities and moves into defense. When the water break at 4:05 p.m. comes, the defensive work ends. The team then moves to offense and will often stay late to work on certain plays until everyone is on the same page.

Expect to see the defense to start following that routine.

“I’m not going to say that we are dominate on offense but we’re productive,” Sigurdson said. “The kids know that the accountability is there. I think we need to do the same thing on defense.”

Basically, the defensive period won’t end at the scheduled time anymore, it will end when the entire team has shown it understands what the coaches are teaching, Sigurdson said.

“We just need to make sure we do a better job of making sure they got it before we move on,” Sigurdson said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean longer practices, it just means what are we going to accept?”

What has been acceptable is the play of the offense. The Wolves grounded out 312 yards of total offense Friday, balanced just the way Sigurdson would like with 212 yards coming on the ground and 100 through the air.

He said that while he is happy with those numbers, he is no way satisfied with the play of the offense.

“Not perfect, but they did enough,” Sigurdson said. “My comment to them upstairs (Saturday) in the film room was ’that’s enough offense for us to win.’ ”

That started and ended with the big guys up front, led by Brad Ossman, Kevin Krause and Andy Thatcher. Behind that group of blockers, tailback Anthony Galloway rushed for 206 yards and scored three times.

And while the ground game was working, the Wolves could have used a bit more in the passing attack.

“We weren’t very efficient in that,” Sigurdson said. “I felt like (junior quarterback Kyle Pease) made plays but at other times when he could have made plays, he didn’t.”

But Sigurdson said it wasn’t just Pease, who completed 8 of 19 attempts for 100 yards with one interception. It was the passing offense as a whole, he said. that failed to execute many times.

Some receivers ran the wrong route, at times, and Pease was erratic at times as well. But all in all, he will take it as long as the unit continues to improve.

“We can’t even begin to think about anything other than getting better right now,” Sigurdson said. “There are plenty of little steps we need to take care right now before we look at anything else.”

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