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It's difficult to evaluate your team's strengths and weaknesses when you're up against a steady, pouring rain on a wet surface.
There are the inevitable fumbles, miscues, slippery turf and lack of any real passing game.
So while Brendan Brown couldn't completely critique his team's 21-0 win against Biglerville on Friday night, what the game did tell Brown is something he already knew -- his Northeastern Bobcats are quickly developing into a big play team.
Two of the Bobcat's three touchdowns against the Canners came on long rushing plays by fleet-footed quarterback Josh Writer.
Aside from those plays, Northeastern had difficulty moving the chains, with most of the Bobcat offense coming courtesy of 23 carries by running back Aaron Greene, who rushed for 110 yards -- 42 of which came on Greene's first carry of the game.
"We definitely had problems on short yardage," Brown said. "We're not very deep and the guys we do have to get better. I don't mind a low-scoring game, but big plays aren't going to sustain us."
While Northeastern struggled to move the chains, Biglerville just flat out couldn't do it, going three-and-out on every possession in the first half.
Chalk it up to a tough Bobcat defense, that held the Canners to just 14 yards rushing in the first half and 73 yards total.
A good thing for Northeastern, considering the seven dropped balls and three turnovers in the game.
"We have to grow up," Brown said. "Against these early opponents it didn't hurt us, but those mistakes are going to absolutely come back to haunt us as we enter into death row in the coming weeks."
Several big plays against fresh-faced squads, such as the Canners and East Juniata (which Northeastern shut-out last week) earned the Bobcats two wins to start the season, but Brown is worried about what the implications could be down the stretch.
Especially with Central looming on the horizon in less than a week.
"We have to be more efficient," Brown said. "That's what it's going to take to compete at the level we want to compete at."
Early Friday night, Northeastern wasn't efficient as it moved the ball downfield twice in the opening quarter, but was halted by turnovers at the Canner 18- and 27-yard lines.
Writer's first score of the game came on the first play of the second half, as the quarterback called his own number and outran the Canner defense 55-yards into the endzone.
Writer's second touchdown came with time running out in the second quarter.
Northeastern took over at their own 20-yard line -- the Bobcat's worst field position in the game. With less than a minute on the clock, and confidence wavering due to three turnovers, it was likely Brown would run down the clock.
Instead he took the advice of assistant coach George Motley, who saw something open in the Canner defense, and called another quarterback keeper for Writer.
Writer burst through the left side of the Canner defense and took the ball 79 yards for his second touchdown of the game.
His two big-yardage scores allowed the sophomore to lead all rushers with 154 yards in the game.
Northeastern's final touchdown came late in the fourth quarter after Biglerville failed to convert a fourth down deep in its own territory, setting up Greene for a 1-yard run into the endzone.
