BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Each week during the 2021 season, we will release The Chris Hatcher Show. The show, hosted by Kevin Blackwell and featuring head football coach Chris Hatcher, will look back at the previous week's football game and look forward to the upcoming contest.
 
Samford dropped a close game for the second week in a row, falling, 45-42 at Mercer Saturday night. Hatcher gave his thoughts on his team's performance in the game.
 
"I thought we traveled well, I thought we played with great effort and at times I thought we executed extremely well, we're just not finishing ballgames," Hatcher said. "The first half was a back-and-forth affair, 14-10. And then in the second half, both offensive units got rolling and it was just a matter of who had the ball last. It's a common theme that we've had, dating back to the spring, we get to the end, and we haven't been able to make the plays to come out victorious. That's something that we work on each and every week. We've just got to execute better down the stretch of a ballgame."
 
Hatcher also praised the Mercer team and its performance in the contest.
 
"But you have to tip your hat to Mercer, they've got a really good team," Hatcher said. "They've got a new quarterback from the spring, and they really ran the ball well, and it's hard to beat a team that rushes for that many yards."
 
Samford was missing a few starters entering last week's game. Hatcher said, despite the missing players, he was proud of the way his team battled.
 
"I'm really pleased with the team we took down there," Hatcher said. "We were down Nelson Jordan (defensive lineman), Nathan East (linebacker). Ty King (wide receiver) and A.J. Toney (wide receiver) didn't play, Montrell (Washington—wide receiver) was banged up, he was a game-time decision heading into the game. Francisco Jimenez (defensive line) didn't play due to injury. But the guys we took, they're plenty good enough, they've been practicing well and playing well."
 
Hatcher talked a little about the areas the defense needs to improve as they go through the team's open week for this season.  
 
"But, it's, and we're talking defensive football here, it's a combination of lack of execution and doing our job well," Hatcher said. "And when you do that, you start overcompensating for someone else, you find yourself out of position, it opens up big gaps, you're not in position to make a tackle, so you're tacking becomes really poor. That's where we have to get better, and actually we've got to get tougher up front and be able to get home with just some four-man rush and things of that nature instead of having to bring six in order to get pressure on the quarterback."
 
Offensively, Samford put up 518 total yards in the game. Hatcher addressed the offense's performance.
 
"We still have a lot of room to improve there," Hatcher said. "The turnovers, we've got to eliminate them, we put our defense in a short field a couple of times. It was one of those games that they were determined to take away the deep ball. We did hit a couple on them, and they just dropped a lot in coverage, so we had to rely on the run game, which is great, and I thought that we improved in that area. But in a game like that, you look at the second half, Mercer scored five of their six times with the ball, and they finished with the ball on the sixth possession and took a knee. And offensively, we scored four out of six times, with one punt and we had a touchdown called back. When you're in a game that's back-and-forth, you have to find a way to make all of the drives count, and that's very difficult to do, but we've got to get a little better in that area."
 
Hatcher did say, moving forward, despite the recent setbacks, he still sees a bright future for his team this season.
 
"Those are some areas we are very well aware of, our guys have great spirits, they're very accountable for how we're performing," Hatcher said. "We're very close, and I'm extremely excited that we have a bye week to get a lot of guys well. But I'm extremely excited to see us finish off with a great stretch because a lot of our goals are still there, and I think we're going to be a force to be reckoned with moving forward."
 
The Bulldogs are off this week before playing at Wofford next week. Hatcher talked about what the team is focusing on this week.
 
"This week's all about getting good at the fundamentals, a little bit of Wofford within that deal," Hatcher said. "And then we just need to get guys healed up and rested so that when we come back next week, we can hit the ground full speed for this stretch run."
 
FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS:
For the latest news and information on Samford football, visit the official website for Samford Athletics at SamfordSports.com. Fans can also follow the Bulldogs on social media at /SamfordFootball (Facebook), @SamfordFootball (Instagram) and @SamfordFootball (Twitter).