Narrowing its focus is, well, the focus, for SEMO FB

For the fans of Southeast Missouri State football who show up to Houck Field on Saturday afternoon to celebrate Homecoming, as well as cheer on the Redhawks to a victory, they need to see the trees, not necessarily focused on the forests, figuratively speaking.

SEMO (1-4, 1-0 Big South/OVC) will host a much-improved Eastern Illinois (4-2, 0-1) team today at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

The Redhawks have labored through three consecutive gut-wrenching, fourth-quarter losses over the past four weeks, and veteran coach Tom Matukewicz said that a lack of singular focus, as instructed by him to his players, is the reason for those painful defeats.

“You are talking to the reason that it happened,” Matukewicz explained of the losses, “and the reason that they happened is that we lost our way.”

Matukewicz continued in his explanation and said that his team – under his direction – became intensely focused on winning each game, as opposed to “doing the things that win.”

“When we lost the fourth quarter against (Southern Illinois),” Matukewicz explained, “it was like, ‘We have to win the fourth quarter.’ The problem is my program is not like that. We are brick-by-brick.”

So, in essence, instead of focusing on each individual player “doing their job” on each individual play, Matukewicz was having his team emotionally worked up over the end result.

“We don’t talk about winning,” Matukewicz said. “We talk about things that win.”

The “things that win” have been exhibited in abundance by the Redhawks over the initial three quarters of each of those losses.

SEMO has looked the part of world-beaters through the first 45 minutes of each of those games, as they built double-digit leads into the final periods.

“What has happened,” Matukewicz said. “All of a sudden, in the first, second, and third quarters, we’re playing relaxed and we’re just doing our jobs. Then, in the fourth quarter, it is ‘Oh my God, we have to win, we have to win!

“The only thing that we were thinking about was winning, and not doing our job.”

In the latest loss, a 38-33 defeat at Central Arkansas, which rallied from 32 points down in the final 15 minutes to beat SEMO, the Redhawks had several penalties in the final minutes, including two on one play of the Bears’ final offensive series.

“We don’t get a lot of penalties in the first, second, and third quarters,” Matukewicz said. “We get them in the fourth. Why? Because we’re not thinking about doing our job. We’re trying to think trying to win.”

The Redhawk players are the ones on the field having to execute each play, but Matukewicz was not holding anyone responsible for how this frustrating month of football has unfolded other than himself.

“That was a mistake that I made,” Matukewicz said. “I went against what I believe, and made it all about winning in the fourth quarter, instead of about just doing your job.”