I know, I know.

Yes, the Saluki football team suffered a 52-3 loss to Indiana State Saturday, the worst Gateway Conference loss in SIUC history, but don’t give up yet.

The Dawgs are still 2-3 on the young season and have shown signs of being a good football team, even though the loss to the Sycamores is a minor setback. SIUC has shown that the team can look very good at times, but the question from week to week is which team will show up?

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To understand what is happening with the Dawgs this year there are a couple of factors to be looked at. One is the inexperience of the squad on a whole, and the other problem is the large amount of penalties and turnovers being committed.

SIUC has a lot of new and young faces that dot the roster and start on both sides of the ball.

The Salukis are starting a transfer sophomore at quarterback, a true freshman at tailback and rotate a freshman, sophomore and two juniors (one a transfer) in the receiving corps.

The offense has missed leadership with senior running back William Tolen and junior wide receiver Aaron Baker both out of the lineup due to injury.

The defensive line also has a lot of youth as three juniors and two sophomores have seen a majority of the playing time.

With the young players comes exciting talent, but also inconsistent play.

The Salukis started with a good victory at Southeast Missouri State and followed it up with a lopsided loss to Murray State. SIUC came back with a solid performance in a 14-9 loss against Division 1-A Arkansas State and blew out Nicholls State then following week for Saluki head coach Shawn Watson’s first home victory.

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The roller coaster ride is tough to get used to, but it also means the Dawgs can win at any time.

The big factor SIUC has to overcome is the inordinate number of penalties and turnovers the squad continues to make.

In the Indiana State game, Saturday, the Dawgs committed five turnovers and committed 11 penalties, which was the major reason the Sycamores were able to score 52 points.

SIUC is averaging over 12 penalties a contest for a total of 492 yards. A majority of those penalties have come at critical times, which have extended opponents drives and stopped Saluki possessions.

For the Dawgs to be successful, penalties have to be stopped to give their team some momentum.

With the exception of the Indiana State game turnovers have not been a big problem for Watson’s squad as they have given the ball away only seven times in the previous four games.

The key is for the Salukis to stop the turnovers and limit that to one game.

The 52-3 blowout was not indicative of how good the Salukis are. As the team gains more experience and some mistakes are eliminated the team will have better performances.

Stick with the Dawgs the future ahead is bright.