One common theme every team in the Mountain East Conference has learned at one point or another this year is that, on any given day, if a team doesn't come out and play its best football, it can lose to any team in the conference.
That's the message from both West Virginia State coach Jon Anderson and Shepherd coach Monte Cater to their respective teams heading into Saturday's 1 p.m. kickoff at Lakin Field.
For the Yellow Jackets, who sit at 1-5 on the season, it's about making the plays and putting together a consistent game and proving that they're able to play with the best in the league. For the No. 3 Rams, who have won 15 straight MEC games and 23 of their last 25, the focus is on taking care of business in what they expect to be a difficult road environment.
"If there's one thing our guys have gotten used to it's that you're going to be in for a battle every week, and this one is no different," Cater said. "State has a good team. This league is tough, it's tough for all of us."
West Virginia State will try slowing down a Shepherd team that has been as good as any in Division II this season. The Rams are leading the league offensively, scoring 41 points per game, while allowing 14.2. WVSU is last in the league in scoring defense, allowing more than 33 points per contest.
But the Yellow Jackets hope they can continue building on what was a stellar performance for much of the game in last week's loss to Notre Dame College before hitting a wall and struggling to do much on either side of the ball en route to a 48-21 defeat.
"It's going to be a really difficult challenge for us, they have a lot of good football players," Anderson said. "It's my job to help us figure out how we can take those steps we need to take as a football team and put the pieces together, so we're expecting to come out and fight against these guys."
Both teams have had their offensive success thanks largely to their effective passing games.
They have the two most productive pass offenses in the MEC heading into the game. State's Austin Hensley has thrown for more than 300 yards per game since stepping into the lineup when Matt Kinnick, last year's MEC passing leader, went down with an injury.
Shepherd, meanwhile, is going with a bit of a different approach from years past in its offense with senior quarterback Jeff Ziemba.
After being run-heavy for the last few seasons, the Rams have nearly balanced the number of runs and passes - with Ziemba completing 105 of his 151 attempts for 1,577 yards with 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
"They've changed a little bit offensively and it's working for them so far," Anderson said. "It shows you how much trust they have in [Ziemba] for him to sling it around as much as he has this season."
For Cater and the Rams, they see plenty of things to watch for when they view the film of West Virginia State. They realize that the margin of error, like they've come to know well in the MEC, is going to be fairly small.
"They can choose to be balanced and run the ball with [running back Juawan Etheredge] and the other backs they have, or they can do what they do best and throw it around," Cater said. "We're going to have to be ready for all of that. Then we also have to be ready to try to make plays against a talented defense that has a lot of good players there as well.
"We know it'll be a challenge and it'll be a situation where you're going to have to play mistake-free football if you want to win."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.