The Red Level Tigers went back to the basics this week in preparation for Excel this Friday night.

Last week, Red Level (1-1, 0-1 in Class 2A, Region 1) had too many turnovers, which contributed to a 38-6 loss to Flomaton in region play.

Red Level coach Tony Ingram said his team is similar to Excel.

“They are a lot like us in that McKenzie beat them pretty good the first game,” he said. “They played about like we did against Flomaton. They run the ‘Wing-T’ (offense) and it seems like everybody we face runs the ‘Wing-T.’”

Ingram said the keys to the game Friday night are “blocking and tackling.”

“It’s going to be blocking, tackling and executing this week and we didn’t do any of that last Friday night,” Ingram said. “Sometimes we try and make this game a lot harder than it really is.

“We cut back this week and made sure we knew what we did and what we’re supposed to do,” he said. “(Flomaton) made several pooch kicks. We worked on it and knew it was coming, but we didn’t go do a good job getting on it. I didn’t have them prepared. We’ll be prepared this week.”

Ingram said “tackling and blocking” have been the main focus this week at practice.

“It’s disheartening that we have to go over it because it’s stuff we should already know how to do,” he said. “It’s like you get caught up and try to get everything done, and then you don’t get anything done.”

Kick off in Red Level is at 7 p.m.

“I want our folks to come out and hope we have a big crowd,” Ingram said.