Coming off their second straight loss, 38-14 at home to No. 8 Hardin-Simmons, the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets hit the road for their toughest test of the season at No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Kickoff between the Yellow Jackets (6-2, 5-2) and Cru (8-0, 7-0) is slated for noon Saturday in Belton.

“They’re getting ready for a playoff run so I think we’ll see a playoff caliber team,” HPU first-year head coach Jason Bachtel said of the Cru. “I don’t think we’ll get a team that’s overlooking Howard Payne. They obviously deserve the rankings that they’re getting. I think they’re going to be in rare form, in playoff form, so we’re going to have to step up our game and be ready to battle.”

In last week’s loss to Hardin-Simmons, the Yellow Jackets trailed just 14-7 at halftime, but two touchdowns in the first two minutes of the second half created a hole too deep from which Howard Payne could escape. Despite the loss, Bachtel saw positives from his squad.

“What we told our kids coming off the field is obviously we’re disappointed in the loss, but what I was most excited about is the score was not indicative of the ball game in my opinion,” Bachtel said. “I feel like we’ve taken strides already in the first 10 months that I’ve been here and we’re playing a physical brand of football. Our kids are doing everything in their power to be one of the top dogs in the conference. By no stretch of the imagination are we OK with the loss, but we are pleased with where we’ve come in that short 10 months to see that we can play a physical brand of football with guys like Hardin-Simmons and Belhaven. We’re going to find out a little bit more about us this week going into Mary Hardin-Baylor, but I feel good about where we’re at in the style of football our conference plays and where we rank in that.”

The Yellow Jackets enter Saturday’s contest averaging 38 points and 496 yards – 336 passing and 160 rushing – with 15 turnovers, five of which occurred last week against Hardin-Simmons.

Landon McKinney has completed 139 of 238 passes for 2,328 yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Leading receivers include Jake Parker (42-822, 9 TDs), Otis Lanier (38-638, 7 TDs), Selah Smith (12-184, 2 TDs), Hunter Cheek (10-127, 2 TDs), and Javonte Russell (9-98, TD).

On the ground, Tauren Bradley has rushed for 488 yards and one touchdown, Stephen Willis has chipped in 326 yards, and Derrick Berry has contributed 163 yards and two scores.

On the defensive side of the ball, UMHB is yielding just 8 points and 195 yards – 110 passing and 85 rushing – per contest, with 16 takeaways.

Standouts include Jacob Mueller (56 tackles, 13 for loss, 3.5 sacks), Jefferson Fritz (36 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 FR), Akeem Jackson (34 tackles, 6.5 for loss), Omari Frazier (31 tackles, 5.5 for loss, 1 sack), and E’Monte Smith (29 tackles, 11.5 for loss, 5 sack).

“They currently are giving up 1.4 yards per rush and when you take out the long runs, we’ve got it down to them giving up 0.9 yards per rush,” Bachtel said. “Defensively, they are really, really good. Hardin-Simmons was really good but this one may be a hair better. They are so big and physical up front, they can take away your run game and then drop seven and eight in pass coverage to prevent big plays.

“What we cannot do is turn the ball over, that was a huge deal last week. The first two drives of the ball game resulted in turnovers and that was potentially six to 14 points off the board which changes the whole dynamic of the ball game. When you have the opportunity to put the ball in the end zone or get points you have to get points and we can’t turn the ball over.”

Offensively, the Cru is generating 51 points and 470 yards – 244 on the ground and 226 through the air – per outing, with 12 turnovers.

The rushing attack features Aphonso Thomas (578 yards, 6 TDs), Kenneth Cormier Jr. (499 yards, TD), Kyle King (305 yards, 11 TDs), Ryan Redding (205 yards, 3 TDs), and Brownwood graduate Tommy Bowden (165 yards, 4 TDs).

King has connected on 81 of 123 passes for 1,310 yards with 21 touchdowns and just one interception. Leading receivers are K.J. Miller (24-362, 6 TDs), Brandon Jordan (22-422, 6 TDs), Brenton Martin (19-335, 5 TDs), Gary Ruckman (12-159, 2 TDs) and Aaron Sims (11-253, 2 TDs).

“Offensively they are very simple in what they do,” Bachtel said. “There’s not going to be any surprise in what we’re going to see, they’re just so good athletically and up front that they can execute at such high levels that that makes them really good. They don’t have to be really complicated, they are just more physically dominant than the teams that they play.”

HPU’s defense is allowing 28 points and 393 yards – 234 through the air and 159 on the ground – with 15 takeaways.

Leading the charge on defense are Dai’Shawn Fisher (50 tackles, 6 for loss, 1 FR), Peyton Lowe (49 tackles, 10 for loss, 2 sacks, 2 INTs, 2 FRs), Kyle Bell (48 tackles, 1 INT), James Jakubowski (45 tackles, 4 for loss, 3 sacks, 1 FR), Aaron Alderete (37 tackles, 2 for loss, 1.5 sacks), Carson Padilla (32 tackles, 4.5 for loss), and Jarett Brown (31 tackles, 1 for loss).

“We have to do a better job tackling and we have to do a better job getting turnovers,” Bachtel said. “If you look over the first six games we played we created a lot of turnovers and in the last two we haven’t. We also didn’t give the ball up and in the last two weeks we have.”

Bachtel added the Yellow Jackets must also avoid special teams breakdowns, which they experienced at the start of the third quarter last week.

“The back breaker I thought was Hardin-Simmons returning the opening kick in the second half,” Bachtel said. “We can’t allow a special teams score. That took the wind out of our sails. In order to beat the greats, you have to clean up all aspects of the ball game.”