Box Score NATCHITOCHES – After a big win Saturday night, 55-14 in the home opener over in-state rival Southern, Northwestern State football coach Jay Thomas was talking about the little things.
 
The Demons (2-0) raced to a 31-0 second-quarter lead in front of a near-capacity crowd of 14,873 at Turpin Stadium.
 
“We played at a different speed, a different tempo last night, purple hats flying all over the place,” said Thomas, who has NSU off to its best start since 2007.  “It's fun to see as the fundamentals are borne out, and there's carryover from practice. We have to continue to improve at the little things.
 
“We have a million miles to go in every phase of the game, but the effort is starting to come around to where we want it. In all three phases, we're starting to click. Guys are getting more comfortable and that allows them to play faster,” he said.
 
Winning big allows more guys to play, too. Offensive line coach Ben Norton, in his 16th season of coaching, said he'd never been able to use 14 players up front in a game before. A dozen Demons played on the defensive line.
 
Commanding field position was pivotal as NSU quickly took control, starting three of its first five series in Southern territory. The Demons scored touchdowns on four straight possessions midway through the first half while the Jaguars punted after three-and-outs on five of their opening six series.
 
“We had good field position and took advantage of it. Our special teams, our defense created that, and we got a little help from our opponents, but we kept their offense bottled up on their end of the field,” said Thomas.
 
Northwestern was productive in possession of the ball. After two games, the Demons rank second behind Eastern Washington nationally with 55 first downs, posting 30 against Southern. Junior college transfer quarterback Zach Adkins is seventh in the FCS ranks with a 313-yard total offense average after throwing for 331 and running for 45 more against the Jaguars.
 
Converted cornerback Ed Eagan, in his second game at receiver, shared the team high with junior college transfer Bryant Mitchell (Adkins' roommate) as each snagged six passes. Mitchell had one more yard, 99-98, than Eagan, but Eagan added a 61-yard kickoff return and grabbed an 8-yard touchdown from Adkins. Mitchell had a 31-yard TD erased by a penalty.
 
“We talked about creating explosive plays in the kicking game, and we did have one. We didn't have many opportunities,” said Thomas. “Our punt protection is getting better, and we kicked the ball well. We've had a kick blocked in both games, and both times, we hit it low.”
 
Overall, the Demons showed their new head coach much of what he hoped to see in the wake of a season-opening 23-17 victory nine nights earlier at Missouri State, a 28-14 loser Saturday at Iowa.
 
“We saw the big jump from week one to week two, and now we're looking for gradual steps each week,” said Thomas. “We've got to consistently improve on the little things to achieve big things.”
 
There's no graduate step up in competition, however. Next Saturday, NSU plays the first of two straight road games against FBS foes, visiting Cincinnati, which won the last two Big East Conference championships and has four straight bowl appearances, including the Orange (2009) and Sugar (2010).
 
 “We've got to climb the mountain this week, take one step at the time, work toward the peak and see what happens when we get there,” said Thomas. “It's going to be a good challenge, a good measuring stick for our guys.”
 
The Demons will begin game-week practices Tuesday afternoon and take a charter flight to Cincinnati on Friday morning for the 7 p.m. (EST) contest Saturday at Nippert Stadium against the Bearcats (1-1).