This marks the fourth week in a row Birmingham will face an opponent it's heavily favored to beat and each week, it's getting harder and harder to keep the team focused.

Mostly, coach Ed Croson and his staff try to keep the team focused on themselves. They set goals like: Having their defense outscore opponents' offenses or getting every guy on the team into the game. Sometimes, during games, I've even noticed Birmingham calling plays or packages that don't completely fit the situation, but need to be practiced in game situations.

A couple of weeks ago, Birmingham scored a touchdown and extended its lead. They then lined up to kick the extra point, but when the defense jumped offsides, coach Croson sent the two-point conversion unit it.

It was the first quarter, so it's not like they needed the 2-point conversion. But what better time to work on things than a game situation?

None of this is meant to be disrespectful to the opponent. Croson generally pulls his starters by the middle of the third quarter, if not earlier. And each game, he's tried to get every player on the sidelines into the game.

But as a coach, you have to find a way to keep your team focused so that they don't get surprised when playoffs come around.

Birmingham hosts Cleveland this week. It's senior night and Croson has been talking about that in his speeches all week. The week after that is the rivalry game with Taft, so there will be no problem focusing on that.

But the first few weeks of playoffs could be lopsided games as well.

Oh well, as problems go, this isn't a bad one to have.