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MARIETTA -- The bye week came at a good time for the Brooke football team.
The Bruins opened the season with back-to-back victories, but the Green-and-Gold have lost two straight games after that.
After having this past week off, the Bruins gets back at it as Brooke travels south to take on Marietta at 7 p.m. Friday night at Don Drumm Stadium.
While the offense has struggled – especially in the last couple of games – Brooke's defense has played well for most of the season.
"Our defense has played well," Brooke (2-2) head coach Mac McLean said. "University piled up some points, but other than that our defense has been outstanding. It keeps us in games."
Brooke's last game was a 14-0 defeat to North Marion Sept. 16 at home.
"The bye came at a really good time for us," McLean said. "We were able to rest some guys who are banged up. We were able to look at some other guys in practice.
"You are going to have injuries in football. You are going to lose guys, and other guys are going to have to come in and replace them."
Marietta enters this week's game coming off a 47-0 shutout loss to Williamstown this past Friday night at home.
"They played a real good Williamstown team," McLean said. "Williamstown is not your average every day football team.
"Marietta is talented. They are young in key spots."
Marietta opened the season with home losses to River (52-22) and West Muskingum (33-2) before going on the road and beating winless Athens (12-7). Marietta was shut out at home by Claymont (14-0) before going on the road and defeating Ripley, 14-0.
Like the Tigers, the Bruins also have a victory against the Vikings. Brooke opened the season with a 49-6 win at Ripley.
"Offensively, they want to get their guys out in space," McLean said about the Tigers. "They run a lot of motion. They will run the jet sweep. We are going to have to defend the whole field."
Marietta played well defensively against Athens, Claymont and Ripley, but the team struggled in that category in its other three games.
"Defensively, they run a four man front," McLean said. "They run a 4-2-5, but they also run an old school 4-4. Defensively, they can make it difficult to run the football, and we have struggled to run the football."
The boys from Washington County hold the advantage in the size department.
"Up front, I would say they are a little bigger," McLean said. "They don't have any real big guys. There is not much of a difference between the two teams."
After scoring 49 points in the season opener, the Bruins have struggled to put points up on the scoreboard. Brooke scored 21 points in a victory against Indian Creek, however, the boys from Brooke County only scored 13 points against University before being shut out against North Marion.
"We have to figure out a way to punch the ball into the end zone," McLean said. "We have to finish. We have not been able to finish the last couple of games. We can't have drive-killing penalties. We can't have holding penalties that put us behind the sticks."
The Bruins defeated the Tigers, 31-20, last season at home.
"I haven't compared their depth chart this season to the one they had last year," McLean said. "I haven't watched the film from that Marietta game. That was 12 football games ago."
Brooke has had to deal with injuries this season, including some to some of their top players.
"Everybody has an injury board," McLean said. "We have had injuries at the varsity level and at the JV level. Our biggest losses have been Braelyn Sperringer and Joey Clem. They are still sidelined. We hope to get them back for the end of the season. It kills them not being able to play. They want to be out there, and we want them to be out there."
The Bruins are anxious to get back out on the field after their bye last week.
"I'm really looking forward to get back out on the field," McLean said. "I relaxed last Friday. I followed scores of some of the games."