But the panic never actually seeped inside the program, as Miners coach Dave Peck constantly intimated that his team was fine, despite the puzzling beginning.

It turns out he was right.

With Thursday's 38-7 thumping of upstart West Jordan, Bingham has now won four straight games. And with each passing week, the Miners are looking more and more like the team many pegged as Class 5A title favorites when training camp began. They certainly look like Region 3 favorites.

"I couldn't be happier with how we played tonight," Peck said. "We played hard, we played with an edge. We played well on both sides of the football, and I'm very happy with that."

This was never a contest, as the Miners broke things open with a 24-point second quarter. A chunk of that damage was done by sophomore tailback Harvey Langi, who ran for a pair of first-half touchdowns. Jake Soffe, the senior quarterback, played one of his best games of the season, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another.

"We knew Jake was a great quarterback," Peck said. "He tore his MCL in the offseason and he came back a week before we got into pads. He started slow, but he's been playing very well."

Most importantly for Peck is the fact that his defense shut down a West Jordan team that entered Thursday night with a 5-0 record. For the game, Bingham made life miserable for Jaguars quarterback Jace Rogers, sacking him a number of times, picking him off twice and having the opportunity to intercept him two more times.

Because Rogers couldn't get going, neither could Tyson Udy or D.J. Tialavea, West Jordan's top two receiving threats.