LORMAN &8212; Alabama State&8217;s loss to Alabama A&M on Saturday caught plenty of folks by surprise and showed the Hornets are indeed beatable.

But they still hold a firm grasp on the lead in the SWAC&8217;s East Division.

Nothing is for certain, but the Bulldogs&8217; win over Bama State proved to everyone that the race is far from over. The Hornets will face Grambling this week and an improved Mississippi Valley State team next week, and they need to win both to secure a spot in the SWAC Championship game.

Yet there are Alcorn State and Alabama A&M lurking. The Braves need to win out and hope the Hornets lose out to get a shot.

&8220;We just put everything in perspective,&8221; Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas said during Monday&8217;s teleconference. &8220;We look at the season as taking it one game at a time. We&8217;re going down the stretch with four games left, and we&8217;ll take one game at a time and see what happens. We&8217;re depending on someone to beat Alabama State. If something good happens, we want to be in position to take advantage of it. If not, we have ourselves to blame.&8221;

Like each of the last two seasons, that scenario requires some help from their SWAC friends since they lost to Alabama State in Week 3. Just as in the 2003 season when the Braves finished tied with Bama State in the standings it was that head-to-head meeting that gave the Hornets the edge.

And if it comes down to that again, the Hornets will do the same with their 38-3 win over Alcorn.

&8220;That&8217;s what we planned for,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;After we lost to Alabama State, we realized that put ourselves really, really in a bind in terms of winning the East Division championship. You&8217;re talking about head-to-head competition, and we&8217;ve been in that situation the last three or four years where we&8217;ve had to depend on somebody else. It&8217;s not a feasible option to win the Eastern Division and go on to Birmingham.&8221;

This week marks the second half of the season of sorts following last week&8217;s open date and four games remaining on the schedule. All four will be in the state of Mississippi with Saturday&8217;s home contest against Mississippi Valley State kicking things off.

Now may be the worst time to catch their Braves. Dating back to the 2001 season, they are 5-1 in games coming after an open date.

&8220;We worked extremely hard on the fundamentals of offense, defense and special teams,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;I think we did a pretty good job of preparation for Mississippi Valley in practice. I think the guys had an opportunity to get a little more organized academically and take care of some personal things they hadn&8217;t had an opportunity to do so. We had a great, spirited week of practice and a great deal of enthusiasm.&8221;

The open date allowed coaches to further evaluate the status of their linebacking corps, which was without freshman outside backer Lee Robinson all last week in practice. The freshman from Gloster strained a MCL, and a decision on his status won&8217;t be made until Saturday.

If he can&8217;t go, look for Tommy Campbell to replace him among a unit that&8217;s developing as playmakers on that side of the ball.

Middle Antonio Cooper and outside Lester Mosley have taken turns as the team&8217;s Defensive Most Valuable Player the last two games, while Robinson took the honor in the Texas Southern game.

Cooper and Mosley lead the team in solo and total tackles.

&8220;He&8217;s improving significantly from last week to this week,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;I&8217;m glad we had an open week. It allowed him to get the rehab and treatment he needed. Lee is playing so well. He just woke up one Saturday and said, &8216;This is how you&8217;re supposed to play linebacker at Alcorn.&8217; For Lee to get injured and sustain the type of injury he sustained, it might disrupt the chemistry but not to the extent we can&8217;t play well.&8221;

Saturday&8217;s game will also be another chance for running back Jeremy McCoy to reach that magical mark of 1,000 yards for the season despite missing two games.

Behind an offensive line that may be the best in the conference, McCoy is at 527 yards for the season with four left. He&8217;ll have to up his average &8212; now at 105 per game &8212; to reach the plateau.

&8220;It&8217;s been a developmental process for us over the last three years,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;He really knows what the offensive system is all about. He&8217;s taken advantage of the opportunity that has been given to him. He&8217;s worked very hard and run the football very hard. Coach (Richard) Myles had worked with him to develop him into the back he&8217;s developed into.&8221;