Of course it’s not the won-lost record the scrappy Davis High football team wanted.

Going 0-4 to start the season, the Blue Devils have nonetheless raised eyebrows around the region with their fun-to-watch, big-play offense.

Last Friday, for example, Davis managed to play revenge-seeking Elk Grove even into the third period. With the Devils leading 31-30 after DHS coach John Wiley had been pulling out all the stops, The Herd’s superior depth took over and put up the game’s final three touchdowns.

The two problematic issues?

These Devils are young. So young, the locals often see six sophomores in the lineup. After fielding a team with 21 seniors in 2016, Davis has only seven 12th-graders this fall.

The other problem, which could be exacerbated as the season continues, is depth. DHS had 28 healthy warriors in uniform last week.

Wiley admits depth is becoming a problem.

However, as the Blue Devils prepare to travel to Jesuit (2-2), they’ve been pulling off onside kicks (two by Teddy Oldham on Friday), piecing together drives and providing scintillating strikes from afar.

After losses to Nos. 1 and 2 Folsom and Granite Bay, the Marauders have put up 89 points in recent wins over Christian Brothers and Monterey Trail.

Regardless, judging from Davis’ ability to score, the 1:15 p.m. outing Saturday with Jesuit could be another scoreboard-testing offensive display.

It’s that DHS attack that has local opponents not taking anything for granted when the Blue-and-White come up on the schedule.

“They have too many skills kids that can make plays,” said Elk Grove coach John Heffernan after his guys escaped with that 52-31 decision.

In particular, Heffernan noted the work of quarterback Payne Barksdale and tailback Taylor Vaughn (again, both sophomores):

“No. 8 (Barksdale) is phenomenal … that No. 34 (Vaughn) is a great running back.”

After putting a 163-yard rushing performance on his résumé last week, Vaughn has 462 for the season.

He also has nine touchdowns. Against Woodcreek — a 55-34 loss — Vaughn scored four times while running for 252 yards. In that game, he hit pay dirt on a 62-yard run and a 59-yard pass.

For Barksdale, he’s gone beyond 150 yards rushing this year — a figure that could be almost double were it not for a number of sacks for huge losses.

But Barksdale has broken loose a couple of times, too. His 70-yard TD in the opener was the game’s highlight and he would have had a 56-yarder last week, but a holding penalty negated the effort. He scored two minutes into the Elk Grove outing.

Mix in the efforts of junior wide receiver Kayden Hoal and versatile Ben Busano (another 10th-grader) and these Devils have players who can go the distance from anywhere on the gridiron.

“Our goal remains, ‘Are we getting better every week?’ ” says Wiley, now in his fourth season at the Davis helm. “We are young. Learning every week.”

Wiley says victories are the byproduct of paying attention to the process — while improving.

Last year, DHS started 0-3, but shocked then-No. 1 Elk Grove with a last-second 16-14 win and went on to its first postseason appearance since 2007.

This year, as exciting as that offense is, it is now incumbent on coach Ty Brown’s defensive unit to revisit its success of three weeks ago when Davis held Vintage in a 15-13 road loss.

Imagine some of the Davis numbers if the Devils were getting the ball deep in the opponents’ territory?

Notes: Linebackers Ethan Iacono (shoulder) and Ryan Tolson missed last week’s game. Iacono is probably out for the season, Wiley reported last week, but Tolson will return. Tolson had a whopping 12 tackles versus the Crushers and was missed versus Elk Grove. At the start of the season, Iacono was expected to be a nice change-of-pace running back in Davis’ thin arsenal. …DHS gets four of its last five games at home, including Sheldon (Oct. 6), Franklin (Oct. 13), Grant (Oct. 27) and Monterey Trail (Nov. 3).

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at [email protected] or call 530-320-4456