Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Five takeaways from the Raiders' C-USA win
9/25/2016 4:23:00 PM | Football
1.Blue Raiders played disciplined football. Middle Tennessee did not commit a turnover in the game and were only called for four penalties for 35 yards in the contest. A Louisiana Tech fumble recovered by redshirt junior cornerback Michael Minter at the MT 6-yard line was the only turnover in the game.
2.Rushing attack leads the Middle Tennessee offense. The Blue Raiders' offense is often touted for its passing game behind redshirt sophomore Brent Stockstill. But it was their rushing attack that led to the win over LA Tech. Behind redshirt senior I'Tavius Mathers, MT ran for 197 yards and averaged six yards per rush. Mathers led the way with his second-straight 100-yard rushing game, gaining 163 yards on 21 runs with three touchdowns.
3.Middle Tennessee capitalized in the red zone. The red zone was good to the Blue Raiders on Saturday on offense and defense. They scored all three times they entered the red zone offensively, two of which were touchdowns, and held Louisiana Tech scoreless on two of their six trips into the red zone. The Bulldogs only scored TDs on three of their six red zone chances.
4.Offensive line comes up big again. The Blue Raiders' offensive line has been the best group in Conference USA so far and one of the best in the country. Going into Saturday opponents had only sacked Stockstill twice in three games, which was the best clip in C-USA. Louisiana Tech came up with just one sack for eight yards, which came on the last play of the second quarter when Stockstill was trying to buy time to let a receiver get open for a big end-of-the-half play.
5.Blue Raiders didn't give up. The biggest key to the ballgame was Middle Tennessee's ability to stay focused and driven once it went down 27-7 early in the third quarter. At that point the Bulldogs had scored on five of their eight drives while MT had only one score on nine drives. But, after that, LA Tech scored just once more and punted on three of its five drives, and Middle Tennessee capitalized with points on all five of its drives to finish the game on a 31-7 run. It went down as the largest comeback in the Rick Stockstill era (20 points).
2.Rushing attack leads the Middle Tennessee offense. The Blue Raiders' offense is often touted for its passing game behind redshirt sophomore Brent Stockstill. But it was their rushing attack that led to the win over LA Tech. Behind redshirt senior I'Tavius Mathers, MT ran for 197 yards and averaged six yards per rush. Mathers led the way with his second-straight 100-yard rushing game, gaining 163 yards on 21 runs with three touchdowns.
3.Middle Tennessee capitalized in the red zone. The red zone was good to the Blue Raiders on Saturday on offense and defense. They scored all three times they entered the red zone offensively, two of which were touchdowns, and held Louisiana Tech scoreless on two of their six trips into the red zone. The Bulldogs only scored TDs on three of their six red zone chances.
4.Offensive line comes up big again. The Blue Raiders' offensive line has been the best group in Conference USA so far and one of the best in the country. Going into Saturday opponents had only sacked Stockstill twice in three games, which was the best clip in C-USA. Louisiana Tech came up with just one sack for eight yards, which came on the last play of the second quarter when Stockstill was trying to buy time to let a receiver get open for a big end-of-the-half play.
5.Blue Raiders didn't give up. The biggest key to the ballgame was Middle Tennessee's ability to stay focused and driven once it went down 27-7 early in the third quarter. At that point the Bulldogs had scored on five of their eight drives while MT had only one score on nine drives. But, after that, LA Tech scored just once more and punted on three of its five drives, and Middle Tennessee capitalized with points on all five of its drives to finish the game on a 31-7 run. It went down as the largest comeback in the Rick Stockstill era (20 points).
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