“Guys just didn’t make plays” - Mistakes frustrate Blue Raiders in final midweek game of 2024 - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

“Guys just didn’t make plays” - Mistakes frustrate Blue Raiders in final midweek game of 2024

10/24/2024 12:43:00 PM | Football

Derek Mason challenged his team to hold themselves accountable after the 42-20 loss to Jax State

By: Sam Doughton, MTSU Athletic Communications

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — The frustration from Middle Tennessee head coach Derek Mason was palpable from the very first moment Mason stood in front of the camera following his team's 42-20 loss to Jacksonville State on Wednesday night. Mason gave his usual credit to the opponent, tipping his hat to the Gamecocks for a game well played. But the focus quickly turned to his own team's execution.

"We knew what they were going to do," Mason said. "Practiced everything, saw every look. There wasn't a look we didn't see. We didn't execute very well tonight on the defensive side of the ball."

The head coach further expanded his thoughts, explaining that his team found themselves in position to make plays to slow down Jax State's tempo option attack, a playbook that Mason said featured only "five or six" plays that the Gamecocks run "ad nauseam."

But when push came to shove, when a Blue Raider found himself in a gap to make a tackle, the tackle was often run through, sometimes even missed entirely. It's how the Gamecocks rumbled to 438 total yards on the ground, including 210 yards from the team's primary running back and 151 yards from their quarterback.

"The reality is, you have to come here knowing it's going to be a physical game," Mason said. "That's what they do. Thirty-five to forty percent of their yards are going to be after contact. We had guys there; guys just didn't make plays."

The physicality of Jax State was a big point of emphasis for Mason heading into the game. He spent a good portion of his Monday press conference talking about how MTSU had to match that level of physicality themselves, and who knows how many hours in the meeting room or on the practice field. Which made his visible exasperation after the game all the more understandable.

"The lack of physicality sometimes becomes frustrating, because it's a man whoop a man game," Mason said. "What you have to do at the point of attack, man, is just shoot your guns, line up and play again. For us, we've got to be better in those spaces."

Mason pointed out it wasn't one unit of the defense that had this issue. It happened in the interior of the defensive line, it happened on the perimeter, it happened on the second and third level. While there were flashes, particularly a second quarter that saw the defense force three stops, including a red zone takeaway, the consistency was once again absent. Even when MTSU loaded the box late in the fourth quarter, facing a backup quarterback, Mason said, they still couldn't get the Gamecocks down.

"It goes back to the simple idea that calls aren't going to get it down, players have to get it down," Mason said.

MTSU safety Xavier Williams perhaps summed up the defense's issues best: "It takes 11 people to play a team game. One person can't do it all, everybody has to execute and do their job on each individual play and move to the next down."

Offensively, the Blue Raiders again had a few bright spots, particularly working out of a two-back look in the shotgun that Mason said was a weakness of the Jax State defense they spotted on film. MTSU had some strong runs out of that look early, setting up shots down field, including a 61-yard pass from Nicholas Vattiato to Holden Willis that opened up scoring on Wednesday. But two drives stalled on the JSU side of the field resulted in field goals, leaving MTSU further behind the eight-ball on the scoreboard.

"It's a little bit here, a little bit there," Mason said of what the offense was missing to finish drives. "It's not enough to say it's one thing that needs to be fixed, it's just a little bit here and a little bit there."

The head coach explained further, pointing out myriad mistakes made by members of the offense, from Vattiato overthrowing a wide open Jekail Middlebrook in the redzone, to Ethan Ellis missing assignments when he stepped in at left tackle, to Ethan Crite, in the lineup for an unavailable Gamarion Carter, dropping a touchdown pass through coverage in the endzone. It wasn't one persistent issue, though the lack of a run game after the first quarter and Vattiato facing some pressure against the blitz were at least recurring themes from earlier this season that appeared on Wednesday night.

Mason has confidence in the scheme, but said his players have to make plays for good things to happen more consistently.

"I think this offense is capable of scoring 35-40 points a night," Mason said. "But, when you miss here and you miss there, it winds up being field goals instead of touchdowns."