Football, at times, can be a very simple game. On Saturday night in Floyd Stadium, the way Middle Tennessee football lost 45-17 to Duke was seemingly as simple as it could be.
 
If the Blue Raiders don't turn the ball over four times inside their own 25, resulting in 28 points for the Duke Blue Devils on the ensuing drives from the trio of lost fumbles and the interception. If a Blue Raider doesn't get just a little too aggressive, running into the Duke punter on a punt taken inside the Blue Devil five, giving Duke a free first down that ultimately led to another touchdown, there's a good chance MTSU is not only in the game late against the Blue Devils, but maybe even wins.
 
"I look at this team play, and you take the turnovers out of it, and I think it's a different ballgame in terms of how you're competing and what it feels like," MTSU Head Coach Derek Mason said.
 
"But you don't get a chance to."
 
Of course, football is more complex than just wiping the 35 points off the board that Duke scored on those five critical Blue Raider errors. There are the probabilities that MTSU still doesn't score on the drives that were originally halted by turnovers, or that Duke still scores even if they get the ball back in their own territory from a Grant Chadwick punt rather than so close to the goal line as they did on Saturday.
 
There are no guarantees that despite some aspects of the Blue Raiders getting better (holding Duke to just 216 yards in the air and 3-for-10 on third down, all while rushing for a season high total of 168 yards on the offensive side) that MTSU would've been able to pull things out on Saturday. But the big mistakes made on offense, on defense, which had at least one busted coverage go for a touchdown and special teams never gave the team a chance. That continues to be frustrating a third of the way through the season for the Blue Raiders.
 
"What we have to do is eliminate the mistakes, eliminate the errors and keep pushing forward, because the breakthrough is going to come," Mason said. "I believe that. I want these guys to continue to believe that. They do. I saw that in their eyes in the locker room. Are they a little frustrated? Absolutely. But you sort of keep your keel in this, you sort of get what you earn."
 
The turnovers, a trio of fumbles and an interception, all stemmed from similar issues. On running back Terry Wilkins' pair of fumbles, Mason said the back was running too upright, a critique Mason said he mentioned to the back after last week's loss to Western Kentucky. Credit Duke for putting a hat on the ball and jarring both fumbles loose on tackles, but the error, not running through holes or contact with the pads lowered, is correctable. It's something that the running backs work on daily at practice.
 
"We have two balls with cords on them, coaches pulling on them, stuff like that, stuff that keeps the ball up here, in the V of the neck," said running back Jaiden Credle, who averaged over 10 yards per carry on Saturday after starting the game with a 66-yard touchdown run. "Just running with lower pads, being more physical, and tucking the ball when you're in traffic."
 
The third fumble, a strip sack of Nicholas Vattiato recovered on the one-yard line, as well as Vattiato's interception in the third quarter, both were forced, in part, but relentless pressure from the Duke defensive front, who were able to cause havoc all night in the Blue Raider backfield. The Blue Raiders managed just 127 yards in the air against the Blue Devils, limited to quick screens and short routes most of the night thanks to the pressure.
 
But while the short fields made the task difficult, the Blue Raider defense would not use them as an excuse for the scoreline.
 
"It's going to be difficult, but we've got to nose up, we've got to play football at the end of the day," linebacker Parker Hughes said. "We're the defense, we've got to stop them from scoring."
 
Mason saw growth from his defense, a plus given the struggles of the past two games in particular, but he knows they're not where he needs them to be four games into the season, echoing his linebacker's comments.
 
"At some point in time, you've got to put your foot down and you've just got to show some resolve," Mason said. "You've got to sort of erase it a little bit, make them kick field goals...We have opportunities, we just have to strain a little more. Whether that's getting to the quarterback, whether that's getting to the ball carrier, whether that's defending and playing through the hands of receivers.
 
"That's not coming from a place of frustration, that's just coming from a place where I know what good defense looks like," Mason concluded. "I know how it has to be played. And we're not there. You can trot a defense out there, but you have to be intentional."