After taking one on the chin against the Vanderbilt Commodores, here's my key takeaways and observations coming out of Week 1.

I will have to eat crow on this one. I really thought that the Blue Raiders could hang with Vandy and go tit for tat with the Commodores. I predicted a 38-35 victory for the Blue Raiders and said Brent Stockstill would pick apart the Commodores defensive secondary. That did not come to fruition. I undervalued the sheer size of Vanderbilt compared to Middle Tennessee.

MT hung in there initially, but as the game went on, Vanderbilt just imposed their will on the Blue Raiders. Heading into the third quarter, I thought, ok, maybe MT can hang around and win this one in the very end. Nope. Did not happen. Middle did not have the firepower to roll with the boys from West End.

After watching this ballgame, make no bones about it, the signal caller Brent Stockstill needs some assistance. As good as he is, he needs help from the other pieces around him. For the most part, it was jailbreak city with the offensive line. Ideally, you want your quarterback to have ample time to throw to receivers who are running precise routes. This was simply not possible Saturday night. It seemed as if as soon as he got his mitts on the ball defenders were flocking him and were right in his face.

The MT receivers did not even have time to complete their routes. It was dink and dunk for the Blue Raiders, because that's all they could do. Stockstill was 24 for 36 while accumulating 178 total passing yards. He had a QB rating of 48.2. I do think that if the offensive line shores up that Stockstill could see his numbers skyrocket big time.

It did ultimately get ugly for the Blue Raiders, but I do not think that the sky is falling. Although Vanderbilt is likely going to be a bottom tier team in the SEC, they are a bigger, more physical and more complete team than MTSU. You can have the best X's and O's coaches in the game, but without the Jimmie's and Joe's to compete with the opposing team, it is likely you are going to suffer a loss. It is not time to freak out for the Middle faithful. Going into the season I thought FAU would be a juggernaut. Heck, I thought Lane Kiffin's boys could compete with Oklahoma. After seeing that game and other contests, I think Conference USA's east division is wide stinking open. Everything is still ahead of MT. Yes, there are likely defeats to Georgia and Kentucky but every other game is certainly winnable.

After watching the Vanderbilt game, I have come to the conclusion that MT was walking into a mismatch when it came to style.The Commodores used their size on offense to pound the ball down MT's throat. They actually rushed for more than they threw for. The Dores rushed for 176 yards and two touchdowns. They did have balanced attack with the passing game. Kyle Shurmur passed for 170 yards and two touchdowns.

It was an ugly night for Middle Tennessee in a lot of ways. Yes, I touched on that Stockstill needed assistance from his offensive line. All things considered, MT's running backs did not have a horrendous outing. Their overall average was fairly low at 3.6 yards a rush but they did show some flashes of potential in my opinion. They did it by committee, too. Six players rushed the football for them. Tavares Thomas and Chaton Mobley rushed for four yards a carry and Maurice Gordon showed some flashes, rushing for 6.8 a carry.

I will point out that Vanderbilt, ran away with the game, so it wasn't like these rushes were in crunch time of the game. MTSU will not see many defensive lines as big as Vanderbilt's. They have some big boys in the trenches. I think Middle is likely to see more success running against the teams in their conference.