Finishing. One word that could summarize what this Middle Tennessee football team's woes have come down to so far this season. It has been a significant problem for this year's team, whether finishing drives with seven points without turning the ball over or finishing open-field tackles. That all came to a point in this week's game against Duke as three first quarter fumbles took the Blue Raiders out of the game completely.

"Good game by Duke. I thought they were physical and ran to the ball. They were able to cause a total of five turnovers on the day and that's a lot of turnovers," head coach Derek Mason said postgame.

Two of those first quarter fumbles were after tailback Terry Wilkins had found a running lane and picked up positive yardage. Duke would add two scores after recovering the pair of fumbles, which turned out to be a gut-wrenching blow to Middle Tennessee's chances against ACC opponent Duke.

"Terry is going to have to play for us this year. He was upright (tonight). He was not running behind his pads and that's what we talk about as running backs," Mason said. "He was upright and we saw it last week. I made a comment to Terry about it last week about coming through the ball upright. Now, people are hunting for the football, looking to put a hat on it. This Duke team, they did a good job."

Flip Credle had a big game as a rusher, posting over a hundred yards on the night. He seconded that the unit needs to improve on the pad level that the group runs with.

"Running with lower pads, being more physical, and just tucking the ball when you're in traffic," he said on what needs to improve to prevent turnover opportunities for a defense.

Anytime you face a Manny Diaz-led defense, you will get an athletic and aggressive defense and that was the case once again this past Saturday.

"I thought they were the aggressor," said Mason.

Sandwiched between Wilkins' two fumbles was a bad fumble by veteran quarterback Nick Vattiato as he attempted to throw the ball away while being sacked. Those three straight drives with a turnover led to 21 straight points for the opponent, making it an obstacle that proved too much to overcome.

"I think if you take the turnovers out of this game and it's a different ball game in terms of how you are competing and what it feels like, but you don't get a chance to, so what we have to do is eliminate the mistakes and eliminate the errors and keep pushing forward because the breakthrough is going to come."

Something Derek Mason continues to stress is that the team has to strain better as they work to gain better results against top-tier competition. That schedule won't get any easier with a road matchup with Memphis up next.

"We have to keep fighting through the errors. There is going to be some errors, but for us, we have to minimize these things. The guys are playing hard, but we just have to play smarter."

Middle Tennessee will have to limit the errors next week if they want to have a chance to compete in the game against the ranked Tigers. Mason has preached earning everything as a part of the blue-collar mentality he has instilled into the program. This team has faced a brutal schedule to start the season, but to put it bluntly, this team has not earned the chance to have a chance at competing in games for all four quarters to this point and that is going to have to change with the majority of conference play quickly approaching.

"You get what you earn and we haven't done enough to earn enough right now."