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Football: No excuses allowedBruce Brown • bbrown@theadvertiser.com • September 26, 2010 To his credit, senior linebacker Dylan McCoy refused to make excuses.
Good thing, too, because fans of Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns were in no mood for them after Saturday night’s 34-14 loss to Middle Tennessee at Cajun Field. "We had seen it all on film," said McCoy, who was in on four tackles including one for a loss. "We knew what was coming. We weren’t getting lined up fast enough. And, we had two weeks to look at these guys." When a team has two weeks of film study and practice to get ready, it should look more prepared than the Cajuns did on Saturday. Middle came out with a no huddle offense — not exactly a Matrix-level trade secret there — yet the Blue Raiders always looked like they were quicker off the ball and well into their play before the Cajuns could react. Several snaps came while the Cajuns were still shifting into position. "You saw a lot of us standing up," coach Rickey Bustle said. "That was by design, but it looked a little unorganized. We were moving up and down before the snap. Standing up and moving around was by design. "Sometimes you get caught when you do that." Sometimes, the results were disasterous. Three of MTSU’s four touchdowns came on possessions covering 60, 62 and 81 yards, executed in four, three and three plays, requiring a grand total of 145 seconds. The Blue Raiders outgained the Cajuns 424-340, includin 208-140 in the second half when it got out of hand. The Cajuns controlled the game clock, 34:59 to 25:01, but that’s a false positive when the opposition is scoring every three plays. Bustle said his team (1-2 overall, 1-1 in Sun Belt Conference play) had one of its worst tackling nights. Plays they knew were coming went smoothly because the visitors executed better than the hosts, which was clear in two second half touchdowns that allowed MTSU to pull away. Logan Kilgore found a streaking Malcolm Beyah for a 62-yard touchdown, then D.D. Kyles bolted 74 yards to end the scoring. "They had a third and long, and the kid made a gorgeous throw," Bustle said of the first TD. "On the other one, he just ran through tackles on the speed option. I don’t know how many tackles he ran through." Kyles zipped right past the Cajun bench, so the coaches had an excruciating view of the play. The game came as a surprise to the Cajuns, who were coming off a solid 31-24 win over Arkansas State two weeks ago and felt genuine optimism about knocking off the preseason SBC favorites at home and taking over that role. "We had two great weeks of practice, both offensively and defensively," McCoy said. "We had great effort every day. This has got to hurt more. We just needed to hustle to the ball. It was just horrible. Now we have to focus on the things we can fix." McCoy, for one, said he will remained focused. Asked about the crowd of 17,249 (up from the ASU game), he said, "I have no expectation of the crowd. Whether it’s 70,000 or 1, we have to play just as hard."
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