They gave it the old college try, but a defense that could not get North Texas off the field - and an offense that turned the ball over five times - led to a 44-35 loss at home yesterday. MTSU fell to 1-3 on the season.

After Middle Tennessee State scored two consecutive touchdowns on beautiful pitches from Anthony Singleton to Steven Day, giving the Blue Raiders a 14-10 lead, North Texas rolled off 24 consecutive points to take command of the game at 34-14.

Middle Tennessee State had a comeback attempt in them, as they put up 21 fourth quarter points, but untimely fumbles and interceptions conspired against them.

"It seemed like every time we had some momentum we would lose it by making a dumb play," said Clark after the game. "How many times did we fumble, like eight times?"

The answer is the team fumbled five times, losing three, and not just on running plays. In fact, Anthony Singleton, the team's leading culprit in terms of fumbles, didn't commit one.

Singleton would find an open man, hit him with a pass, and the receiver would then cough it up. Each time it mattered, North Texas was able to recover to stop drives.

With 7:19 remaining in the game, North Texas scored on a 10-yard pass from Harper to Salas.

Immediately thereafter, Singleton threw an interception while being pressured and Clark finally pulled the troops, down 42-21.

"I put in the second teamers," Clark admitted. "No sense in making ourselves look foolish. It's a chance to get the younger players some reps."

The only problem for North Texas is that David Lynch, a senior, remained on the field and picked off a pass.

"That interception changed everything. Suddenly we're technically not out of the game. We made a great comeback attempt after that," said Clark.

Singleton threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to J.P. Gilbert with 6:29 remaining, and somehow the Blue Raiders got the ball back, resulting in an 11-play drive and a one-yard touchdown run by Singleton that pulled the Blue Raiders to within six points.

Rather than being conservative, Harper and the Mean Green came right back down the field and completed four passes for 59 yards, putting them in field goal position. Their kicker nailed a 33 yarder to put the game out of reach with 1:40 remaining.

"You can say we lost this game because of turnovers, but really we lost this game because of Jason Harper," said Clark. "We couldn't stop him. We couldn't get that damn offense off the field. Give credit to them, and to him. Harper is the best player in this conference, from what I can tell."