2015 Week 13

Middle Tennessee State earned their fourth win of the season and their third in-conference victory with an easy 48-21 clock cleaning of the UL Monroe Warhawks.

The only speed bump for the Blue Raiders came in the fourth quarter when the backups were put in the game and promptly allowed 21 straight points thanks to two turnovers on offense and awful defense. The starters came right back in to close down the game.

Anthony Singleton started the day off on fire, hitting his first five passes including three to Steven Day. However, he under threw another pass to Day in the flat and it was recovered. Luckily, Singleton was able to track down the defensive back thanks to his speed. Singleton recovered to throw two touchdown passes in the first quarter.

Brandon Douglas continued his surprising freshman year as he again caught two touchdown passes - the third straight game in which he has done so after failing to catch a touchdown pass in his first six games.

Singleton threw for 248 yards on 19 of 25 completions, with three touchdowns and also ran for 110 yards and another score.

"When he's not turning over the football, he's a dynamic force for our offense, theres' just no getting around that," said Coach J.D. Clark. "That's what makes our whole offense go is his ability to fake the hand-off and run, or do the delayed hand-off, or fake it and go to the play action. There's really no stopping him unless the defense does something special or he screws up."

The game was already decided when cornerback Reggie Jackson intercepted a pass and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown. Jackson was named player of the game, even though Singleton was more influential in the win.

"That kind of thing doesn't bother me at all," said Singleton. "I'll get my accolades if I just keep playing well."

It was good for the Blue Raiders to get their fourth win of the season, however the UL Monroe Warhawks are a bad football team. There's no doubt that the first team would have shut the Warhawks out had they remained on the field.

"We had to give that second team the chance," said Clark. "Now, we don't necessarily have to give them a [i]second[/i] chance, there's the rub. They looked lost out there."

Despite playing so badly and giving the Blue Raiders an easy win, the visitors still found multiple ways to anger their assailants. The Blue Raiders were angry that Warhawk running back Neil Hayes celebrated twice in a row on back to back 11-yard runs in the closing seconds. Hayes was flagged for doing push-ups in the middle of the field after the second run."

"Push-ups. In the middle of the field... when you're getting blown out," said Victor Harris, shaking his head in disbelief. "That deserves some payback."

Then there's the end of the game stunt, for which MTSU has already taken a form of revenge. The Blue Raiders ran out the last 4:30 of the game on a long drive and took a knee on four of their last six possessions. With less than 24 seconds on the game clock and the backup QB just having taken a knee, the Warhawks called a timeout. With 18 seconds to go, this prompted Clark to send Singleton back into the game on fourth down to run a speed draw, on which he easily maneuvered into the end zone.