Tops Run Over By Raiders 62-24
MURFREESBORO, Tenn.-- To say that it snowballed, might be putting it lightly.
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Much of what Middle Tennessee wanted to accomplish, they did. After visiting WKU scored the game's first points on an opening field goal, the Blue Raiders took over the game, coasting to a 62-24 victory.
"First of all, today's an absolutely miserable, awful day for WKU football," coach David Elson said. "There's no two ways about it, but every week is different. It's how you respond. It goes back to some core principals and values that we have. It's about how you respond to these type of things."
The Toppers had little or no answer on defense all night long. The Blue Raiders ran up 646 yards of total offense behind quarterback Dwight Dasher. The junior ran for 66 yards and a pair of touchdowns and threw for 355 more and three touchdowns.
"They got us on those long passes," sophomore defensive end Jared Clendenin said. "They got us on about three or four of those long passes. Run-wise, I can't say we did pretty good, but they caught us on a couple of long passes. We had a hard time containing Dwight Dasher and that was pretty much it for that."
When WKU did have the ball, they managed to give it away far too many times. The Toppers fumbled five times, losing three of them and also threw an interception.
The one bright spot for the Toppers was senior wide receiver Jake Gaebler, who had the first multi-touchdown game of his career. Gaebler had six catches for 100 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"We're working hard and that's the thing," Gaebler said. "It's not like guys aren't working hard and we don't care. We're working hard in practice, we're watching film, we're doing everything we can. Eventually, it'll click for us, but right now it's not. We've just gotta continue to wrk and not hang our heads and not give up, just keep working hard."
Dating back to last season, WKU has now dropped 15 straight games.
But the Toppers insist the determination is still there and will eventually pay off.
"What's the morale?...It's real hard because we're working so hard all week," Clendenin said. "We get closer every week then this happens. It's like a 65-point game or something like that. It hurts us. We're gonna try to keep our heads up and come out next week, try to get a win."
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