MSU Football Shows Improvement, But Drops 40-24 Loss

The maturation process continued for the Murray State Racers Saturday, but the good things couldn't overcome some power outages on offense and special teams breakdowns in a 40-24 loss to Jacksonville State at Roy Stewart Stadium in Murray, Ky.

The bright spot of the day was the MSU defense that held JSU to 294 yards in offense and generally made more big plays than they have this season. MSU had four tackles behind the line of scrimmage totaling 17 yards.

“We had that big goal line stance to start the game and that was an excellent way to begin,” MSU head coach Matt Griffin said. “They gave our offense chances, but we had three blown opportunities in the red zone and three blown kickoff assignments and that was huge.”

The Racers put the first points on the board with 7:44 left in the opening quarter when Tyler Weiss booted a 36 yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

After two JSU field goals and a touchdown by Shawn Green on a four yard run, the Racers were down 13-3 and moved the ball to the JSU one yard line, but couldn't convert a touchdown and a field goal attempt wasn't made after a bad snap.

The Racers cut the Jacksonville State lead to 13-10 with 4:07 left in the third quarter on a one yard TD score by Paul McKinnis, but on the ensuing kick off, JSU's Maurice Dupree returned it 89 yards for a TD and the Gamecocks went ahead 20-10.

Trailing 27-10 in the fourth quarter, MSU's DeAngelo Nelson caught a 23 yard scoring pass from Jeff Ehrhardt to make it a 27-17 game with 10:48 left.

The Racers gave up a field goal and a touchdown on a blocked punt and trailed 37-17 when they scored again with 43 seconds left on a three yard run by Ehrhardt to make the final 40-24.

The Racer's special teams gave up a long punt return, a pair of blocked punts and a kickoff return for a touchdown in the game.

“I know I'm sounding like a broken record but we're making too many mistakes,” Griffin said. “We still have 23 kids redshirting and we don't want to take that away from them with just six games left. The guys who are playing are understanding accountability.”

Griffin also knows the Racers' troubles in covering kickoffs can't continue.

“I don't care if we have to use offensive linemen on kickoff coverage or use all our defensive starters on kickoff coverage,” Griffin said.

Murray State out gained the Gamecocks 440 yards to 294, and got 229 passing yards from quarterback Ehrhardt, who went 23-for-40.

Ten different Racer receivers caught a pass including Rod Harper who had seven catches for 114 yards.

Paul McKinnis led the Racers ground attack with 22 carries for 93 yards

Derrick Parrott led the MSU defense with eight tackles.

MSU now has an open week before hosting the homecoming game Oct. 13 when Eastern Illinois comes to Stewart Stadium.

“The week off is real big,” Harper said. “We have a couple of starters banged up and couldn't practice because they were nicked up or bruised a little. These next two weeks will give us time to heal up, and give us some more time to prepare mentally.”

Murray State University Athletics

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