Rapid Reaction: MTSU 14 Florida Atlantic 13

Alright, I'm going to (slightly) rip off Paul Kuharsky and ESPN a bit here and do a "rapid reaction" type of piece; that is, give you my thoughts on the game within two hours of it ending.

First off, it was a great ending to what honestly was a pretty crappy game. FAU led 10-0 most of the way, the offense sputtered, and the defense bent but didn't break. About the ending, though, I will say that the stadium was louder than I have ever heard it been, and I've been to every game here since 2007. That includes the likes of the Maryland and Virginia games. You always hope that winning in dramatic fashion will be a shot in the arm, but even if it doesn't, it sure is a hell of a blast for your fan base. Even though we still failed to make the front page of ESPN.com.

Other things that jumped out:

• If it weren't for the last 5 minutes, I would almost be willing to say that this was the game where MT proved they had one of the worst offenses in Division 1 football. They were shut out for 53 minitues against an FAU team that surely doesn't rank very high defensively out of the 119 teams in the nationm (I'll check this later). The Blue Raiders could get drives going but they couldn't sustain them once they crossed midfield, and that's what was so frustrating.

• Can someone explain Rick Stockstill's call to go for it on fourth down inside the FAU 10? Getting a field goal would have allowed the Raiders to tie the game with the late touchdown and taken a lot of pressure off the offense. It's just easier to operate when you get the shutout monkey off of your back.

• And what the hell was the defense's problem on the final drive? All night long, the defense had given up chunks of yardage but had kept the Owls off the scoreboard. Then, in the course of one drive, they played 10x worse than they had all night and almost cost MT the game. To be fair, it didn't help that the kickoff went out of bounds, but it's a team effort. FAU ran two plays for about 40 yards and looked like they were in position to sew things up. Right after the offense finally put the ball in the endzone on a fourth down play, we get hit with this. Deflating.

• And lastly, what was with everyone leaving at halftime? We saw a mass exodus from the stadium that was so large you would have thought the game was over - literally. I got up from my bench to see where everyone was headed because there was no way I was believing that everyone I saw was heading for the exits. But like I wrote on my facebook page - if you left early, you missed a good one.