Golden Eagles look for answers after 40-37 loss

Minutes after his team's 40-37 home loss to a mediocre 1-3 (now 2-3) UTEP team, Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis admitted that he was at a loss for words.

"Words can't describe it," the freshman said of UTEP's final touchdown. "We worked so hard and put so much time into this. I know (UTEP) did too. But I just don't know what to say."

That seemed to be the general consensus around the field house Saturday night after the Eagles tallied 541 yards of total offense, out-gaining the Miners by 159 yards, but lost in double-overtime.

"(The locker room) was really quiet, there was a lot of disappointment. You could feel it in the air," linebacker Takumbo Abanikanda said. "We put a lot into that game, prepared for two weeks, so we were very disappointed."

Damion Fletcher rushed for a career-high 260 yards, breaking his former record of 222 yards against UL-Lafayette, but gave all the credit to his offensive line.

"The offensive line did a great job tonight," Fletcher said. "Hats off to them, they did a great job. Coach stayed on them hard all week and they did a great job tonight."

At Monday's weekly press conference, offensive coordinator Darrell Wyatt admitted that he had never lost a game in which his team didn't punt one time, but also criticized his offensive unit for not converting in the red-zone.

"We got into the red zone ten times and only scored four touchdowns, and had to settle for a field goal attempt the rest of the time, that is unacceptable," Wyatt said. "We talk about finishing drive a lot around here and we've got to do a better job of putting the ball in the endzone and points on the board."

The Eagles settled for six field goal attempts, half of which were missed. Justin Estes missed wide left from 31 yards out and wide right from 28 yards; punter Britt Barefoot hit the left upright from 33 yards out.

The Eagles' offensive rushing woes look to be in the rear-view mirror, but the Southern Miss defense could find no semblance of rhythm Saturday. The once-vaunted unit could not get off the field on third down, and was gashed for 266 passing yards and four touchdowns through the air.

One of the biggest problems facing the Eagles is the lack of a pass-rush by the front four along the defensive line. Defensive tackle Anthony Grey has three of the units' seven sacks through five games, with neither starting defensive ends recording more than one.

The lack of a pass rush allowed UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe plenty of time to sit back in the pocket and pick apart the Eagle secondary, that was asked to cover players for five seconds or longer in several key third down situations.

"We're doing a good job creating one-on-one matchups in the pass rush," defensive coordinator Todd Bradford said Monday. "Right now, we're just not winning those one-on-one battles. If we can't start winning those one-on-one battles we won't be able to progress."

The good news is that morale may not be as low as it could be. Davis said Saturday night that the team knows they are just a few key plays away from being undefeated in conference play.

"We just have to realize we are so close, we were that close to 2-0. A few plays here and there and we would have beat Marshall, a few plays and we could have beat UTEP. We just have to make the guys realize that we were that close. That's what hurts so bad.

Fedora said that the slow start should test his team's mettle.

"It's pretty tough on you," Fedora said. "It will be interesting to see what kind of character this team had and how they will bounce back."