Mocs survive late Mercer rally to stay unbeaten in SoCon play, 38-31

photo UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman rushes the football during the Mocs' home football game against the Mercer Bears on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014, at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga.

It was a case of role reversal, but when the final curtain fell the end result was the same as its been all season against Southern Conference opposition for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The offense picked up the slack for the usually reliable defense, which had its worst showing of the season, and the Mocs held off surging Mercer 38-31 in front of 10,763 at Finley Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The win improves UTC to 4-0 in the conference for the first time in program history and sets up next week's showdown at league co-leader Western Carolina.

"I made the defense clap for the offense (in the postgame locker room). I said to give them a round of applause in there," Mocs coach Russ Huesman said. "I was awful proud of our offense. Defensively, probably one of the worst defensive performances in a long time. Not only couldn't tackle, couldn't fill gaps, couldn't cover the right people and then to boot we get personal foul penalties, just to put icing on the cake. So horrible defensive effort. That's extremely unacceptable. We gotta get it fixed."

The teams combined for 982 yards of total offense, with UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman setting a career-high with 359 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also had 99 rushing yards and another TD, giving him a career-high for total yards as well.

 

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