Nakevion Leslie looked up at the scoreboard Saturday evening at Finley Stadium, well after his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team had disposed of Southern Conference foe Mercer, and shook his head.
The Football Championship Subdivision third-ranked Mocs beat the Bears 52-31 to improve to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the league. But the senior middle linebacker was unhappy about the 31 points given up, although 14 of those came in a fourth quarter UTC entered with a 35-point lead.
"Yes, it bothers us," Leslie said. "We hate it, we hate it, we hate it, we hate it. When a team runs up a lot of points on us, I feel like it says a lot about our defense despite what goes on throughout the game. I feel like it goes back on us to how we performed.
"Thirty-one points is a lot of points to be giving up, so we've got to go back and work on finishing, do a better job of finishing and playing smart."
The Mocs have dominated through the first three quarters of games this season, outscoring opponents by a combined 228-31. Only two opponents - Mercer and Samford - have scored in the first three quarters of the game as the UTC defense has given up averages of 5.3 points and 134.3 yards during that stretch.
The UTC defense leads FCS teams in points allowed (12.2), yards allowed (225.7) and third-down defense (22 percent).
"Our All-Americans are playing like All-Americans," defensive back Montrell Pardue said. "Nakevion, KD (Keionta Davis) play like All-Americans. Dale (Warren) is playing like an All-American. Really our whole defense is coming out, doing their job and not anybody else's job, and it's really helping us out this year."
The latest example was dominating the Bears, who had challenged the Mocs in 2014, falling by only a touchdown, and defeated them 17-14 last season in Macon, Ga. But Saturday at Finley, the Mocs led 38-3 at halftime after holding a potent Bears attack to five first downs and 65 yards of total offense on 28 plays.
UTC's offense has been equally impressive by averaging 38 points and 380.3 yards in the first 45 minutes of games.
"It just shows how hard we work during our week of practice, how much we focus," offensive lineman Corey Levin said. "Our coaches get us ready to play. We're excited to play, we love playing for each other and the results have shown."
By the fourth quarter, the Mocs have been able to use their depth and allow backups to get game experience, which could become vital as they prepare to play No. 9 The Citadel (5-0, 3-0) this week in Charleston, S.C. It will be UTC's seventh consecutive game, with two more after that before an open date the first week of November.
"I think our ones are very strong and our twos are very good, too," Mocs receiver C.J. Board said. "That helps us as a team, because if somebody gets hurt, we can fill somebody in and they can step right up."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.