With a chance to put the game away last week, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga offense didn't step up to the challenge.
If presented a similar situation this Saturday night, that unit's players feel as though they have put in the work to finish the job.
The Mocs' final three possessions in their 27-20 win over Samford totaled 10 yards on nine plays. The defense was able to hold on for the seven-point win, which vaulted UTC into the Top 25 for the first time in a year, but the offense would love to be the ones putting the game away and not sweating on the sideline.
The defense had two interceptions in the fourth quarter, but the offense was unable to take advantage. Even its one play for decent yardage, a 13-yard pass from Nick Tiano to Bingo Morton, ended in a fumble recovered by Samford. The Bulldogs turned the Mocs' lone turnover into a touchdown that trimmed the lead to seven with 6:43 remaining.
Given two other chances, the Mocs ran six plays, lost 3 yards on those six plays and burned just 81 seconds off the clock.
"This week is going to be huge for us working on that," sophomore right guard Chris Barnes said Tuesday. "We want our offense on the field to finish games out with a few first downs, but last week we couldn't do that. This week our focus is to finish on every play and for the offensive linemen to be physical coming off the ball."
UTC musterered only 86 yards on the ground against the Bulldogs' dominant front, which ranks second in the league in rushing yards allowed per game. The team that ranks ahead of them - East Tennessee State - is the Mocs' opponent this week. The Bucs allow only 81.2 rushing yards per game, although that stat is skewed by a game against Virginia Military Institute in which the Keydets had negative-28 yards rushing and the season opener against Division II Mars Hill, when the Lions had 14 yards.
Tennessee and Furman combined for 329 yards and eight touchdowns in games against the Bucs, so there could be success, but UTC coach Tom Arth is preferring to look within on how to improve his team.
"Some of the things that have been causing us issues in the run game, we're certainly going to be working on," Arth said Tuesday. "We have some different drills for working on it that we haven't done in the past and hopefully we can get some of those issues corrected, but at the end of the day it comes down to winning one-on-one matchups. Where we failed on Saturday is we didn't do a good enough job of winning one-on-one.
"It'll be a great challenge for our guys this week, and I think they have a great sense of motivation. We've been honest and told them; it'll be great to see how they respond."
The Mocs did have 70 yards rushing in the first quarter against Samford, including a 33-yard scamper by quarterback Tiano. Tyrell Price had 35 yards on nine first-quarter carries but totaled 10 yards on his final 14.
Still, it was the first game that the Mocs failed to reach 100 yards rushing after reaching that number only three times last season, so the team knows it has been pretty good in that regard.
The offensive Mocs just want to be better, and leave no doubt at the end of the game.
"The most disappointing thing is the way we finished," offensive coordinator Justin Rascati said. "We started strong but didn't do our part finishing the game with the ball. The defense should have never been on the field: Our goal is to get in victory formation and finish the game on the field.
"We didn't do that, so we have to do a better job of execution, and being able to run the football is key. We can only get better."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.