MACON, Ga. - Although it would have been easy to, nobody spoken to Saturday night on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team was going to dare blame kicker Aaron Sears after the Mocs' 10-6 loss to Mercer, a defeat that undoubtedly hurts the Mocs' chances to make the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
Sears was 0-for-3 on kicks against the Bears, missing field-goal attempts of 41 and 22 yards as well as a PAT. After the first miss on UTC's first possession, Sears walked behind the bench and worked on kicking into a practice net. After the second - with 57 seconds to go in the third quarter, when a make would have given UTC a 9-7 lead - he stood by himself, with teammates occasionally coming to offer him encouragement.
"We just have to keep supporting him," offensive lineman McClendon Curtis said. "Every day in practice when we start off doing our good on good and we get to the field-goal portion, we just have to keep encouraging him. He's human, too. Everybody tries to give specialists a hard time because they just kick the ball, but everybody's human and as a team we're going to support and lift him up."
Entering Saturday's game, Sears was 12-for-14 from field-goal range and had made all but one of his 33 extra-point attempts this season. His two previous misses on field-goal tries came in the Mocs' 37-34 overtime loss at Virginia Military Institute on Oct. 9, but he also made two kicks in that game, including one that forced overtime.
The 41-yard miss in Macon was his first from 40 yards or longer this season - he was 4-for-4 prior.
"Stuff like this happens," running back Tyrell Price said. "You really can't control it at this point; it is what it is. We just have to keep him motivated and continue to believe in him. Nobody is perfect. Things go downhill sometimes."
Staff file photo by Robin Rudd / UTC kicker Aaron Sears missed two field-goal attempts and a PAT during Saturday's 10-6 loss at Mercer, but turnovers and other squandered opportunities for the Mocs' offense also stood out.As the Southern Conference schedule and the FCS regular season wrap up this week, Mercer (7-2, 6-1) will visit East Tennessee State University (9-1, 6-1) in a meeting of the two teams atop the league standings with an automatic playoff berth at stake.
The Mocs (6-4, 5-2) will host The Citadel (3-7, 2-5) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and need a win just to be able to sweat out the selection show for the 24-team bracket the following day.
Missed kicks weren't the only reason the Mocs lost at Mercer, though. Let's examine two other situations from a weird game in Macon.
Copeland was off: Statistically, UTC quarterback Cole Copeland wasn't bad. He was 13-of-25 passing for 169 yards, but he also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Blame for the fumble can't solely be put on Copeland, though.
Harrison Moon, who missed the previous Saturday's game at Wofford due to injury, tried to play against the Bears but was unable, which caused a reshuffling of the offensive line. On the fumble, Cole Strange - he's a potential NFL draft pick next spring at guard but was moved to tackle after Moon's injury - was beaten off the edge, and Solomon Zubairu forced the fumble.
One of Copeland's interceptions was a batted ball at the line, but he threw into triple coverage on the other pick. He was also off on a number of throws that could have led to either big gains or at least first downs before being replaced by senior Drayton Arnold, who also struggled.
Uncharacteristic fumbles: Price and Ailym Ford have proven a talented duo at running back. They've combined for 323 touches, 1,859 yards of total offense and 18 touchdowns, but despite that workload, neither had fumbled all season before Saturday.
Against the Bears, though, both lost the ball at key times: Price had it punched out after a 27-yard completion that would have potentially put the Mocs in field-goal range late in the second quarter, while Ford lost the ball at midfield in the first series of the fourth quarter with the score 7-6.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.