In the visitors locker room at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, Memphis football linebacker Chandler Martin walked around and spoke to his teammates.

"Embrace the feeling," he said. "This sucks. Remember this."

There were tears, Martin said. This loss felt different. Especially for Memphis' defense, which had been getting national praise just hours earlier but was mostly responsible for the Tigers' 56-44 loss to Navy.

"The biggest message for me was trusting the guy beside you," defensive coordinator Jordon Hankins said. "No matter who you play, you've got to trust that the guy beside you is going to do their job. When it turns into 11 on 11 football and things like that, and you're not trusting the guy beside you, things can get ugly no matter who you play."

They'd gotten ugly against the Midshipmen, which had 566 total yards, including 416 for quarterback Blake Horvath, almost evenly split between rushing and passing. Hankins' unit had been the talking point from the first few weeks of the season, including the upset win over Florida State in Tallahassee a week earlier. Now it was a liability.

The loss knocked the Tigers (3-1) out of the US LBM Coaches Poll, where they had been No. 23, and narrowed their path to the College Football Playoff. But it was only one loss, and there's still plenty of football left to be played. Next up is the non-conference finale against Middle Tennessee (1-3) on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ESPNU) at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

"We have a great game against Florida State, then come back next week and have a game like that," said safety Greg Rubin, who made a team-high eight tackles. "That's football."

What went wrong against Navy? Tackling was a problem in last year's game win vs Navy, and it was an even bigger problem on Saturday. Coach Ryan Silverfield counted 19 missed tackles, Hankins counted 21. Pro Football Focus counted 16.

Coordinator Drew Cronic's Navy offense is built to confuse defenses, and it did exactly that on Saturday. That's why trust and communication were points of emphasis this week.

And tackling.

"My plan is, you just keep tackling," Hankins said. "You get better at tackling by tackling."

While Memphis won't see another offense like Navy's the rest of the season, coaches and players with every team that has Memphis on the schedule will watch that film and see plenty of things to exploit. That means there's plenty for Hankins to clean up before the Blue Raiders come to town on Saturday.

Hankins came through on his promise to change defensive schemes on a week-by-week basis. Safety Tahj Ra-El spent most of the game at the line of scrimmage as he flanked one side of the defensive line while linebacker Matt Hudson stood at the other. Defensive end starter William Whitlow Jr. played only six snaps and was replaced by Vic Alobwede. Ra-El replaced An'Darius Coffey in the starting lineup. The defense was also without linebacker Elijah Herring, who missed his second straight game but could be back Saturday.

Hankins said he'll go back to the normal scheme vs MTSU.

Rubin said by Sunday, the Tigers had moved on. They only watched film briefly, Martin said, but they know what they've got to correct.

"The process is still the process," Martin said. "We still have all of our dreams and aspirations in front of us. We just made it a little harder on ourselves."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football: Will Tigers defense recover vs Middle Tennessee?