Middle Tennessee State football fell to 2-4 in Conference USA play with Saturday's 37-17 loss to visiting Liberty.

MTSU forced two early turnovers, but Liberty (4-2, 7-2) outscored the Blue Raiders (3-7 overall) 20-0 in the second quarter, which proved to be the difference in the game.

"I thought we had some momentum early, with some turnovers, and had some opportunities," MTSU coach Derek Mason said. "But for us, the ability to capitalize slipped through our fingers."

MTSU is eliminated from bowl contention with the loss.

Here are things we learned from the Blue Raiders' loss:

Blue Raider defense gashed by Liberty run game

Liberty junior quarterback Kaidon Salter had a big rushing day and the Flames had their way on the ground against MTSU Saturday.

Salter finished with nine carries for 94 yards and a touchdown for the Flames, who gashed the Blue Raiders for 339 yards on 50 carries. The Flames had 254 rushing yards by halftime. Running back Chris Cooley led Liberty with 24 carries for 136 yards and a TD.

"There were times in the game where we couldn't get off the field," Mason said. "Defensively you have to find a way to stop the run. I knew that was going to come at us. We knew it was going to come at us. Just didn't do it well enough today to get the ball back to our offense."

Conversely, MTSU was held to 70 rushing yards on 26 carries.

Liberty had 500 yards of total offense. Salter was also 11-of-15 for 154 yards and two touchdowns through the air.

MTSU without a top receiving option again

The good news for MTSU was that it got back redshirt senior tight end Holden Willis, who missed last week’s game with an injury.

The bad news is the Blue Raiders played without star receiver Omari Kelly, who missed the game with an undisclosed injury.

Kelly entered the game with 811 receiving yards, which was second in CUSA, and three touchdowns. Willis led MTSU with five receptions for 81 yards.

MTSU quarterback Nick Vattiato was 22-of-33 for 263 yards and two TDs.

Mistakes costly for Blue Raiders during decisive second quarter

A Liberty touchdown drive early in the second quarter shouldn’t have been.

The Flames were forced to punt on a fourth-and-6 from its own 32 with 13:42 left in the half. However, MTSU committed back-to-back penalties (illegal formation, offsides) to give Liberty a first down.

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From there the Flames marched downfield, with Quinton Cooley taking it in from the 4 for a 14-7 lead for the visitors.

Later in the period Vattiato lost a fumble that led to another Liberty short field. The Flames took advantage of a defensive holding penalty on the Blue Raiders on a second-and-14 incompletion and ultimately scored a TD on the drive.

MTSU also missed a scoring opportunity in the third, turning it over on downs at the Liberty 5.

Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU football loses Conference USA game to Liberty