MOON TOWNSHIP— What started out as a day of optimism for the Colonials coming off of the bye week quickly ended as the Colonials dropped their third conference game.

You never know what to expect when playing a new opponent for the first time. Tennessee Tech came into Joe Walton Stadium for the first time, and the Golden Eagles won by a score of 38-13.

The story of this game was the turnovers that the Colonials made, three interceptions from the quarterbacks and a total of three fumbles that were all lost too. A total of six turnovers accounted for 21 of the Golden Eagles’ 38 points.

Along with the turnovers, Robert Morris has a total of eight penalties against them for 75 yards. When you have that many penalties it creates a chance for no momentum to be made by your offense.

Once again, the problem that has been here all year has been the inconsistency with the run game. Today the running backs for the Colonials attempted a total of 29 rushes for a total of 64 yards. The average carry was only 2.2 yards per play.

There was at least some consistency there though, as DJ Moyer received a bulk of the carries with a team high 11.

With the receiving game, a total of eight different Colonials caught a pass from either Anthony Chiccitt or Tyler Szalkowski.

In the first half, star wide receiver Noah Robinson was serving the rest of his targeting call from the Bryant game two weeks ago.

The Majority of the yards today went to tight end Landen Lucas who caught four passes for a total of 38 yards and also caught a touchdown. Tayshaun Mayfield was the other recipient of a touchdown pass thrown by Anthony Chiccitt.

Robert Morris had chances and actually had more time of possession than Tennessee Tech with 30:36 minutes with the ball. With more time on the ball, the Colonials were able to run 69 plays for a total of 240 yards of offense. Even with that amount of plays, though, the Colonials weren’t able to get past their own mistakes of the turnovers, and that is ultimately what cost them most in this game.

The Colonials will continue conference play next week on the road with a trip to Southeast Missouri for the first time in program history. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.