Or it is reasonable to start with five turnovers the North Carolina A&T defense forced that yielded only six points. Maybe the 103-yard kickoff return by Justin Ferrell that was called back for an illegal block is a good place to start. 

There was also a blocked extra point in a game that ended with Morgan State earning a 7-6 win over the Aggies Saturday afternoon at Hughes Stadium. Whatever the Aggies point to for the loss, the certainty is that there were plenty of opportunities the Aggies didn't take advantage of.

Senior quarterback Carlton Fears threw for 133 yards and an interception on 18-for-34 passing. He also had 50 yards rushing. Sophomore Jeremy Graham led the Aggies with 10 tackles, which marked his first career double-figure tackling performance.

“There are 2-3 plays that make the difference in every game,'' said North Carolina A&T head coach Alonzo Lee. “We have to play 60 minutes because you never know which play is going to make the difference. If we don't hurt ourselves the way we hurt ourselves today, we win this ballgame.”

The Aggies final drive of the game might have summed things up the best. With Morgan State holding on to its one point lead, the Aggies took over at their own 35-yard line with three minutes remaining. Two pass completions to sophomore receiver Wallace Miles and a 10-yard pickup off of a screen pass to sophomore running back Mike Mayhew helped the Aggies move the ball into Morgan State territory for the ninth time in the game.

On a 2nd-and-1 from the MSU 30, however, Fears was stopped for a 1-yard loss which forced the Aggies to call their final timeout with 1:05 to play. A three-yard run by Fears gave the Aggies a new set of downs. An incompletion and a 3-yard completion to Mayhew put the Aggies in a 3^rd-and-7 situation from the MSU 25 as the clock ticked below 50 seconds remaining in the game.

Fears took the snap from center, rolled to his right, tried to cut back and slipped on the Bears' synthetic surface for a 9-yard loss.

“I tried to plant on my inside foot,'' said Fears. “That's a cardinal sin when you're trying to cut, and my feet just came from under me. We have to take advantage of every opportunity we're given, and we just have not done that this year.”

Fears' fall and the Aggies lack of timeouts forced the Aggies to rush on the field for a last-second field goal by Miles. Miles' desperation kick had plenty of height but came up short. 

The Aggies red zone deficiencies have bothered Lee all season long. Out of the 21 times the Aggies have been in the red zone this season, they have come away with six touchdowns. Out of the 14 possessions the Aggies obtained on Saturday, nine of them went into MSU territory.

“We had every opportunity to put it away today,'' said Lee. “We played hard, we made some big plays defensively, but we failed to step up to the mike again when we got the ball in the red zone. We simply have to find a way to get the ball in the end zone. Wallace had a lot of leg on that kick, but he was rushed.”

On one of those possessions inside the Bears 50 came early in the fourth quarter. The Aggies took the ball to the MSU 15, but a holding penalty and a 15-yard loss by Fears who caught a deflected pass instead of knocking it down, moved the Aggies back to the Bears 40.

“We had a lot of opportunities where I thought our senior leadership could have been better,'' said Lee. “If we just throw the ball away, we get an extra 10 yards (on the Fears slip). If we smack that ball down, we don't lose yardage and the clock stops. We're going to keep our heads up and go back to the drawing board.”

The Aggies defense was stellar all afternoon. Morgan State's best drive of the day also turned out to be the game-winning drive. The Bears went 80 yards in five plays and scored on a 7-yard touchdown run by Devan James with 24 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Bears did not have a drive over 24 yards the rest of the way.

N.C. A&T did take advantage of one Bears turnover. With the Aggies trailing 7-0, a muffed punt return by the Bears gave the Aggies the ball at the Bears 11. Three plays later, Tony Coles scored on a 1-yard touchdown with 7:03 remaining in the third quarter. But the Bears blocked the extra point, which turned out to be the difference in the game.

“No matter how you look at, we are miles away from where we were last year,'' said Lee about his 3-3 Aggies. “But we still have a lot of miles to go. Last year this team beat us badly. We are further than where we should be at this point. But we have to learn how to put the nail in the coffin.”

The Aggies are assured a win next week thanks to a forfeit by Delaware State, who will be playing the University of Michigan next week. The Aggies will pick up the win at midnight as the calendar turns to October 18. The Aggies will travel to Washington D.C., in two weeks to face Howard at Greene Stadium.