How About That Defense!

[UNTLifer]

Great job to all the players and to Coach Ref!

[Danish43]

29 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Great job to all the players and to Coach Ref!

We gave up 14 point close to end of game that could of been avoided.

[brooks91]

12 minutes ago, Danish43 said:

We gave up 14 point close to end of game that could of been avoided.

2nd and 3rd stringers.

[NT93]

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

Great job to all the players and to Coach Ref!

Looks like Sonny Dykes joined the forum and gave you a downvote.

[ChiefTenBeers2015]

Would've been great to post a goose egg, need to clean up some things, but for three quarters the defense looked good - proud of our players for puttin' a whuppin' on them ponies.  Great crowd.  

[outoftown]

D-Line looks like the most improved unit on the team to me. Very important. We'll see how true it is when UNT visits Fayetville.

[largekfcbucket]

First team defense allowed 1 rushing yard tonight, only 4 first downs (it was 0 for A VERY long time) held Ben Hicks to 9/21 passing for 110 yards, and won the turnover battle. 

Literally all of SMU's offensive success came against backup players in garbage time. 

People will look at this game and say "Oh, 46-23. Good win." Nope. It was dominance. If the run game had been even average we could've and would've hung 50-60 on them. 

Damn proud of this defense. You can clearly see how much work they've put in over the spring/summer. Hell of a game.

[bstnsportsfan3]

i looked over to my neighbor and told him SMU had 1 first down and 46 yards of total offense going into the 4th. He almost didn't believe me and i had to double check what i read because it sounded so crazy, yet it was true! proud of the D tonight

Edited September 2, 2018 by bstnsportsfan3

[peanuts104]

Defense was the biggest question (in my opinion) going into the season.  We got an answer tonight.  Much improved.  Such smashmouth football.  My only hope is that SMU was much better than they seemed, because they did not look too impressive.  Hard to tell if that's because a new coaching staff and game one or if it was because we have a dominate defense.  Yes, our defense dominated tonight, but it remains to be seen if they can continue that throughout the season.  Based on what I saw tonight from the first team D, I think we can.

[UNTLifer]

Garner, who I have been critical of in the past, had a hell of a game.  The play where it read the bootleg, peeled back to cover the TE (I believe), forced Hicks to run, the made the tackle short kf the first down was beautiful.  Brooks was a blanket, Hall with a pick 6, DL getting pressure, E.J. trucking everyone in sight while still having time to get us revved up on 3rd downs, etc...were fantastic as well.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

Defense stole the show. Front 7 looks fresh and rejuvenated. Putting Young out on the edge has made a difference. 

[Felozano]

Time of possession helped, too.  Last time I checked, our offense had the ball for 42 minutes to SMU’s 13.  Even though we didn’t run for many yards, we still kept attempting to run. The worst thing we could have done was throw every down. We need the offensive balance to keep the ball longer and help keep our D off of the field. Great win!  GMG!

[DeepGreen]

Anyone keep an eye on English?  How did he do overall?

[TheColonyEagle]

6 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Garner, who I have been critical of in the past, had a hell of a game.  The play where it read the bootleg, peeled back to cover the TE (I believe), forced Hicks to run, the made the tackle short kf the first down was beautiful. 

We all talked about that play where we were sitting. Played to absolutely perfection. 

[NorthTexan95]

10 hours ago, NT93 said:

Looks like Sonny Dykes joined the forum and gave you a downvote.

Nah.  That's Ben Hicks.

[MeanGreenTexan]

10 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Garner, who I have been critical of in the past, had a hell of a game.  The play where it read the bootleg, peeled back to cover the TE (I believe), forced Hicks to run, the made the tackle short kf the first down was beautiful.  Brooks was a blanket, Hall with a pick 6, DL getting pressure, E.J. trucking everyone in sight while still having time to get us revved up on 3rd downs, etc...were fantastic as well.

Told you (& everyone else critical of him) when Young moved over to DE, Garner would get more opportunities to shine.  Tough to make any plays as a MLB when you have a C or G blocking you every play.

Young was pushing double-teams back into the pocket all night.

Very encouraging start to the year!!

[FirefightnRick]

5 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

Anyone keep an eye on English?  How did he do overall?

He looked great.  Very quick and agile.  Drew a double team every snap giving those around him the chance to keep eyes on the ball and pursue.

Rick 

Edited September 2, 2018 by FirefightnRick

[EagleMBA]

I would have liked the score to be more reflective of our domination, but the upside is that we got the chance to get some guys, that otherwise might not have played many downs, a relatively significant amount of game experience. This can only help the team for the rest of the schedule. If they can come out with the same intensity against Incarnate Word, just think how valuable another big block of playing time would be for the backups, particularly after being critiqued by the coaches for their SMU performance.

[South Texas Green]

Impressed by the performance from our defense. Keep it up guys! We believe in you all!

[Cooke County Kid]

Best overall defensive effort I have seen in years.  If last night is any indication, we are going to have a really good season.  One game at a time, we need to win this week at home again and prepare for a show-down in Arkansas and it is not in Jonesboro!

[Venson]

I was very critical of Ref based on the defensive performance last season. I must say that the defense won this game last night and I am impressed. Honestly our offense only scored 1 TD in the first half and that was kind of a gimme on a targeting call that could have gone either way. Not taking anything away from the offense, they played well, but in my mind, defense won this game. This defense is much improved.

[97and03]

7 minutes ago, Venson said:

I was very critical of Ref based on the defensive performance last season. I must say that the defense won this game last night and I am impressed. Honestly our offense only scored 1 TD in the first half and that was kind of a gimme on a targeting call that could have gone either way. Not taking anything away from the offense, they played well, but in my mind, defense won this game. This defense is much improved.

Agreed. The Defense really came out firing on all cylinders last night and carried the team for much of the first half. 

At first I was bothered that the 2nd team gave up the points, but they gained valuable experience and so it is worth it, especially since it was against SMUt's starters.