Offensive struggles continue for Mean Green

NTEagle08 · October 23, 2005

By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle

RUSTON, La. – North Texas hoped a win over Florida International last week was a sign that it might be ready to find its rhythm heading into the second half of the season.

Those hopes went unfulfilled when some familiar problems came back to haunt the Mean Green in a 40-14 loss to Louisiana Tech on Saturday in front of 19,481 at Joe Aillet Stadium. UNT couldn't get anything going offensively outside of a solid third quarter and saw its defense struggle in a nonconference game again.

The result was UNT's third straight loss outside of the Sun Belt Conference after nonconference losses to Tulsa (54-2) and Kansas State (54-7) earlier this season.

"We want to win anytime we play," coach Darrell Dickey said. "We play some tough teams in our nonconference schedule. This is a tough place to play. They have a nice environment and a good football team. We have to prepare better no matter who we are playing."

UNT appeared as if it might break through after hanging with Tech (3-3) in the first quarter, which ended with the Bulldogs leading 7-0. The complexion of the game changed a short time later when Tech rattled off 20 consecutive points before halftime.

"They just played better than we did in the second quarter," UNT safety Aaron Weathers said. "We didn't make the plays and missed some opportunities."

The halftime deficit proved to be insurmountable for the Mean Green, which came into the game ranked No. 116 nationally with an average of 9.2 points a game.

Mean Green quarterback Daniel Meager threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Jackson before running back Patrick Cobbs added a 33-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Johnny Quinn to cut UNT's deficit to 30-14.

"We ran the ball really well in the third quarter," Meager said. "Anytime we run the ball it opens up our offense."

Cobbs led UNT with 108 rushing yards, and Matt Kubik paced Tech with 283 yards passing.

Tech cut UNT's comeback short when Bryon Santiago recovered a Jamario Thomas fumble at the Mean Green 47-yard line late in the third quarter. The sophomore has lost a fumble in each of the Mean Green's last three games.

UNT didn't have any room for error after a slow start that put it in a hole and spoiled what was one of the better offensive surges of the season in the third quarter. The Mean Green's 14 points tied a season high set against Middle Tennessee in its season opener when the defense had one touchdown.

"Our coaches made some adjustments and we picked up our intensity level at half, but we have to do that early on," Dickey said. "We would like to do what we did in the third quarter all the time."

Briefly: Freshman Steve Warren moved into UNT's starting lineup at free safety in place of Roderick Cotton, who Dickey said is battling some minor injuries. ... UNT junior wide receiver Johnny Quinn extended his streak of games with at least one catch to 31 games. ... Backup quarterback Matt Phillips came on for starter Daniel Meager in the fourth quarter. Dickey said he considered going to Phillips earlier and wanted to get him in the game. The freshman went 1-for-4 for 6 yards and two interceptions.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...nt.2c1c496.html

Edited October 23, 2005 by NTEagle08

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 23, 2005

Its a darn good thing Dickey doesn't have a say in who is ranked, because all of the teams we have lost to would be ranked according to the way he builds up teams.

KingDL1 · October 23, 2005

Well come on now you know damn well according to DD every team we have played this year was ranked in the top 10.

Top 10 what I have no freaking idea!!!!

untbowler · October 23, 2005

same ol storydifferent weekend.

Must be nice to read from a script, much like the playcalling.

Love how every team is great.

October 23, 2005

For those calling for Phillips to come in, 4 passes with 2 interceptions is not a good indication.

Maybe our players just don't care very much about winning. That means some really poor choices were made in the recruiting process. The result: we have reached rock bottom. I'm pretty sure we could see some dramatic improvement if the players' attitudes and expectations changed. I don't know how someone could live with themselves repeatedly going out like this. I would get tired of it.

untcampbell · October 23, 2005

Must be nice to read from a script, much like the playcalling.

C'mon UNTbowler...give DD some credit.

He ain't reading...he memorized this BS long ago.

You would hear the rest of the memorized stuff this Monday night, but I am sure there will be technical difficulties.

OldTimer · October 23, 2005

For those calling for Phillips to come in, 4 passes with 2 interceptions is not a good indication.

Maybe our players just don't care very much about winning. That means some really poor choices were made in the recruiting process. The result: we have reached rock bottom. I'm pretty sure we could see some dramatic improvement if the players' attitudes and expectations changed. I don't know how someone could live with themselves repeatedly going out like this. I would get tired of it.

It was not that anyone expcted Phillips to be better than Meager but to get some experience in case something happened to Meager...who has a history of injury. Watched the Missouri and Nebraska game on TV Saturday...Mo has a great QB, the score was Mo 31-Neb 24...(something like that ...not a blow out or big loss).ie Neb could still win the game.

The MO coach put in a QB who had not played a down of college football for a couple of series..and the announcers said he told them he was doing this to give him some experience in case of injury to his starter.

****************************************************************

I don't blame the players for our problems....its the style of play DD plays. When he came he made no attempt to run an offense based on the abilities of his players that he had. He made the existing players change to his style even though they were recruited for different qualities.

Even Nebraska...the leader in smash mouth running football has changed its style of play. They found out when they got behind they could not come back. DD mentioned that this weekend when he said our offense is not built to make large plays and play catch up.

Have you noticed HS and college QB's changing the play at the line of scrimmage based on what the defense showed? Scott Hall, a 5th year Sr. did not have that option he could change the play from left side to right side, but not the play itself. I doubt if our QB's can do even this...when have you seen our QB change a play at the line of scrimmage...yet it happens everything in college football.

Our QB problems I blame on DD. I know he was depending up Smith to be his QB, but he died before last season. He had the change to recruit a JC QB, Actually he would get Zac Taylor (who starts for Neb) and wound up not recruiting a JC QB with game experience. Then he gave Byerly in spring training, the majority of snaps....did they check on his academic progress? That left Meager.