Ranking The 10 Losses

[JesseMartin]

10. Navy. Defense was depressing again, but showed what our offense can do against a bowl-bound team of a pretty decent caliber, and aside from the points records, don't forget Vizza tied an NCAA record.

9. SMU. If not for those 2 INTs at the end of the game, the score would have possibly been flipped: UNT 45, SMU 31. Record-setting offensive night for UNT. How sad that you can pass for 601 yards and not win!

8. ASU. The last few seconds are all that made that game a loss. Slightly better showing by the defense, and if the offense was clicking as well as it did against some other teams, would have been a win. Not that bad a loss, all things considered.

7. FAU. We had a pretty good first half, and if the second was as good we would have won. Again, turnovers...one of their scores exchanged for another for us would have made it 27-23 UNT.

6. ULL. Not a great game, but not too bad of a point difference.

5. OU. I think most of you will disagree here, but I like that Dodge didn't go conservative so that the team would get more practice against a big opponent. Plus, Vizza scored our first TD against them in how long? The score OU put up was embarrassing, but we usually expect to lose to teams like that...at least we put up double digits.

4. Troy. I know they're a good team, but only one TD? And they put up 45, which I would expect more from a Big 12 powerhouse. We shut them out a few years back, 21-0, which shows how far we have to go to get back on top.

3. Arkansas. You expect them to put up a lot, but they beat us almost as badly as OU did, AND we put up 3 less points than we did against OU.

2. Middle Tennessee. Losing Homecoming always sucks, but even more so against MT and by such a large margin.

1. FIU. Losing to the team with the nation's longest losing streak, winless the rest of the year, and by such a large margin is just plain bad. Offensive turnovers tied with bad defense on this one.

Anybody else want to compare?

[UNT Mean Green]

Jesse...good post! I am a little confused on what order to put them in...so I'll discuss them in terms of the most frustrating losses!

1) SMU: For the first time all year, we show signs of greatness early in the game. We jump out to a convincing lead early in 2nd quarter, and hang on enough to have momentum going into the locker room at halftime. After the half, we still look good and should win this game. The INT we gave them the play directly after picking off Justin Willis was very frustrating. We went for the homerun to try and swing the momentum and Meager's lack of arm strength made the ball hang in the air for eternity. That was the difference in my opinion. After this game, people had an idea of what 'Dodgeball' is all about. Should have won this game.

2) Arkansas State: On a cold night in Jonesboro, we face one of the best defenses in the Sun Belt and exploit them by running the football. Coaches felt that their secondary was the obvious strength of their football team, so we decided to run the ball and had a ton of success doing so. Another game with a huge lead that diminished as the game went on. We had a chance to put them away and missed a field goal that allowed them to go 80 yards as time expired to win. Tough one to swallow, and one that we needed at this point in the season. Should have won this game.

3) Navy: The day was great, atmosphere was awesome, and the game was exciting. I rank this one third because we were totally helpless defensively in this one. We moved the ball at will, but so did they. A Holding call in our own endzone resulting in a safety followed by a return for TD results in a possible 16 point swing and costs us the ballgame. The holding call from the BACKSIDE makes a huge difference...very frustrating. Should have won this game.

4) Florida Atlantic: A game at Fouts where we came out and went toe to toe with the eventual conference Champions. We were out-manned athletically, but matched the Owls for most of the game. In fact, this is another instance where we couldn't hold a lead, and 2 breakdowns on Special Teams made a huge difference. We had a legitimate chance to win this ballgame.

5) Florida International: The last game in the Orange Bowl, and the reason this one is so frustrating is not because we lost to a team that hadn't won in 23 tries. I personally felt that they played harder than we did...and that is hard to swallow.

6) Middle Tennessee: Another beautiful night at Fouts in front of a good home crowd. We get out front again, only to surrender 2 safeties due to special team's breakdowns that gave us horrible field position, and the tipped ball returned for a TD was the beginning of the snowball in this one. I hated to see this one get out of our grasp because we should have won this game against a more talented Blue Raiders team.

7) Louisiana Lafayette: I knew it wouldn't be great when a downpour prior to kickoff drenched the field in Lafayette. However, we came out and played very hard, and offensively had an outstanding night considering the conditions of the surface. Problem was that Fenroy and their QB ran wild on our defense. We were already slow to begin with on defense, much less on a wet field!

8) Troy: Didn't feel good about going into this game. It was a heck of a challenge from the get-go. This Troy team is an outstanding football team and has certainly been robbed of a bowl game! We create 7 turnovers and don't get the necessary points. Game should have been much closer, but we didn't capitalize on their mistakes.

9) Arkansas: Obviously, you don't expect to win this one. We looked bad in this game.

10) Oklahoma: WOW! We were so outclassed, but you have to expect that. In my opinion, the Sooners are the best team in the land.

[MCMLXXX]

Jesse...good post! I am a little confused on what order to put them in...so I'll discuss them in terms of the most frustrating losses!

1) SMU: For the first time all year, we show signs of greatness early in the game. We jump out to a convincing lead early in 2nd quarter, and hang on enough to have momentum going into the locker room at halftime. After the half, we still look good and should win this game. The INT we gave them the play directly after picking off Justin Willis was very frustrating. We went for the homerun to try and swing the momentum and Meager's lack of arm strength made the ball hang in the air for eternity. That was the difference in my opinion. After this game, people had an idea of what 'Dodgeball' is all about. Should have won this game.

2) Arkansas State: On a cold night in Jonesboro, we face one of the best defenses in the Sun Belt and exploit them by running the football. Coaches felt that their secondary was the obvious strength of their football team, so we decided to run the ball and had a ton of success doing so. Another game with a huge lead that diminished as the game went on. We had a chance to put them away and missed a field goal that allowed them to go 80 yards as time expired to win. Tough one to swallow, and one that we needed at this point in the season. Should have won this game.

3) Navy: The day was great, atmosphere was awesome, and the game was exciting. I rank this one third because we were totally helpless defensively in this one. We moved the ball at will, but so did they. A Holding call in our own endzone resulting in a safety followed by a return for TD results in a possible 16 point swing and costs us the ballgame. The holding call from the BACKSIDE makes a huge difference...very frustrating. Should have won this game.

4) Florida Atlantic: A game at Fouts where we came out and went toe to toe with the eventual conference Champions. We were out-manned athletically, but matched the Owls for most of the game. In fact, this is another instance where we couldn't hold a lead, and 2 breakdowns on Special Teams made a huge difference. We had a legitimate chance to win this ballgame.

5) Florida International: The last game in the Orange Bowl, and the reason this one is so frustrating is not because we lost to a team that hadn't won in 23 tries. I personally felt that they played harder than we did...and that is hard to swallow.

6) Middle Tennessee: Another beautiful night at Fouts in front of a good home crowd. We get out front again, only to surrender 2 safeties due to special team's breakdowns that gave us horrible field position, and the tipped ball returned for a TD was the beginning of the snowball in this one. I hated to see this one get out of our grasp because we should have won this game against a more talented Blue Raiders team.

7) Louisiana Lafayette: I knew it wouldn't be great when a downpour prior to kickoff drenched the field in Lafayette. However, we came out and played very hard, and offensively had an outstanding night considering the conditions of the surface. Problem was that Fenroy and their QB ran wild on our defense. We were already slow to begin with on defense, much less on a wet field!

8) Troy: Didn't feel good about going into this game. It was a heck of a challenge from the get-go. This Troy team is an outstanding football team and has certainly been robbed of a bowl game! We create 7 turnovers and don't get the necessary points. Game should have been much closer, but we didn't capitalize on their mistakes.

9) Arkansas: Obviously, you don't expect to win this one. We looked bad in this game.

10) Oklahoma: WOW! We were so outclassed, but you have to expect that. In my opinion, the Sooners are the best team in the land.

I agree with your order.

[UNT Mean Green]

When you sit back and think about it, we could have easily been a 5-7 win team.

[foutsrouts]

When you sit back and think about it, we could have easily been a 5-7 win team.

Although we played well against Monroe, on the flip side we could have easily been 0-12 . Man that would of been ugly.

[Legend500]

From the "worst" losses to the least damaging...

1. Florida International - There was absolutely no excuse for this one. Playing in front of thousands....thousand of non-rabid fans of a team that hasn't won since Saddam was still in a spider hole. A season of decent progress ends with complete surrender to an inferior 0-23 team. Also pop FIU's winless cherry. Embarrassing.

2. Louisiana - Less than 20 minutes of possession for the Mildly Displeased Cajuns and we give up over 400 yards. And lose by ten with over 500 yards of offense and over 40 minutes of control. Pop UL's winless cherry in the process (#2). Pathetic.

3. Troy - Seven turnovers. 35 minutes of possession. 205 yards, and you lose by 38 points to a Sun Belt team. Sure Troy beat up many in conference, but how do you explain that to the CUSA? Worthless.

4. Middle Tennessee - What's worse...giving up 5 turnovers, or knowing that even if you take away the points off those turnovers (16) we still lose by 4? Blown out by 20 at home on homecoming against a mediocre MTSU bodes poorly for the rest of the season. Disturbing.

The first four are the truly horrid ones...next are the mildly distressing:

5. Florida Atlantic - Once again, leading respectfully in yards and time of possession is not enough. The Defense is unable to hold much, continuing my case to bring in Immodium or Metamucil as our defensive drive sponsors. In truth not a bad loss. Too bad it sounds like a joke when you tell a fellow football fan that you held FAU to 30 points. Thanks, Sun Belt!

6/7.. Oklahoma and Arkansas - Sure, difficult opponents, but ones well deserving of respect. Unfortunately, losing to two big schools 145-17 is worse than horrible. I would bet good money that any team in the Southland would not give up that many points. Oklahoma would have had pity, but was apparently too busy laughing at our defensive schemes and the NCAA08-worthy score. Can you fire a DC in the Playstation game? Oklahoma gets it's first victory of the year, so it still counts (#3).

8. Southern Methodist - It's almost like a British mystery series - you could spend hours trying to figure out who choked first. Dodge shows that a team needs to play four quarters in college football. Too bad our guys only played three. And yes, a cherry popper (#4) to the worst team in the worst division in the worst 1-A conference in America. Less than impressive.

The last two are ok. Really.

9. Arkansas State - If you're gonna lose, that's how you do it. Tough loss on the road, but the team showed grit and character.

10. Navy. Just getting this game is big. Going toe-to-toe with an excellent team and lighting them up speaks well to those outside the Mean Green Nation. Nice showing and close loss to a team that most of the Metroplex has actually heard of.

Edited December 4, 2007 by Legend500