Chance denied

[Harry]

HOUSTON — North Texas faced a couple of high-powered conventional offenses earlier this season in losses to LSU and Kansas State.

The challenge Houston presented on Saturday night at Robertson Stadium was something entirely different.

The Cougars and quarterback David Piland came out firing in their no-huddle spread attack and didn’t stop until they had run away for a 44-21 win over UNT, which came into the night looking for a milestone win in the second season of the Dan McCarney era.

UNT (2-4) had a chance to pick up its first win since 2006 over a Texas school that competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision, not to mention end a string of 19 consecutive losses following a win.

The Mean Green never had a shot at either landmark on a night when the Cougars (2-3) put up video game-like numbers in just UNT’s eighth game against another Texas school since 2006.

Piland torched UNT’s secondary for 321 passing yards to lead Houston. Charles Sims did plenty of damage as well, running through the Mean Green for 210 yards and a touchdown.

The pair helped the Cougars finish with a whopping 623 yards. Houston scored more points against UNT this season than anyone else, including LSU and Kansas State, a pair of teams ranked in the top 10.

“It looked like we were playing in sand and they were playing on grass,” McCarney said.

“Our fundamentals were poor. There are lots and lots of things we need to get fixed.”

UNT’s defense seemed like it would be pretty far down on the to-do list after the Mean Green played well in a win last week over Florida Atlantic, the second straight opponent the Mean Green had held to 14 points.

Houston had 14 points by the halfway point of the first quarter and jumped out to a 17-0 edge after scoring on each of its first three possessions.

“We didn’t play Mean Green defense at all,” UNT linebacker Zach Orr said. “We had too many missed tackles.”

read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20121007-football-chance-denied.ece