Observations from watching the recording of yesterday's game

[untcampbell]

4 post-game interviews! Kidsy did a great job with his interview.

I am just so intrigued by Dajon's poise. Seems completely confident and controlled. Every player on Offense seemed to play inspired and seemed more confident around him.

Excellent showcase for North Texas...showed the SMU highlights from Beyond the Green, featured Apogee, the Eagle under the scoreboard.

Camera angles showed the crowd well...even, for the most part, in the second half when most on the student side left or moved to the shade.

Commercials were reasonable in length...much shorter for us fans in the stadium to have to wait through.

Will romance bloom for Mean Green Lady and Mean Green Man? I somehow missed MGL through the first three home games.

Didn't know Brelan Chancellor was at the game. Kidsy gave him props and called BC his big brother from last year.

Favorite McNulty play: watching him calmly scoop up the snap that sailed over his head and throw the ball out of bounds. About as much poise as we have seen from any QB not named Dajon this year.

Before Dajon, either Nicholls first or second string QB would start for NT. 2nd string Hebert was the better of the two.

Didn't know that Beau Hebert was Bobby's son.

Amazing how big Nicholls OL was, and how slow.

Can't believe NT time of possession was under 20 minutes.

Loved seeing Tillman make the effort to get off the field on his own.

Clearly a CUSA broadcast, but announcers Thulin and Moreland were energetic, even in a blow out. Really did a nice job of spotlighting the University and the Conference.

If I heard it right, they used a NT student announcer on the sidelines. Kid did OK.

Cure for Corbin kids were great...very enthusiastic. Was nice to see them on the field for the coin toss (NSU players shook their hands also...well done). They also showed the boys in the locker room for Coach's pre-game talk and interviewed them on the sidelines with their families.

Harry alluded to this in another thread, but I am amazed at how many players got in the game. The participation report may require two volumes.

And a little perspective about playing SMU and Nicholls:

Spoke with a lady at a church we were doing some volunteer work for in South Dallas. She saw my Parents Weekend shirt and said..."I saw North Texas last night on TV and I love your uniforms. That is a bright green!"

A Baylor friend at church asked if we had hired Briles away from Baylor. "First SMU, then last night." He had no idea we had lost to LaTech.

We beat a team by 74 points. In the Metroplex, if you beat SMU, people notice. When you win by 74, whoever you play, people notice.

GMG

[Eastwood Eagle]

77 point is a lot of point no matter who you are playing.

I remember when Rice put that much on us my Freshman year at UNT.

[golfingomez]

golfingomez observations of the game:

Last year Terrell came over after scoring a touchdown and slapped five with me... afterwards, Danny Mac let everyone know that we need to cut down on some of the nonsense after scoring a touchdown and act like we've been there before...

yesterday, Dajo almost immediately went to the fans and slapped some hands after the first touchdown... then on the wide open bomb, Harris came over and showed golfin some love... later in the game Kidsy got in on the act at the opposite end of the end zone...

either this act has started to gain some support from Mac, or we are going to have three players in the doghouse tomorrow during press conference/radio show

[greenminer]

77 point is a lot of point no matter who you are playing.

I remember when Rice put that much on us my Freshman year at UNT.

Both games are CUSA records for points scored.

[Christopher Walker]

Can't believe NT time of possession was under 20 minutes.

GMG

And the highlight reel the AD made is comprised of 13 of those minutes, including some the other way with the outstanding D play.

Still though...

[aztecskin]

Time of Possession is the least important stat in football.

[greenminer]

Time of Possession is the least important stat in football.

Not necessarily. I would say it depends on your offensive efficiency.

If my team is not scoring, then I am very very aware of how much time each team is spending with the ball.

If we're scoring at will then, yeah, it becomes less relevant.

[greenminer]

Not necessarily. I would say it depends on your offensive efficiency.

If my team is not scoring, then I am very very aware of how much time each team is spending with the ball.

If we're scoring at will then, yeah, it becomes less relevant.

On second thought, I think it still matters even if we're scoring every possession.

[TheWestie]

Brelan was down in Austin on the sideline and has was at the SMU and La Tech games.

Trice was at the SMU and La Tech games too. And is still a super cool dude.

[MDH]

Brelan was down in Austin on the sideline and has was at the SMU and La Tech games.

Trice was at the SMU and La Tech games too. And is still a super cool dude.

I'm pretty sure I saw both there for the Nichols game.

I wish that the Syracus - Maryland game hadn't gone over so I could've seen the first 3 TDs again.

[golfingomez]

Time of Possession is the least important stat in football.

slow down there... let's not use so much hyper-bowl

[IslandEagle]

Both games are CUSA records for points scored.

Oh don't remind me of that wretched game....possibly the worst performance of the Dodge era. I couldn't even go home after the game because of the post-Hurricane Ike curfew. So, I had to spend the night with some friends who lived near Rice stadium.

[GrayEagle]

Time of Possession is the least important stat in football.

If you're a ball-control team, it's important. If you're a defensive-minded team it's also pretty important because it's more time spent on the field. But, if you're a quick-strike team and the opposition is not strong where you can do a lot of rotation of players on defense, then it's definitely inconsequential.

[Mean Green 93-98]

If you're a ball-control team, it's important. If you're a defensive-minded team it's also pretty important because it's more time spent on the field. But, if you're a quick-strike team and the opposition is not strong where you can do a lot of rotation of players on defense, then it's definitely inconsequential.

Time of possession is still a goofy way of measuring it. If an offense runs 6 plays and takes 4 minutes off the clock doing it, does it really take a bigger toll on the opposing defense than a no-huddle/hurry-up offense that will run 6 plays in less than 2 minutes? I'd say the 2nd is far more wearing on a defense.

[Green Crazy]

trice was at the nicholls st game too.

[greenminer]

Didn't some of the Warner-led Rams teams in the late-90s/early 2000s lose some games because their offense scored too quickly?

[untcampbell]

I guess I was more amazed that 77 points can be scored with less than 20 minutes of offense....obviously we scored often with out the offense being involved.

Last year and against SMU this year, I couldn't wait to see what our defense did. Last year, that wasn't a knock on our offense as much as what our defense/special teams could do.

I greatly anticipated every play of the game against Nicholls. Just a joy to watch from opening kickoff to final cannon.

GMG

[aztecskin]

Time of possession is a by-product of offensive and defensive efficiency. As you could see in our first two offensive drives and our first defensive participation, we were hyper-efficient. Six offensive plays got us two touchdowns and a bundle of yards. One defensive play and we had the ball back.

Yards-per-play matter more than time-had-the-ball. Much like in soccer where possession stats are grossly over-valued vs shot supremacy (shots taken vs allowed) it is far better to focus on what teams do with the possession. In the case of our turn-based gridiron football, it also matters what we do with our defensive turns as well.

Whereas we can use possession in an overall strategy to increase efficiency, as was mentioned, it is far more effective to practice the blocking, tackling, and other direct football-y stuff.