North Texas was almost able to overcome their own mistakes to pick up a win Saturday evening when they hosted the University of Louisiana-Lafayette but it was a mistake that cost the game. It was one of those rare games where North Texas was favored in the game by many sports authorities. The Rajun Cajuns’ injuries were worse than North Texas and with the impressive win at Florida Atlantic the week before the Eagles had every reason to be favored.

From outset of the game, it was obvious what ULL was going to exploit, long passes down the field and they worked almost every time. When the ULL quarterback and wide receiver did not connect it was because of errant passes not because of the North Texas defense.  The long downfield passes were there all evening.

The game opened up on a great note with a great run back of the opening kickoff but quickly turned sour and let the North Texas fans know what to expect the rest of the game when there was a penalty. The rest of the game penalties absolutely kept North Texas behind.     

Several of the penalties were frustration penalties, the kind of penalties coaches do not like to see but at the same time they do. It shows the coach the players care, they care about a win, they want to win but the players are not keeping their heads in the game.  The team is playing hard, extremely hard but with playing hard the fine line between playing hard and keeping yourself in control closes.  North Texas crossed that fine line at times as a result come the unnecessary or unsportsmanlike like conduct calls. There was the penalties that drive everyone crazy, the illegal snaps.

In credit of North Texas, they overcame the penalties and at the end of the game were actually in position to tie the game to send it into overtime. However, the blocked extra point did the team in.  They question that will never be answered is without the penalties would North Texas have been ahead in the game and would they have won?

The North Texas offense is predictable and opposing defenses are able to read it like a book.  During the ULL game, the wide outs would run to their assigned positions, do a button hook and stand there. The defenders would almost be at the location before the receivers. Even the nice catch by Alex Lott for a touchdown, he ran about ten yards down the field stopped and did a button hook and stood there.  When Riley Dodge started to run for his life and the defender went after Dodge, only then Lott moved about another five to ten yards down the field to get the catch. It was a great play by Lott to keep his balance after being hit to get into the endzone. Not taking anything away from the his run.

The point is, watching the receivers, they all seem to run to assigned points on the field and stop letting Dodge do a quick read to see if anyone is open before he runs. When we looked, we did not see any hook and goes, where the receiver runs to the spot, turns and then runs down the field for a pass.  Of course, this is hard to do when Dodge is running for his life. ULL always had at least one player running deep trying to stretch the defense.  

This suggests ULL had faith in their offensive line whereas North Texas did not. North Texas seemed to have problems holding blocks for the passing game. It seemed most of the evening Dodge had about a second and a half to make a decision about which receiver to throw to while ULL had three or four seconds. It is hard to have an effective passing game with so little time. Maybe that is the reason the wide outs run to a spot and stop. In order to overcome the defensive rush, Dodge was rolled out to help increase the time he needed to throw the ball.  

The offensive line was adequate on running plays. When they opened holes, Lance Dunbar would blow through the line with no hesitation and was into the secondary for big gainers. However, most of the time he was hunt and pecking in the back field looking for a hole to run through in the offensive line. Still, the running game kept North Texas in the game, especially in the fourth quarter.

North Texas continued to use the passing game as their primary weapon with Dodge running the ball when there were no receivers available. He was effective but he got his bell rung a time or two and with no experienced backups behind him is a dangerous thing for the season. 

North Texas was playing a physical game. There were about six or seven ULL players injured during the game. Something no one likes to see on either team but it shows North Texas was not a patsy in the game. They were in there fighting, they were playing to win.

The defensive line continued to hold its own. They basically held the ground at the line of scrimmage and for the most part are not getting knocked back from the line. However, they still have problems pushing the offensive line backwards to disrupt plays. The good thing is when the defense blitzed they were able to get to the quarterback easily.

With ULL up 28-14 many North Texas fans started to pack it in and missed an exciting finish. For those unable to make the game, one thing you have to say about the fans that did is they have that blank look in their faces like they are expecting another loss. However, the fans that stayed were vocal and got behind the team even when things were bleak. You can tell those fans bleed green.