The final Alabama-North Texas contest was a 41-0 lopsided win by the Tide. Alabama rolled up 586 total yards of offense which makes it appear there wasn’t much good to say about the play of North Texas. However, North Texas fans do have several stats which show some positive indicators about the direction of the defense. Seems Defensive Coordinator Clint Bowen and Defensive Line Coach Mike Nelson have some positive things to build on.

The breakdown of the 586 yards was 239 rushing yards and 347 passing yards. Alabama garnered the 239 rushing yards on 33 plays. Of those plays there were four runs of 58, 71, 67 and 43 yards which totaled 172 yards. If you take out those four long runs and the 172 yards, then Alabama gained 67 yards on 29 plays. In other words, they averaged 2.3 yards per carry.

So what does this mean? Nelson’s crew was really doing a good job stopping the Alabama running attack at the line of scrimmage. They were aggressive in their play and committed to stopping the run at all costs. The problem with committing all your resources to stopping the run at the line of scrimmage is if the runner breaks containment there is not much to stop him between the line of scrimmage and the goal line. The result is long runs which is what happened. However, on all the other carries a 2.3 yards per rush is simply outstanding.

Want more prove the defensive line was holding its own? Look at third down conversions, Alabama on 19 third down tries managed to convert only 2 times. Folks that is strong in any coaches manual. On forth down conversions they were 6 of 11. Slightly below average, but still good.

Inside the twenty North Texas held its own against the Tide offense.  They were in scoring position five times. They only managed to punch the ball into the endzone for one touchdown. A high powered offense breaking the goal line only once in five tries is an outstanding job for the North Texas defense. The Tide had to settle for two field goals and drew blanks twice.  Those are great numbers.

The ugly part of the defense was giving up 347 passing yards. There are two indicators in this scenerio and both seem to come into play in the Alabama game. One, while the defensive line was able to hold its own against the run they had a tough time getting pressure on the quarterback. Two, the secondary was simply getting beat. The question is was the passing yards the result poor secondary play or if the Tide quarterback had enough time to pick out his open receivers. If number one happens, number two is sure to follow.

As for the offense, North Texas had the ball for 32.13 minutes to Alabama’s 27:47. Other than that there isn’t  much positive to point to on the offensive side of the ball. Need some improvement here. However, watching several Alabama games over the years, this game should be a great help to Quarterback Derek Thompson.

Let me say, several years ago at the spring game, it was extremely apparent Thompson was going to be the quarterback of the future for North Texas. He was giving his receivers time to get open before running with the ball. He stayed in the pocket longer basically telling his receiving corps “I trust you to get open.”  However, his delivery was like that of a high school quarterback. His passes were too slow, floated to the receivers and allowed defenders to close on the ball for interceptions or knockdowns.

Now going back to the Alabama game. In the past, quarterbacks coming out of the Alabama game would say how much it helped them improve. It should be no different for Thompson. He should now understand the speed of the game at the higher levels. As a result look for his passes to be quicker, delivered with more authority and more accurate.   The end result will be less broken up passes, less interceptions, more pass completions and Thompson feeling more confident in his receivers. In other words, Thompson now knows what it takes to be successful.

The improved passing game will help Lance Dunbar and James Hamilton to pour on the running yards.

So throw it all into the blender and here is what you get. Look for the North Texas defense to hold its own against running teams and to have an extremely tough time against passing teams.  The defense is doing its part to win games.

Expect more ball movement down the field from the offense. Look for scoring to go up and for North Texas to be in most of the games for the rest of the season.  Since defenses will be forced to look at more offensive weapons other then the running back and quarterback, expect less three and outs.

There were 101821 football fans at Alabama that is homefield advantage. No team left on North Texas’ schedule will have that type of homefield advantage. Therefore, they should not go into any opponents house and feel threatened by the crowds but look to them as a minor annoyance.