Post Game Reaction: North Texas 48 FAU 41

A Shootout on Thursday Night

This last decade, we’ve seen plenty of high scoring offensive performance with little defensive support. To the untrained eye, last night’s game looked very much like the same kind of thing. Listen, no one was happy with the defense getting sliced up for 500+ again (including 452 through the air) but there were things to like: they hit hard, they got to Veltkamp, they forced a turnover. I expected better, but full credit to Florida Atlantic, who were very good.

From the preview:

I see North Texas blowing this open with more big plays. The hype of the moment can easily get this team too energetic but I think Neal Brown will do a better job of getting his guys ready than Eric Morris did vs USF last year. So expect North Texas to hit some big home runs, and run away with this.

MGN prediction: North Texas 55 - FAU 17

Did the moment get to them? A little. I expected better from Neal Brown, who got a little too cute to start the game and tried some QB keepers at the goal line to start the game. North Texas took yardages in chunks but stalled out at the three. The defense had forced a quick punt and NT could have taken a 7-0 lead. Instead they got just the three points (S/O DeFreitas, who was 2/2 and kicked an important go-ahead FG after half). The defense got a turnover and forced third and longs, and even some third-down stops. They just got smoked on 3rd and long too many times, including a 3rd-and-14 that went for a 27-yard touchdown, and 3rd-and-10, which was converted through a roughing call.

Let’s get into the reactions:

Neal Brown Press Conference:

1. Good Crowd — Student Record Set — No Stadium Record

Neal Brown praised the students in particular. “The atmosphere is set by your students.” The crowd was huge on the student side, okay in the alumni side, and a little sparse in the wings.

SportsCenter was on campus, it was fun, people had a good time. Driving in DFW at 5pm on a weekday is rough no matter how early you dip out of work or class, so it was difficult. Seeing sparsely populated stadia across the nation has given me some idea of what is happening. North Texas is one entertainment option among seemingly infinite others, one with lots of friction (outdoors, with parking/walking, spending money). To get people in seats for the duration, the juice has to be worth the squeeze. Right now, that squeeze is on the wallet in more ways than one.

So it goes.

2. The Defense Was Hanging On For Dear Life

Easton Messer running wide open for a corner route as the safety fell down was emblematic of the entire night.

From the preview:

Defensive coordinator Matt Powledge will have to decide if Messer is good enough to deserve special handling, or if base defense and base principles are enough. Reacting to the various movements can backfire if you can’t get set, or have to over-communicate. That slight hesitation and delay can expose the defense to precisely the thing they are trying to prevent. My vote is to go base principles and make him make you adjust. He had a couple of easy drops vs Rice that should keep him humble.

Messer came in locked in, didn’t drop a single thing and furthermore caught a tough ball in the end zone while double-covered by a safety and linebacker. Perhaps you will rage against the idea that 4 Coombes was the defensive back covering him, but credit to Messer for running crisp routes, extending plays, and being tough to tackle.

That said, the pass rush was too slow getting to Veltkamp. North Texas started with two-high safeties, kept the routes in front of them, but FAU extended the play and either scrambled for yards or to find a wide out. One of these was a touchdown to Messer, but also one to Shields-Dutton.

Neal Brown said “defense played 85 plays tonight, and 77 on Saturday. We need some R&R”.

He credited FAU for their performance, and Veltkamp for getting the ball out. “We doubled Messer. 16 targets 16 catches.”

It was “survive and advance” for Brown, and that’s a good summation of the game. North Texas had to play well enough on defense and they did.

3. The Offense Was Good, But Also Mistake-Prone

Neal Brown called it a “just-under good” performance. The first drive should have been a score. Brown put that on Jackson and his stars, who are “talented, and held to a higher standard.” He called the fumble by Jahiem White’s end-of-half fumble a bad play.

“I’ve seen enough of that shit.”

Jackson 33/46 for 404 yards 4 touchdowns, no interceptions. Jahiem White 25 carries 174 yards 2 touchdowns. Justin Stevenson 9 carries 119 yards 1 touchdown. The “triplets” filled up the stat sheet but left some things on the field. White had two fumbles — one was called back thanks to a defensive hands-to-the-face flag. The head coach called him out and White was upset with himself on the sideline.

Brown called out Stevenson’s route running as not great, he said Jackson missed some reads where he could have run, and obviously White’s decision to be loose with the ball. “We could have had 70.”

For as poor as the defense looked at times, the offense having an off night and yet still pretty easily putting up 48 points and 625 yards on 7.7 yards per play, while also running out the clock with a must-get first down to ice it was nice. This thing is good and has lots of potential.

Resting up a bit for ten days should help the defense recover. It should help the offense get crisper. So the best offense in the league can get more explosive, more productive, more dangerous. Thats exciting. “The teams that win the league get better as the season progresses.”

4. North Texas Is Bowl Eligible, 6-2 and 4-0 In The League

“We want to do something [last year’s team] didn’t do.”

Florida Atlantic looked like they might steal the game, but North Texas handled themselves in the biggest moments. The defense got to Veltkamp late, got sacks, got punts when they needed. The offense produced points when they needed. While Brown complained “could have put them away in the third” the team iced the game when it mattered. Two weeks in a row the offense killed the game when it mattered. That’s winning football.

Thursday night football in the American is Weird Football night. North Texas survived in Tulsa, and had a shootout tonight vs FAU. It doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you win. We said in the preview “The league determines championships on wins and losses, not on statistics, advanced or otherwise”

In what might possibly be the final year of conference championship games in college football, the Mean Green have the opportunity to host their first ever in DATCU.

We’ve seen the 2013 team drop a game to UTSA on a cold Saturday in November that would have given them the inside track to host the CUSA title game. We’ve seen them get blitzed in Boca to lose that opportunity in 2017. We’ve seen them drop a heartbreaker in San Antonio that lost them the chance in 2021. Last year we saw USF bully their way to 63 points. So North Texas had to play in New Orleans instead of Denton.

FAU tonight was not as good as those other teams, but it could have very easily been the kind of loss that everyone regretted. As it is, it will be forgotten (in a good way) as North Texas lines up against bigger and better foes.

Rice, who put up 49 points and ran all over this FAU squad this past weekend, is next. Then it is UTSA in San Antonio in a matchup of the two league leaders. UTSA has lost one conference game under Jeff Traylor (26-1).

The games will get tougher and I can’t wait. GMG