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1 votes
Shutting the Door
Posted by
mad dog
,
22 October 2011
·
35 views
What a nice change of pace for the Green. Instead of stumbling to the finish line, the home team decided to put an exclamation mark on an already impressive outing with a late scoop and score by LB Julian Herron and a 60 yard burst by Lance Dunbar to put away the ULM Warhawks 38-21 in Denton.
To grossly oversimplify the game and this season, as the accuracy of Derek Thompson goes, so too does the fortunes of the Mean Green.
Set aside the special teams gaffes (return touchdowns, shanked field goals, drive extending roughing the kicker penalties), this is the determining factor in how well North Texas performs. You know Lance Dunbar is going to get his numbers. You know the defense (barring their usual defensive freakout) is going to be pretty salty. But which Derek Thompson are we going to see from game to game? The guy missing throws in the flat? Or the guy splitting the 8 and the 1 on a slant route to your remerging go-to receiver for the go ahead score?
Notwithstanding the obvious steps forward he made this week, Derek Thompson's play on aggregate still leaves a lot to be desired. While he is a bit more decisive than in some previous contests, there is room for improvement, especially on passes beyond 10 yards. And what drives you crazy is that he can absolutely nail the 15 yard out. Crossing routes or in routes are also pretty fair for him. But routes that require depth (anything where the receiver is moving away from a perpendicular angle to the quarterback), like swings, slants, posts, or streaks just give him trouble. I'd hate it to be something as simple as a bad lens prescription for his contacts, but it does make one wonder.
This may be a dumb uninformed opinion, but it feels at times like Thompson is just thinking too much. You see a lot of that when a guy is trying to be coached up or trying to play a style that is counter to his natural tendencies. He seems to be the most comfortable stepping up in the pocket and slinging the ball around. When he comes off that back leg and drives the football, he looks as good throwing the deep ball as anyone this side of the great Andrew Smith. It could be that we have a resident gunslinger, and just might have to get used to the risky throws and odd errant wobblers.
That's the frustrating part of Thompson as your starting guy. He has the strength to just wing it 40 yards or drive it 30 on a frozen rope to the sideline. But it isn't all about a live arm. He hasn't looked like a quarterback of the future much lately, but if he can add a little accuracy and continue to improve his judgement, he could change a few minds.
When he's on, he's a gamechanger. When he's off, he's a liability. That's the epitaph of every guy who plays that style. Now do the coaches embrace that or spend every waking moment trying to change him?
The offensive line wasn't stellar by any means. There's a lot of youth and limitations there. However, they haven't been terrible, either. I've been frankly amazed by how long Thompson has had back there to throw on some passes. And they're not going max protect out there, either. Very promising stuff out there the makings of a pretty solid line there in the future.
Another big boy TD catch by Chris Bynes on that fade route in the end zone. He has a huge body, and has routinely used it to shield the ball away from defenders. And we might have just seen his breakout performance. He doesn't have top flight speed, but he's a solid posession guy and a weapon the passing attack desperately needs.
Defensively, we saw more of what we have come to expect from the Green Curtain. Fiery, intense ball hawking, big hits and some momentum shifting plays with frustrating lapses in effort, technique, and/or alignment mixed in.
It looks like that long catch and run at the end of the first quarter to Brent Leonard really shook them up. From that point on, RB Centarius Donald looked trickier to catch than a greased pig. That 15 yard jaunt into the end zone had to be the low point of the day for the Mean Green defense.
Speaking of Leonard, the other troubling play for the D tonight was the crossing route to Brent Leonard. He ran it all night, and it was there every single time. They ran it from the slot, from the near and far side of the field. Sometimes it added a wheel to the end, sometimes it was mixed it with a slant, like a sluggo, but it always had a component where he drifted along under the formation. During the game, we saw no defensive adjustment to it. It looked like a play the coordinator was willing to concede all night long. And, given the end result, you have to think he knew what he was doing. It is just worrisome that it seemed an Achilles' heel for our defense.
Similary unsettling was the effectiveness of a true power back against the defense. With all the finesse teams UNT has played this year, maybe the gritty nature of a power running game was a shock for them. Centarius Donald's punishing style gave North Texas fits all day. I hope the guy is alright - any fan of football can appreciate a warrior on the field, and Donald played like one. I also hope they didn't give other, more talented teams a blueprint for how to attack the Mean Green.
Our special teams were the wrong kind of special tonight. No other way to say it. Tough to give up the opening kickoff, even though there appeared to be a block in the back at the point of attack that went uncalled. That said, the spacing was pretty terrible, and the left side of the kick coverage team seemed to be out of their lanes a little. In a shootout, the first guy to blink usually ends up losing, and, short of Olen's go ahead field goal in the 3rd quarter, our special teams units looked like they lost a contact tonight. Glad the end result wasn't close enough for these to matter.
Quick Hits
To grossly oversimplify the game and this season, as the accuracy of Derek Thompson goes, so too does the fortunes of the Mean Green.
Set aside the special teams gaffes (return touchdowns, shanked field goals, drive extending roughing the kicker penalties), this is the determining factor in how well North Texas performs. You know Lance Dunbar is going to get his numbers. You know the defense (barring their usual defensive freakout) is going to be pretty salty. But which Derek Thompson are we going to see from game to game? The guy missing throws in the flat? Or the guy splitting the 8 and the 1 on a slant route to your remerging go-to receiver for the go ahead score?
Notwithstanding the obvious steps forward he made this week, Derek Thompson's play on aggregate still leaves a lot to be desired. While he is a bit more decisive than in some previous contests, there is room for improvement, especially on passes beyond 10 yards. And what drives you crazy is that he can absolutely nail the 15 yard out. Crossing routes or in routes are also pretty fair for him. But routes that require depth (anything where the receiver is moving away from a perpendicular angle to the quarterback), like swings, slants, posts, or streaks just give him trouble. I'd hate it to be something as simple as a bad lens prescription for his contacts, but it does make one wonder.
This may be a dumb uninformed opinion, but it feels at times like Thompson is just thinking too much. You see a lot of that when a guy is trying to be coached up or trying to play a style that is counter to his natural tendencies. He seems to be the most comfortable stepping up in the pocket and slinging the ball around. When he comes off that back leg and drives the football, he looks as good throwing the deep ball as anyone this side of the great Andrew Smith. It could be that we have a resident gunslinger, and just might have to get used to the risky throws and odd errant wobblers.
That's the frustrating part of Thompson as your starting guy. He has the strength to just wing it 40 yards or drive it 30 on a frozen rope to the sideline. But it isn't all about a live arm. He hasn't looked like a quarterback of the future much lately, but if he can add a little accuracy and continue to improve his judgement, he could change a few minds.
When he's on, he's a gamechanger. When he's off, he's a liability. That's the epitaph of every guy who plays that style. Now do the coaches embrace that or spend every waking moment trying to change him?
The offensive line wasn't stellar by any means. There's a lot of youth and limitations there. However, they haven't been terrible, either. I've been frankly amazed by how long Thompson has had back there to throw on some passes. And they're not going max protect out there, either. Very promising stuff out there the makings of a pretty solid line there in the future.
Another big boy TD catch by Chris Bynes on that fade route in the end zone. He has a huge body, and has routinely used it to shield the ball away from defenders. And we might have just seen his breakout performance. He doesn't have top flight speed, but he's a solid posession guy and a weapon the passing attack desperately needs.
Defensively, we saw more of what we have come to expect from the Green Curtain. Fiery, intense ball hawking, big hits and some momentum shifting plays with frustrating lapses in effort, technique, and/or alignment mixed in.
It looks like that long catch and run at the end of the first quarter to Brent Leonard really shook them up. From that point on, RB Centarius Donald looked trickier to catch than a greased pig. That 15 yard jaunt into the end zone had to be the low point of the day for the Mean Green defense.
Speaking of Leonard, the other troubling play for the D tonight was the crossing route to Brent Leonard. He ran it all night, and it was there every single time. They ran it from the slot, from the near and far side of the field. Sometimes it added a wheel to the end, sometimes it was mixed it with a slant, like a sluggo, but it always had a component where he drifted along under the formation. During the game, we saw no defensive adjustment to it. It looked like a play the coordinator was willing to concede all night long. And, given the end result, you have to think he knew what he was doing. It is just worrisome that it seemed an Achilles' heel for our defense.
Similary unsettling was the effectiveness of a true power back against the defense. With all the finesse teams UNT has played this year, maybe the gritty nature of a power running game was a shock for them. Centarius Donald's punishing style gave North Texas fits all day. I hope the guy is alright - any fan of football can appreciate a warrior on the field, and Donald played like one. I also hope they didn't give other, more talented teams a blueprint for how to attack the Mean Green.
Our special teams were the wrong kind of special tonight. No other way to say it. Tough to give up the opening kickoff, even though there appeared to be a block in the back at the point of attack that went uncalled. That said, the spacing was pretty terrible, and the left side of the kick coverage team seemed to be out of their lanes a little. In a shootout, the first guy to blink usually ends up losing, and, short of Olen's go ahead field goal in the 3rd quarter, our special teams units looked like they lost a contact tonight. Glad the end result wasn't close enough for these to matter.
Quick Hits
- A really lightly officiated game for the most part. You literally had to run over a kick returner before the ball got there or physically stand in the neutral zone to draw a flag.
- Speaking of officials, it's kind of an understory, but we were treated to one of the talkiest officials in a long time. It started with the narration of the coin toss, and continued with an explanation of an incomplete pass. Maybe he's just lonely.
- Finally some long hookups from Derek Thompson to Brelan Chancellor. Those kinds of passes have been there all season long, so it is nice to take advantage of Chancellor's wheels at last.
- Pretty decent crowd. Not a sellout or anything, but it looks like proof positive that going up against the Rangers in the postseason isn't the best idea. And sucking up your pride and moving the start time may have just paid you pack with an extra thousand people in the stands. Feels a little like vindication for the AD staff.
- May just be me, but I'm really digging the earlier start time. The field looks gorgeous in the bright sunlight, and there's something really "big time" about playing in Apogee in the daylight.
