Sloppy play dooms Mean Green football in road loss to UTSA

Skipper · October 30, 2016

Turnovers were North Texas’ Achilles heel on Saturday night.

The Mean Green (4-4, 2-2) could not overcome two fumbles and two interceptions in a 31-17 road loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio. Freshman quarterback Mason Fine accounted for three of the turnovers, including an ill-advised pass that killed a drive approaching Roadrunner (4-4, 2-2) territory.

Junior running back Jeffrey Wilson, who had 160 yards and three touchdowns last week against Army, failed to get anything going against UTSA, and finished with 43 yards on 19 carries. He also had a key fumble on third and goal from the 1-yard line to end the first half, which cost North Texas points before intermission.

“We’ve got to do better things up front,” head coach Seth Littrell said. “It’s on all of us. It’s on coaches, it’s on players. We’ve got to do a much better job.”

There were just two scores in the first half, both for the Roadrunners. UTSA struck first when junior quarterback Dalton Sturm fired a strike over the middle to hit junior wide receiver Josh Stewart on a slant from seven yards out to put the Roadrunners up 7-0.

Despite throwing an interception and struggling throughout the game, Fine led the Mean Green on a drive that looked poised for points before halftime. But Wilson coughed the ball up on the goal line and UTSA recovered, sending North Texas into halftime with just 111 total yards of offense.

The Mean Green came out of the locker room fired up, though, and on the first play from scrimmage, Fine darted 80 yards to the endzone on a designed quarterback draw to get North Texas on the board. It was the longest run by the Mean Green this season.

Fine was North Texas’ leading rusher on the day, and finished 25-for-34 with 228 yards and a touchdown along with two interceptions.

However, the momentum did not last.

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