The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

UNT90 · September 4, 2009

After a late night and early morning to soak up this win, look at the stats, and peacefully contemplate the dominance that was exhibited last night, I have the following thoughts on the game:

THE GOOD:

Jeez, just about everything. Let's start with the defense. 309 yards given up by the D, and only 140 passing. More importantly, they held Lewis to just 103 yards rushing. Very impressive. They looked extremely quick to the ball, much quicker than the Ball St. offense. Vastly improved D-line.

Special Teams - Leaving out field goals, of courses. I said in another post that the first kickoff coverage would be an indication of the season to come. First kickoff? Touchback! Next kickoff? Swarming coverage and the return man is downed around the 20. Just an unbelievable turn around from last year. Punt coverage, same thing.

STAT OF THE GAME: 9 return yards for Ball St.... NINE!!!!

Offense - R. Dodge is the real deal. I was very skeptical heading into the season, but he showed that he can play the QB position at the mid-major college level. A huge threat to run with the ball. I still cringe every time he gets hit, but it changed from "He's to small to take that punishment" in the first half, to "We can't afford to lose him" in the 2nd half. Big mobility improvement from Vizza. The O-line is the strength of this offense, and I look for Cam to have a HUGE year. Cam benefits from R. Dodge being such a big threat to run.

STAT OF THE GAME 2: Offensive plays: UNT-84, Ball St.-59. Great ball control by the offense to keep the defense off the field. Along the same lines, time of possession UNT 37:12, Ball St. 22:48.

Coaching: A great game called by both the offensive and defensive coaches. All throws were short and mid range to keep R. Dodge comfortable and allow him to experience some success in his first start. Ball St. defense giving a HUGE cushion to receivers may also have a lot to do with the lack of the deep ball. Great balance between the pass and the run. By that, I mean they realized that the running game was a strength and went to it early and often, and used the pass to keep Ball St. off balance. It looks like this staff has finally arrived. Only questionably decision was trying the 2nd 49 yard FG on 4th and 2 after the 1st miss.

STAT OF THE GAME 3: UNT rushes - 51, passes - 33

THE BAD:

Penalties, Penalties Penalties!! A touchdown called back by a really mindless holding on the QB. The QB!!!! Jeez, just get out of his way and let Hill run over him. nine penalties for 81 yards.

Can R. Dodge throw the deep ball? This isn't necessarily a bad, just an unknown which was not confirmed or dismissed in this game.

Lack of consistent pressure on the QB. There were times where we pressured him, but there were many times where he had all day. A better QB will kill you in those situations.

And thats about it!!!!

EDIT*** Forgot one of the most important bads- When you gain over 500 yards of total offense, you gotta put more than 20 points on the board. Red zone offense needs to improve.

THE UGLY:

Shame on you, Ball St. fans!!! You go 12-2, nationally ranked, and to a bowl game last year, and you can only put 16K butts in the seats? Shameful. As a comparison, we were 2-10 in 2007, and still managed 20K plus for the opener against Tulsa last year. Could you imagine if we were coming off a 12-2, nationally ranked bowl season!!! Do you really still think a stadium under 30K is a good idea?

I won't call them ugly, but the Ball St. cheerleaders left a lot to be desired.

In summary, we are a competitive major college football program again, and will be a touchdown favorite over Ohio for the opener. 2-0 going into Alabama??? Could it be??? (uh, no, but it's nice to dream). Winning the Sun Belt is not completely out of the question anymore.

Edited September 4, 2009 by UNT90

MeanGreen61 · September 4, 2009

Stirred up a fresh batch for ya ! Gotta love the Mean Green !!!!!!!!!!!

Edited September 4, 2009 by MeanGreen61

Censored by Laurie · September 4, 2009

No Bad. No Ugly.

Not today, sir.

Please delete and repost tomorrow.

UNT90 · September 4, 2009

No Bad. No Ugly.
Not today, sir.
Please delete and repost tomorrow.

Bad wasn't that bad and ugly was a complete reference to Ball St.

foutsrouts · September 4, 2009

The only bad I would add is the coaching calls on the two missed field goal attempts. Not just saying that in hindsight because they were missed, but considering our momentum and the way we were moving the ball, I probably would have gone for it both times. Certainly at least on the first one. Otherwise, a VERY impressive game.

houstonmeangreen · September 4, 2009

congrats to the UNT football players for such a fine game...exciting and some thoughts:

Riley looked great...looked like a season QB, not a starting Freshman. Riley is an impressive young man...very impressed by his composure and winning drive.

Cam ...what can I say...outstanding back...just WOW!

Off Line- great job of pass protection and opening holes for cam...man did they open some holes for RB's

def line - DeLoach...we love ya....they looked great and did an outstanding job..DeLoach is doing what we all new he could do

I would not have called for 2 47 yr field golds....TD...bad call...go to your room

Passing with 1st and goal for the 2 yrd line...interception...well, Freshman mistake?...I dn't think this was good play calling ...TD....go to your room.

Special teams....good job, what a turn around so far, so good.

def backs ...good job.

Not putting these guys down and dragging on a 10 point (us) game for soooooo long is just asking for a loss, kwwpinf them in the game....this needs to be fixed.

I went over to some TX EX friends (I too an TX EX) and we really enjoyed the game....I was SO PROUD of these guys, I see winners...lots of gold stars!!!!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!