University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: The Little Things Hurt The Mean Green
10/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, October 18, 2009 4:55 p.m.
No one ever said that this rebuilding project was going to be easy. Saturday night the Mean Green dropped another close game in dramatic fashion, especially if you're an FAU fan. To me this really illustrates a couple of things. First, in the Sun Belt games really do come down to about four or five plays. Whoever makes them, wins.
Whoever doesn't, leaves heartbroken wondering why the heck they just lost. For North Texas they have had back-to-back games of this and you have to wonder how much more pain is going to be inflicted upon this group by the football gods.
Another point from Saturday was that the supposed "back-ups" for North Texas sure didn't look like it. Going into the season Riley Dodge and Cam Montgomery were the starters. Nobody questioned that. The back-ups were Nathan Tune and Lance Dunbar. Well Tune has had to play quite a bit because of numerous injuries to Dodge and has performed quite well. As a back-up, Tune has shown that he can handle the role of starter QB if necessary.
Dunbar is a totally different story. Everyone thought he would get a lot of carries going forward this year, but Cam was going to be the bulk of the work. Well Cam goes down with an injury, and what happens. Dunbar bursts onto the scene in a way I don't think anyone thought he would. In the last two weeks, his numbers are staggering. 425 yards and seven rushing touchdowns. Nobody in college football has had a better two weeks.
But yet still North Texas has lost both of those games. How? Why? It's those four or five plays, the little things that are still haunting this young team. Yep young team sounds like an excuse, looks like an excuse, but in reality, it is an excuse that you have to accept.
What sunk the Mean Green last night? Easy, the fumbled kickoff by Ira Smith which led to an FAU TD. The next series, a fumble by Tune led to three more points for FAU. The others, the missed extra points by Jeremy Knott and the kick-offs out of bounds. Those all seem like easily correctable mistakes but when you add them up, they will cost you a game. The second quarter for FAU seemed like another knockout blow for North Texas, similar to what ULL did last week.
This team though fought back and continued to show its character in dire circumstances. The Mean Green had another opportunity, like at ULL, to finally show it knows how to win. Up 40-37, North Texas blocked a punt and had the ball at the FAU 36 yard line with eight minutes left. Good teams go onto punch that in and put teams away. North Texas squandered the opportunity and turned it over on downs with 4:55 left. FAU did what they were supposed to when given a second chance.
North Texas didn't recover and the game ended with over 23,000 scratching their heads in disbelief.....again. If one or two of those plays are made by North Texas, the end result is different.
They weren't though and because of that the learning process will continue. No matter how painful it is.
