Green with envy
North Texas shows it has the better running game and defense as the Mean Green defeat the Owls 21-17 to snap a six-game losing streak to FAU on Saturday at Lockhart Stadium.
Originally published on
9/25/2010
by
Marcus Nelson
FORT LAUDERDALE – Losing its Sun Belt Conference opener is nothing new to Florida Atlantic.
Losing to North Texas is. For the first time in seven meetings, the Owls fell to the Mean Green, 21-17, on Saturday at Lockhart Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 15,143.
“They made more plays than we did and that’s why they won,” said Owls coach Howard Schnellenberger. “Certainly we’re disappointed at how inept we were both on defense and offense. But we’re certainly proud of the football team for the way they hung in there, continued to fight, made a hell of battle of it and almost came back to win the game.”
FAU (1-2,0-1 Sun Belt Conference) ran into a North Texas team which rallied around losing more than 10 starters the first three games of the season.
“Our players did a great job overcoming adversity and the coaching staff did a tremendous job of preparing our players,” said North Texas coach Todd Dodge.
The FAU defense keyed on stopping running back Lance Dunbar, who rushed for 238 yards and three touchdowns last year vs. the Owls and that worked - he was held top 72 yards on 29 carries. What FAU didn’t do was account for running back James Hamilton, who ran for a career-high 122 yards and the running ability of quarrterback Riley Dodge, who carried the ball 11 times for 67 yards.
“We came in thinking it was Dunbar,” said FAU linebacker Michael Lockley. “But (Dunbar) got more carries tonight and he hurt us, too.”
The Mean Green (1-3, 1-0) led 14-10 at halftime and went up 21-10 on a 32-yard run by Hamilton with 7:45 remaining in the game.
However, the Owls answered quickly scoring three plays later on a 36-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Van Camp to tight end Rob Housler that cut the Mean Green lead to 21-16 with 6:52 remaining in the game.
Schnellenberger chose to kick the PAT instead of attempting a 2-point conversion that could have brought FAU to within 21-18.
“I considered it, but I wanted to keep the momentum going,” Schnellenberger said. “There was a lot of time left on the scoreboard.”
Instead, after the Gornall’s kick made it 21-17, the Owls were forced to go for a touchdown when they took over for their final possession at 2:24.
FAU appeared to be in position to win the game when senior receiver Lester Jean nearly hauled in a 26-yard pass down the left sideline at the 2-yard line. However, Jean was ruled to have been out of bounds.
The play was upheld after an official view, but Jean said he thought he made a legal catch.
“I think I caught that pass, but unfortunately they said I stepped out when I caught the ball,” Jean said. “We just had to play the next play.”
The Owls’ rally fell short when tight end Rob Housler couldn’t come up with a catch at the 7-yard line on 4th down.
“It would have been a tough catch,” said Van Camp, who was 20-of-31 for 273 yards. “It was over the middle, the safety was right above him and could have hit him. You can’t blame that on him, it would have been a tough catch.”
It was the third consecutive year the Owls lost their Sun Belt season-opener.
“We have a lot of preparation to do and a lot of hard work to do,” Schnellenberger. “Our kids have been born in this kind of situation over the years. They have bounced back every time we have had a shortcoming and they’ll bounce back again.”
GameBrowser: North Texas 21, FAU 17
Game-changer: After being pushed around the first half, the FAU defense appeared to have woken-up in the second half, stopping the Mean Green on its first two possessions of the second half. On the third possession, North Texas faced a 3rd-and-2 from the FAU 32 and gave it to Hamilton who got to the outside as the supposedly quick FAU defense gave futile chase. Hamilton reached the end zone to put UNT in command 21-10.
Step forward: Similar to how Edward Bradwell improved his play his senior season in 2009, LB Malik Eugene is turning into the player the coaching staff thought he could be. He finished with eight tackles and forced a fumble vs. the Mean Green.
Step backward: TE Rob Housler had what appeared to be a breakout game vs. Michigan State and had four catches for 94 yards including a 36-yard TD catch. But when the game was on the line, Houlser couldn’t come up with a tough catch on a ball that was in his hands that thwarted the Owls’ chance at a rally.
Key stats: 10-of-15 – Number of times the Mean Green converted on third down.
137 – Yards rushing per game for North Texas before running for 257 vs. the Owls.
61 – Number of times the Mean Green had run the ball through three games. They rushed 54 times against FAU.
36:29 - Time of possesion for North Texas, which means the Mean Green had the ball nearly 13 minute more than FAU did,
At the end of the day: This has to be one of the most painful losses in FAU history. The Mean Green came in 0-3 and were decimated by injuries. However, UNT appeared to be unified by its adversity and when FAU allowed the Mean Green to hang around, eventually the Owls paid a heavy price.