North Texas Falls To Texas
{fshare id=5476}
AUSTIN – If Saturday night’s season-opener is any measure of where the 2014 North Texas football team stands, it showed just how much work the Mean Green faces before it can return to its bowl-champion status of a year ago.
With 11 new faces in the starting lineup, North Texas’ inexperience and growing pains were evident in a 38-7 loss to the Texas Longhorns, who dominated the Mean Green offense and wore down the NT defense.
“There wasn’t anything about our team that was good enough to win tonight,” North Texas coach Dan McCarney said. “We’ve got to get that fixed.”
North Texas managed just seven first downs in the game and 94 yards of total offense while throwing four interceptions.
The defense kept the Mean Green in the game into the second quarter, and it forced a pair of turnovers, including a fumble recovered in the end zone by James Jones for NT’s lone score.
Texas completely controlled the first quarter, accumulating 103 yards of total offense while allowing the Mean Green just 15 yards and one first down. But the North Texas defense made key stops to hold the Longhorns to a 7-0 lead, that score made possible by a personal foul penalty to keep the drive alive.
But in the second period, the drumbeat of pressure on the North Texas defense – with no relief coming from the offense – took its toll. An interception set up a short field for the Longhorns’ second score, Texas pushed the lead to 21-0 just before halftime, then put the game away on the opening drive of the third quarter, 28-0.
