**Lamar vs North Texas Game Thread**

52-14 5:19 left in third. Lamar

3 & out again. UNT ball

Forced UNT to punt. Ball on our own 30 yd 3:30 left in 3rd

Another 3 & out for Cards

Naturally I would liked to have seen Lamar be a little more competitive, but not surprised. Only real disappointment is that Lamar never really tried to run the ball early in the game. Is White nicked up a little or is he not quite the stud or the leader that was expected coming out of the spring as he wasn't used much? Defense was over matched up front on run plays especially and too many tackles where the defender never wrapped up the runner or receiver. Positive is there weren't too many dumb penalties and substitutions seemed pretty smooth.

The game was basically meaningless from a scoreline standpoint before the hurricane. Loved the effort considering the circumstance. Had issues with the feed early, but a couple of thoughts.

 

Some good things in the passing game. O-line struggled a little but I've heard NT has a good pass rush. WAY too many drops. Not much from the run game. I was surprised we didn't see more from White. I'd guess he's knicked up...but honestly i wasn't blown away with him in the spring.

 

Defensively we really struggled in the run game which was probably to be expected. Still, really struggled with run fits. Tackling was poor as well. All perfectly understandable with the week we've had.

The game was basically meaningless from a scoreline standpoint before the hurricane. Loved the effort considering the circumstance. Had issues with the feed early, but a couple of thoughts.

 

Some good things in the passing game. O-line struggled a little but I've heard NT has a good pass rush. WAY too many drops. Not much from the run game. I was surprised we didn't see more from White. I'd guess he's knicked up...but honestly i wasn't blown away with him in the spring.

 

Defensively we really struggled in the run game which was probably to be expected. Still, really struggled with run fits. Tackling was poor as well. All perfectly understandable with the week we've had.

 

I'm trying to not read too much into it. I don't see what was encouraging about the passing game, 140 yds passing on 24 attempts is NOT encouraging. Take away the 67 yard play and it's awful, 23 attempts resulting in 73 yds? That's not even good for rushing.

 

I was hoping the defense would play better. Hopefully this won't be a continuation of last year and our inability to stop the run. 635 total yards allowed. Ouch

If you can't run the ball enough to keep the other team honest your passing game usually isn't real effective either. NT had no respect for Lamar's running game and Lamar only able to throw mostly short passes because of pressure. The combination of incomplete passes and short or no gain passes created too many short duration drives. An offensive possession that lasts less than two minutes gives the other team too many possessions.

I'm trying to not read too much into it. I don't see what was encouraging about the passing game, 140 yds passing on 24 attempts is NOT encouraging. Take away the 67 yard play and it's awful, 23 attempts resulting in 73 yds? That's not even good for rushing.

 

I was hoping the defense would play better. Hopefully this won't be a continuation of last year and our inability to stop the run. 635 total yards allowed. Ouch

 

Oh, it was far from good, but I think there's some things they can build on. I'm hoping drops aren't a continuing issue. Just cleaning up some of the drops would have kept several drives going, giving the defense a little more of a rest, and hopefully made things a little more competitive. There were also a few plays that could have easily broken for bigger gains; one where Giles got tripped up on a shoe string tackle comes to mind.

 

Not a lot of positives in this game. Just trying to find a littl ray of sunshine.

 

*Also, I totally get the "except for that one play" thing. It's perfectly valid...but the big play still happened.

I think there are a few things to build on and just getting back on the practice field. It was good to see penalties were a minimum. We were only flagged 3 times for 15 yards. There was a false start in a punt formation on the first drive, a pass interference in the redzone, and an offsides early in the 2nd quarter. The false start was cause by the defense jumping around, I honestly didn't see the PI but there wasn't much argument from the DB. It occurred on a 3rd down from the 13 and was a spot foul at the 8. The defense stiffened again and forced a FG. The offsides occured on a 3rd and 8 giving UNT a much more manageable 3rd and 3. The defense actually held but UNT went for it and 4th and 1 and converted. If you haven't noticed it yet, go back and watch the hit Colbert takes on the long TD pass. He knew he was about to get blown up, but he stood there and threw that ball off his back foot and dropped it where it needed to be.

Both lines were pushed around which brings back bad memories. Hopefully most of it can be attributed to playing a better quality opponent than the ones in our conference. Neither QB impressed me but they didn't in the fall or spring either in Allen's case. They seem dead set on a dual threat QB. McKenzie came in for one series and threw a pick on the first play and wasn't seen from after. Morse didn't travel due to issues with Harvey. White is either nicked or in the doghouse. He maybe had 3 carries that I noticed. King got almost all of the carries at RB. The 1 yd TD pass to Wood was the only TE target all night. The dink and dunk or scramble for 2yds was concerning but hopefully it was also due to the quality opponent. They pondered having the game this Saturday's in Odessa but the team is back and practicing at PNG. I hope and pray we have a home game this weekend. There's only 5 home games on the schedule and Odessa is a haul. The six hrs to Denton was more than enough for me especially since we left here and there both times around 10pm. Glad Cardinal football season is here tho!! #PeckEm