North Texas 14 Houston 31 Halftime

Well Houston looked even better than they did last year in Denton when they had Casey Keenum. Lining up quickly executing perfectly, Houston jumped out to a 17-0 score while North Texas was looking very much like they have been the last few weeks. That is to say, without a whole lot of excitement in the passing game.

Then, out of nowhere the offense woke up thanks to Derek Thompson, Ivan Delgado, Brelan Chancellor and Antoinne Jimmerson. That group combined for the first score. Jimmerson in particular was special. The screen pass that got the first down on 3rd and 11 was all him. The touchdown run and the slippery dance down to the one yard line was also all AJ.

Houston, looking like West Virginia, got a quick score from Farrow, who took it 48 yards. Jeremy Brown answered back with a crazy 48-yard score of his own, shaking off three tackles and diving in the endzone.

Houston, thinking three minutes is an eternity, walked the ball down the field and scored on a Sims screen pass.

Alright, so what’s going on? Well the defense, which looked so good the last few weeks, is getting shredded. It may be that Houston finally figured things out. Remember they fired their offensive coordinator Mike Nesbitt after their terrible showing in week one against Texas State. Newly promoted Travis Bush has them looking good. It isn’t all Houston, though. North Texas is in poor position to tackle and making bad ones when they are. The underneath routes and dump-offs are getting good yardage because it is taking two and three guys to get the stop.

So what to expect for the second half? Unless Dan McCarney can conjure up a magical speech that transforms the defense into the one that looked decent and the offense can score every time down the field, then this looks to be a big loss. . .