Mean Green stiff-armed , stupefied
Posted on Sunday, September 30, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE — Antoine Bush had three plays to forget. His North Texas teammates had many more to ponder.
The 0-4 Mean Green lost 66-7 to Arkansas at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday night. Many in the crowd of 66, 343 left talking about Bush’s brush with Darren McFadden.
During a 9-yard run in the second quarter by the Razorbacks’ Heisman Trophy candidate, Bush was credited with the stop as McFadden went out of bounds. It was a costly tackle for the sophomore cornerback from Tyler, Texas. A stiff-arm from McFadden came with enough brunt force to tear the helmet from Bush’s head. The oohs and ahs echoed all over the stadium.
Bush, the victim of another McFadden stiff-arm in the second quarter and beaten by Arkansas receiver Robert Johnson on a 37-yard touchdown reception, had a tough night. He epitomized the Mean Green’s struggles under first-year Coach Todd Dodge, whose team was outscored 145-17 in blowout defeats to Oklahoma and Arkansas sandwiched between far less embarrassing losses to SMU and Sun Belt Conference opponent Florida Atlantic. “It’s tough,” Dodge said. “66-7 is not what we expected.”
Dodge used a Spread offense to turn Southlake Carroll (Texas ) High School into a national power, but North Texas never got into gear against Arkansas after moving the ball respectably against Oklahoma in the season opener and racking up 601 yards at SMU. Any forward progress was almost impossible to come by as the Razorbacks built a huge lead.
An 11-yard completion from Daniel Meager to Daniel Lewis late in the first quarter was the Mean Green’s first first down and matched its total yards over nine previous plays. The defense allowed 713 yards, but the Mean Green expected to generate more than 119 firsthalf yards against what’s been a suspect Arkansas defense.
“I don’t care who we play. We can move the ball,” receiver Brandon Jackson said. “But you can’t do that if you’re making mistakes.”
A planned switch of quarterbacks from Meager to true freshman Giovanni Vizza resulted in modest second-quarter success. Vizza led two drives inside the 20, one for a touchdown. But by then it was 45-0 Arkansas, and Dodge, a former Texas Longhorns quarterback, was trying to rally his team as its growing pains continued.
“I told the team the easiest thing to do is throw your hands up and act like you don’t care,” Dodge said. “The tough thing to do is to stay together.... There are a lot of really good things that can happen this year.”
The Mean Green stopped Arkansas on the game’s first drive. But a 15-yard illegal participation penalty on the ensuing punt, a Razorbacks first down and a 35-yard Felix Jones touchdown run triggered the rout.
“We knew we were in position to make plays,” linebacker Maurice Holman said. “But we didn’t make plays.”
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