The Press Box: No. 9 Georgia pulls away late

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Tim Cato / Sports Editor

Check out this section for several observations in blog form, the day after the big game(s). This new feature, titled the Press Box, will contain analysis and opinionated remarks from an NT Daily sports writer.

• Saying a defense played well and gave up 45 points seems contradictory, but there wasn’t much more that could have been asked of the Mean Green defenders on Saturday. Undersized and under-skilled, they held Georgia to 21 points into the second half and did an impressive job slowing down Heisman-candidate  Todd Gurley as best they could.
• UNT’s defense still leads all Division-I football in takeaways with 13, adding a couple more against Georgia with a Will Wright interception and a Derek Akunne forced fumble.
• This game does a great job illustrating just how important playing well on special teams is. Georgia’s offense and defense overpowered the Mean Green, but the game was stilled tied at 21 in the second half thanks how badly the Bulldogs special teams was outplayed.
• The defense was bullied by a superior Georgia squad, but the offense simply wasn’t sharp at times. I wasn’t surprised to see the run game struggle, but senior quarterback Derek Thompson and his receivers had several communications throughout the game that conceivably could have produced more points. The interception is the obvious moment, but Thompson also overthrew his tight end on a third down play that would have put him in or near the end zone.
• Anyone can overanalyze what happened on the field, but even more important was what happened off of it. On Saturday, people noticed the Mean Green were tied No. 9 Georgia in the second half. I follow a lot of people who have nothing to do with UNT on Twitter and some of them were even tweeting about it. The Mean Green name is starting to get out there, slowly but surely.

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