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The North Texas Mean Green dominated the Florida Atlantic Owls on Saturday night 31-10 in Denton. While the Owls experienced spurts of life throughout the game, the Mean Green were too much to overcome for an injury-laden FAU team.
North Texas rushed out to an early lead against the Owls thanks to a 41-yard rushing touchdown by Antoinne Jimmerso. FAU continued their big running play mishaps and allowed the Mean Green to take a 7-0 lead with 6:25 left in the first.
The Owls would answer after a bit of luck. A Dalton Schomp punt was muffed around the UNT 30-yard line and D'Joun Smith recovered it for FAU. Greg Joseph converted the 41-yard field goal to cut the Mean Green lead to 7-3.
Andrew McNulty was announced as the UNT starting quarterback earlier in the week and would prove his worth on the next two scoring drives. McNulty found tight end Marcus Smith for a 20-yard touchdown and he would run in for a 4-yard TD on their next possession. The Mean Green would take their 21-3 lead into the half.
After a mess of three and outs between the two teams, FAU would finally respond with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Alex Deleon. Jaquez Johnson found Deleon on a 4th and 13 to finally breathe life into a hapless Owl offense and cut the score to 21-10.
The FAU special teams continued to be special with a fumble by Lucky Whitehead from a UNT punt. The Mean Green capitalized on the turnover - after being absolutely stuffed in the red zone by Andrae Kirk - with a Trevor Moore field goal.Destroying any chance of a comeback, FAU quarterback Jaquez Johnson threw his third interception of the season to cement a Mean Green victory in Denton. UNT would convert that turnover into points with a 3-yard Jarrod Lynn touchdown run to put the game away, 31-10.
North Texas moves to 3-6 (1-4 in the conference) on the season and still keeps their bowl hopes alive for another week. Florida Atlantic's loss pushes them to 3-7 on the year in what appears to be another disappointing season for the Owls. FAU will miss out on a bowl game and fall to 2-4 in C-USA play.