1) Sloppy mistakes made this a closer game than it should have been. SMU made a high snap on a punt that put North Texas in the red zone on its first possession. The Mustangs fumbled three times in the first half. That created the illusion that UNT played well when it really didn’t. SMU held the Mean Green to just 240 yards of offense and 3.6 yards per play. UNT had just one play of 20-plus yards, averaged a poor 3.8 yards per pass, committed seven penalties for 73 yards and had four turnovers of their own. A Matt Davis fumble on the goal line and the lack of push on the three prior run plays, a fumbled punt return that UNT recovered inside SMU’s 35 and a Xavier Jones fumble inside UNT’s 30 kept it a one-point game at halftime. Davis admitted in his press conference that SMU inflicted mistakes on itself more than UNT forced them.

2) We continue to see signs of Matt Davis progressing as a pocket passer. One play that sticks out to me is a 24-yard completion to Mitchell Kaufman. Davis was flushed out of the pocket and normally would have taken off, but he stayed patient and waited for Kaufman to get open. He is being more deliberate and patient when he decides to run and he continues to display improved accuracy. The only throws I thought were off-target were a short throw that went behind Gaines and the throw to Kaufman, which was a little high but still catchable. He took a couple slightly-too-aggressive deep shots, but with low risk of an interception.

3) SMU’s defensive line got push and pressure. Baylor wore out SMU’s defensive line last week. This week, the line had push and held North Texas to 112 yards rushing on 33 carries while getting pressure on McNulty. SMU only had two sacks, but flustered Mean Green quarterback Andrew McNulty into a number of bad throws. Justin Lawler stood out. He got off blocks and into the backfield, finishing with six tackles, a sack and a pass deflection. Fellow defensive end Andrew McCleneghen had a sack and two forced fumbles. SMU did struggle to get off blocks when UNT ran sweeps and stretched the field horizontally, allowing a few chunk plays, including a 25-yard touchdown. Overall, SMU won the line of scrimmage.

4) The secondary rebounded and made some plays. After a rough game against Baylor, SMU’s defensive backs hung tough. They intercepted McNulty twice (and another was called back on a questionable pass interference call) and broke up four other passes. The play that impressed me was early in the fourth quarter: McNulty had all day to throw on second down, but he threw a low-percentage, up for grabs pass that fell incomplete because all the defenders held their coverage tightly for five-plus seconds. Shakiel Randolph and Horace Richardson also made tackles for loss.

5) Chad Morris thinks the offensive line still needs work. The line looked much better today, opening up more holes in the running game. However, Morris said he’d like to see more progress from the line. It failed to get any push on three straight Prescott Line runs inside the North Texas 5-yard line or on Matt Davis’ fourth-down keeper. The line didn’t really start to push the Mean Green around until later in the game, although Davis and SMU’s running backs fought hard for yards. I think the line will continue to improve, but this is a unit that struggled immensely last year and will still have some bumps in the road.