NEW ORLEANS- As two old Sun Belt Conference rivals collided in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, one team in North Texas failed to get anything going on the rushing side of the offense, and the other team in Troy relied on the next man up mentality to earn the 50-30 win in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
The Trojan defense held North Texas to minus eight yards rushing on 25 attempts. The minus eight yards was a result of 60 yards gained and 68 yards lost. In the passing game for North Texas, quarterback Mason Fine completed 30 passes on 54 attempts with two interceptions. He accounted for 303 yards passing and three touchdowns.
“Not being able to get the run game going made us one-dimensional, and that’s not our standard,” Fine said. “That’s not what we want to be. We want to be a balanced offense, but you have to give the credit to Troy.”
He continued, “They did a great job of stopping the run and really made it tough on us to get the ball moving on the ground.”
Troy’s offensive numbers through the air behind bowl MVP Brandon Silvers were relatively similar to those of the Mean Green; however, the difference in rushing yards was quite glaring. The Trojans rushed 38 times for 130 yards and three of the team’s seven total touchdowns.
“Today was a microcosm of our season,” said Troy head coach Neal Brown. “This season has been up and down, and it hadn’t always been easy. It’s been hard, and we grew through hard times. Today we got off to a really fast start, but we hit a lull and had some turnovers. But then we came out in the second half and dominated.”
“We had seven guys going into the game out in our two-deep, and then DeAndre Douglas gets hurt on the very first kick off return,” he continued. “For us to have the next man up mentality and go out and perform well and win against a really good team was important for us today.”
Troy led 7-0 from the opening possession in part to 1 yard touchdown run from Josh Anderson.
“I knew initially I wanted to get off to a good start, and thats exactly what happened,” said Troy’s backup running back Anderson.
After the touchdown, the Trojans were called for offsides on North Texas’ first play from scrimmage. Andrew Tucker then lost 3 yards before Fine was sacked for a loss of 10 and a fumble. Two plays after the turnover, Anderson rushed for his second touchdown of the game’s first three minutes. An oddly timed two-point conversion attempt put Troy up 15-0.
“It’s never great to start like that,” said Mean Green head coach Seth Littrel about being down 15-0. “We had a miscommunication on one play that caused a fumble. When you give a team like Troy two turnovers on that side of the ball, it’s going to be challenging.”
“I was really proud of the way we came back and faught and got ourselves back in the game,” he continued. “We had the ball coming out in the second half and felt like we could go down and put some pressure on them and score, but we could never get in rhythm.”
North Texas later in the first quarter got the football back on its 25-yard line after a Trojan punt. On third-and-eight, Fine completed a pass to Michael Lawrence for 9 yards. Fine went onto complete passes to Rico Bussey to move the chains two more third downs. The second of which resulted in a 12-yard touchdown reception. The first quarter ended with Troy up 15-7.
Troy began the second quarter on the North Texas 22-yard line. The Trojans got to that point following a 55-yard run over the left tackle by Anderson that was the third longest run in the history of the New Orleans Bowl. The drive was capped off by Brandon Silvers completing a pass to Damion Willis for a seven-yard touchdown.
Thanks in part to a couple of Trojan miscues, North Texas went on to score twice more in the second quarter to make it a 2-point game. The first touchdown came after a bad exchange from center when the ball was snapped over Silvers’ head. Mean Green linebacker Colton McDonald scooped up the loose football and scored. The second touchdown came two possessions after a North Texas interception. Following a timeout with 1:04 to go in the first half, Fine completed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Lawrence. North Texas trailed 22-20 at the half.
Fine was intercepted on the third play of the second half. Then on second down, Silvers connected to Damion Willis for 23-yards to the Mean Green 2-yard line. Silvers took the ball the rest of the way into the end zone for the 29-20 lead after the extra point. Following a Mean Green punt, Silvers added a 59-yard touchdown pass to Tevaris McCormick.
Facing fourth-and-four on his team’s next possession, Fine completed a pass up the middle to Kelvin Smith for six-yards to the Trojan 35. The drive then stalled, and Trevor Moore was true on a field goal attempt with 4:26 to go in the third quarter. Fine went on to loose the football again as he was sacked by Tyler Murray. Troy capitalized on the turnover as Silvers found John Johnson for a 20-yard touchdown reception. The Trojans led North Texas 43-23 to close out the third quarter.
With five seconds until the midpoint of the fourth quarter, Troy’s Adarius Wesley forced Lawrence to cough up the football, and Tron Folsom recovered the loose footbal. Then on third-and-10, silvers completed a 37-yard pass to McCormick for a first down. On the next play from scrimmage, Silvers completed a pass to Damion Willis for a 10-yard touchdown reception to make the score 50-23.
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TONY MARKS