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Your Weekly NCAA 14 Preview: North Texas @ UGA: The Barnburner That Shouldn't Have Been

Welcome to yet another edition of NCAA Football 14 Previews. UGA is 0-2 (0-1) so far and has a cupcake game in North Texas. Or so you think. I play 10-minute quarters, Heisman difficulty on Offense and Defense.

I really got caught up in the thrill of playing an easy team, I didn't know much about how teams like North Texas should actually fare against teams like UGA. I won the coin toss and chose to receive. The first drive was a roar down the field, ending with a 4-yard pass to freshman Jordan Davis for his first career touchdown and a 7-0 UGA lead. The next drive, North Texas roared right back down the field, ending in a 1-yard touchdown rush by Reggie Pegram to tie it up with 4 minutes left in the 1st. My next drive, I went 3 and out, but attempted a fake punt pass from Collin Barber to Blake Sailors, which failed. So, North Texas had the ball in UGA territory, which could've been an easy six for them. But, a pass from Brock Berglund was intercepted by Tray Matthews for a turnover. And yet again, my drive that resulted from that TO lasted a while, but not long enough, to end in a punt. The real burn came in North Texas's next drive, which resulted in a 48-yard touchdown pass to give North Texas a 14-7 lead with 4:13 left in the 2nd quarter. The next two drives from each of the teams resulted in punts, and UGA's drive after that, with 2 minutes left in the half, resulted in an interception that was turned into six points after a 4-yard rush. I got one more drive before half-time, and it resulted in another interception. At the end of the 1st half, North Texas led 21-7.

North Texas received the 2nd half kickoff, and the second play of the drive was a 75-yard rush by Reggie Pegram for a touchdown to give the Mean Green a 28-7 lead. Georgia's hopes of keeping the game alive were helped with a 2 minute-long drive that ended in a 1-yard, fade pass touchdown to Chris Conley. After the touchdown I went for the conversion, successfully, with a slant route on a play-action pass to Jay Rome. The score was an odd 28-15 now.

My defense finally brought the hammer down, stopping the Green in their next drive, and I salvaged the chance on my resulting drive with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Michael Bennett. I knew my defense had to really clamp down if we were to make a full comeback, but they stalled, giving up yards by the bushel, but finally resulting in a 38-yard field goal for North Texas just a few plays after the 4th quarter began, to make it 31-22.

The kickoff was returned 66 yards by Todd Gurley, who had been doing that essentially all day long. The drive ended in a 1-yard sneak-in by Aaron Murray, for a touchdown to make it 31-29.

Five minutes were left in the game, and North Texas was making another drive when I forced a fumble, to be recovered by Ramik Wilson, to give me the ball at the 50 yard line. A few passes to Michael Bennett and some good runs from Todd Gurley, including the 1-yard touchdown rush, gave me the lead again. However, the 2-point conversion I attempted failed when Rantavious Wooten leaped for the ball and dropped it. UGA had the lead, 35-31, with 1:35 left in the game. North Texas was making yet another push, but ended in a glamorous interception by Amarlo Herrera with 0:35 left, on a play that looked similar to the INT by Jarvis Jones at Missouri last year. A few kneels and we won.

North Texas 31 UGA 35

TEAM STATS

First Downs: NT 18 UGA 17

Total Offense: NT 458 UGA 359

Rushes-Yards-TD: NT 34-239-2 UGA 28-109-2

Completions-Attempts-TD: NT 20-28-2 UGA 24-37-3

Passing Yards: NT 219 UGA 250

3rd Down Conversions: NT 7-12 (58%) UGA 7-11 (63%)

4th Down Conversions: NT 1-1 (100%) UGA 0-2 (0%)

Turnovers: NT 3 UGA 2

Kick Return Yards: NT 93 UGA 197

Total Yards: NT 572 UGA 569

Time of Possession: NT 15:16 UGA 24:44

PLAYER STATS

Aaron Murray: 24-36, 250 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT

Todd Gurley: 21 rushes, 104 yards, 4.9 AVG, TD

Keith Marshall: 2 rushes, -1 yard, -0.5 AVG

Aaron Murray: 4 rushes, 1 yard, 0.2 AVG, TD

Arthur Lynch: 6 catches, 42 yards, 7.0 AVG

Michael Bennett: 6 catches, 96 yards, 16.0 AVG, TD

Chris Conley: 3 catches, 62 yards, 20.5 AVG, TD,/p>

Rantavious Wooten: 3 catches, 28 yards, 9.3 AVG

Jordan Davis: 1 catch, 4 yards, TD

Chase Vasser: 8 tackles, 4 TFL, 1 sack

Amarlo Herrera: 7 tackles, 1 INT

Corey Moore: 6 tackles, 2 TFL

Sheldon Dawson: 6 tackles, TFL

Ramik Wilson: 6 tackles

Blake Sailors: 3 tackles, 3 TFL, 2 sacks

Josh Harvey-Clemons: 5 tackles, TFL

Tray Matthews: 1 tackle, INT

Jordan Jenkins: 2 tackles

Collin Barber: 2 punts, 89 yards, 44.5 AVG

North Texas: Brock Berglund: 20-28, 219 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT

Reggie Pegram: 19 rushes, 214 yards, 11.2 AVG, 2 TD

UGA is now 1-2 (0-1) on the year.

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