‘Bad football’: 3 takeaways from UNLV’s lopsided loss at North Texas

DENTON, Texas — UNLV’s performance on Saturday prompted head coach Dan Mullen to sum it up bluntly: “Bad football, man.” The Rebels traveled to North Texas and were overwhelmed by the Mean Green, losing 44‑6 at DATCU Stadium. The defeat dropped UNLV to 1‑2 as the team entered its first bye week of the season. Mullen criticized the coaching, saying, “When you have bad football, that’s bad coaching. Really poorly coached in all three phases. That’s on us. We have to make it happen.” The loss marked the first time since September 2021 that UNLV failed to score a touchdown in a game. Two streaks ended: 36 straight games with at least 20 points and 29 straight games with a rushing touchdown. **Bouncing back?** Mullen acknowledged there was little positive to take from the contest. He asked how his squad would respond mentally before the next meeting at Akron on Sept. 26. “We’ll find out how we respond mentally, I promise you that,” Mullen said. “We’ll see. Maybe we have guys here, maybe we don’t. Maybe guys will be leaving. I don’t know. We’re going to find out how we respond to this.” He added, “There’s one thing to do when you get knocked down. You get right back up and charge ahead. You start fighting and throwing. If you don’t like that, you’re probably not going to succeed here, and you probably need to go home.” **Turnover margin** UNLV turned the ball over four times — three fumbles and an interception. Two of those fumbles were converted into 10 points by North Texas. The Mean Green committed no turnovers. Running back Jackson Arnold, who lost one of the fumbles under pressure, said, “We played like trash. Every time we had a big play, it was negated by a penalty or turnover. We need to execute in those moments, and we didn’t today.” Arnold continued, “We have to bounce back. That’s probably the worst we’ll look all season. Honestly, there’s nowhere to go but up. We have a bye week now to fix things, watch some film, and correct our mistakes.” He concluded, “We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We were better in the red zone last week (in a 21‑6 win at Hawaii) but struggled to get anything going this time. It’s just the little things.” **Bad football** Turnovers, a dropped touchdown, and a penalty that nullified a Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas run to the North Texas 3‑yard line highlighted the struggles. UNLV’s only points came from two field goals by Ramon Villela — 39 and 37 yards. Mullen remarked, “You can’t let a team start the game with three possessions on the positive side of the field. You can’t do that. You can’t be minus‑four in turnover ratio on the road. They were over 50 percent on third down, and we weren’t. Everything hurts.” He added, “Now we have a bye week, and we’ll see where we stand. We’re three games in. We have a small idea from practices and the three games, but we’ll assess where we think we are and where we need to improve — what we can do offensively, defensively, and on special teams.” The game also featured the first extended playing time for backup Alex Orji, who entered with about eight minutes left. He completed one of five passes for nine yards and an interception while rushing twice for 32 yards. Arnold finished 18 of 27 for 194 yards. The game plan dictated UNLV’s rushing output; Thomas was limited to 37 yards on 10 carries. The Rebels managed just 2.5 yards per carry on 39 attempts.