Louisiana Tech held on to defeat North Texas 29-27 on Saturday. We look at three key plays that changed the course of the game.

Louisiana Tech received the ball with 8:30 left before halftime, trailing 21-9. The Bulldogs had just forced their second punt by UNT and needed a touchdown in a bad way. J’Mar Smith once again led his team into the red zone, and this time he connected with Adrian Hardy on 3rd and goal from the 8 yard line to bring the Bulldogs within 21-16.

Tech would add another field goal to make it 21-19 UNT and with 1:30 before halftime, the Mean Green needed to regain the momentum. Darryl Lewis forced a fumble that was picked up by Amik Robertson. The Bulldogs would have to punt, but UNT muffed the punt and Tech recovered at the Mean Green 5 yard line. Smith would then hit Alfred Smith to give Tech the lead going into halftime, 26-21.

With Tech hanging on to a 29-27 lead, Mason Fine led North Texas down the field. Reserve running back Nic Smith had a 30 yard run to get the Mean Green within field goal range. With just 33 seconds left to play, UNT set up for a field goal from the LA Tech 29. Amik Robertson blocked the field goal and preserved the win for the Bulldogs.

The stars of the game were Robertson with his 5 tackles, the fumble recovery, and of course the blocked kick. Jaylon Ferguson was an absolute monster in the game with 6 tackles, including 4 sacks. He was truly unblockable. Bailey Hale was clutch with 5 field goals, including one in the 3rd quarter from 42 yards out that stretched Tech’s lead to 8 points.

Isreal Tucker had 95 yards on 16 carries for the Bulldogs on offense. Rashid Bonnette had 5 receptions for 101 yards. J’Mar Smith had 230 yards passing with 2 touchdown passes and no interceptions.

On defense, Collin Scott had 11 tackles, including 2.5 for loss. Scott teamed up with Daniel Lewis (who was second on the team with 7 tackles) for a sack. Jaiden Cole had 4 tackles, including one tackle for loss. Jordan Bradford had 3 tackles from his defensive tackle position, including 2 for loss.

Tech will try to get off to a faster start this week against UAB in Ruston. The Bulldogs almost played a little rope-a-dope against both LSU and UNT. Tech got down 24-0 against LSU and came back to make it 24-21 in the fourth quarter. Against UNT, Tech was down 21-6 before mounting a comeback. Maybe letting the other team get an early lead changed the urgency levels of both teams. However, Skip Holtz would rather not get behind that much again.

Tech has five games this year against teams that they lost to in 2017. The Bulldogs had one point losses to UNT and UAB last year, so Tech will get a chance for a little payback again this week. The Bulldogs also play FAU, Southern Miss, and Mississippi State later this year. So plenty of opportunities to avenge last year’s setbacks.