North Texas lost a 45-37 shootout to Tulane as quarterback Chandler Morris’s 449 passing yards and three touchdowns weren’t enough to overcome a defense that surrendered 297 rushing yards on 6.3 yards per carry.

Sound familiar? It does to North Texas head coach Eric Morris, too.

“Our program is on track right now,” Morris said. “It’s more frustrating to me because it’s kind of like the same thing that happened last year in almost eerily the same ways.”

North Texas led the nation with 77 newcomers, yet they’re still the same team.

In Morris’s first season last year, the Mean Green endured a three-game losing streak against the top American Athletic Conference contenders despite averaging 33 points per game in that stretch. The progress indicated in a 5–1 start to Year Two is getting exposed after dropping back-to-back games to Memphis and Tulane. 

The offense is even better, averaging 40.5 points per game. The defense has allowed the opposing running back to rush for a personal-best yardage total in a single game all season. Tulane’s Makhi Hughes was the latest benefactor, with 30 carries for 196 yards and a touchdown.  

Tulane threw the ball 13 times all game, crack-blocking North Texas’s three-high safeties to prevent them from fitting the gaps. And on plays where the Mean Green were in a position to make a tackle, they usually didn’t. 

And instead of celebrating the explosive plays that brought 37 points, North Texas’s offense is kicking itself for the few mistakes they made that cost them the game. 

Two of the offense’s first three drives resulted in punts from deep in its end zone, giving Tulane starting field position in North Texas territory. That’s 14 Tulane points. 

Wide receiver DT Sheffield, who finished with nine catches and 125 yards for a touchdown, could’ve had another one if he hadn’t dropped a screen pass in the second quarter. That’s 7 points North Texas didn’t have.

Morris, who was exceptional all afternoon and played on an injured arm after taking a sack in the third quarter, overthrew his intended receiver on 4th and 4, ending an eight-play drive to open the half. Tulane scored the next drive - a 14-point swing.

“Where we’re at right now as a program, we almost have to be perfect,” Morris said. “A drop here, an overthrow here, a false start here, those are big deals.”

Most of the announced 23,138 attendance for the Homecoming Game had long filtered out by the time Morris led two late touchdown drives to make the score more respectable. Morris had told the fans in Tuesday’s press conference to get over themselves after complaints of an 11:00 a.m. kickoff time. After Saturday’s game, he said the atmosphere in DATCU Stadium was great. He believes that if the staff builds it, the Mean Green faithful will come. But the Tulane loss was another close miss at a marquee victory, for the same reasons it happened last year. 

“The hardest thing for me as a coach right now is how close we are but yet how far away we are,” Morris said. “We knew we had to stop the run and couldn’t do it.”