Justin Stevenson’s afternoon ended without a touchdown, which says almost nothing about how often he put North Texas in position to score. The receiver caught five passes for 117 yards in the Mean Green’s 52-23 victory over Rice at DATCU Stadium, producing the kind of field-position jolts that make a running back’s touchdown total look especially healthy.
The cleanest example arrived in the first quarter. Tayven Jackson connected with Stevenson on a deep pass that Stevenson caught at the Rice 6 for a 48-yard gain. Two plays later, Jahiem White crossed the goal line from 3 yards out at 2:28.
Stevenson did not finish the possession, but he had already turned a North Texas drive beginning at its own 46 into a 10-0 lead.
That was the central value of Stevenson’s work: he kept creating advances large enough for someone else to apply the final touch. His 11-yard catch in the second quarter moved North Texas to a first down, though that possession eventually ended in a punt. In the third, a 16-yard reception moved the ball to the UNT 41.
The Mean Green punted after that drive, too. Production is not a magic wand; a good gain still needs the next few plays to cooperate.
By the fourth quarter, Stevenson’s catches were helping North Texas finish rather than merely start possessions. On an 11-play drive beginning at the UNT 18, he caught a pass at the UNT 47 and carried the play to the Rice 43 for 24 yards. After an incompletion to Stevenson, Jackson went back to him for an 18-yard completion to the Rice 1.
White lost a yard, Jackson threw incomplete, and Jackson then ran 2 yards for a touchdown at 6:02.
The sequence contains no touchdown catch and plenty of offensive importance. Stevenson accounted for 42 yards on that drive’s two completions, including the catch that put North Texas within one yard. White and Jackson supplied the finishing runs, but the receiver had made the final stretch of field considerably shorter.
This was Stevenson’s fourth consecutive game reaching 100 receiving yards and his fifth such performance this season. The streak is less interesting as a milestone than as a description of North Texas’ passing attack: Jackson has a target who can change the shape of a possession in one completion.
The quarterback finished with 303 passing yards on 18 completions, while Stevenson’s five catches represented nearly two-fifths of that yardage.
North Texas did not ask the passing game to carry every scoring chance. White ran 21 times, producing three touchdowns and 139 yards. His 1-yard score at 4:22 of the third quarter followed a drive featuring a 16-yard completion to Baron Tipton and put UNT ahead 24-14.
Then, at 14:43 of the fourth, White broke loose for a 60-yard touchdown on the first valid offensive snap of the quarter, stretching the margin to 38-17.
Dalton Carnes provided another finish after a short field. Tyvonn Byars fumbled at the Rice 30 on the first scrimmage play after White’s third-quarter touchdown, with North Texas recovering at the Rice 32. Five plays later, Jackson found Carnes for a 19-yard touchdown at 3:00.
