New Orleans Bowl Wrap: Just How Good Is Troy...???

Going off Brother Phil's column earlier this week, this was what it looked like an hour or so before the Troy-North Texas New Orleans Bowl this weekend in the Superdome.

Attendance was quoted at a little over 24,000...

The HQ doubts that many people were in attendance- that number was, probably, tickets issued. There was no one in the 500 level. The 300 club level, maybe, had one box open. And the 200 level (casual fan not attached to anyone) maybe had a few hundred people and the rest in the field level...

Although the HQ gives major props to the Troy "Sound of the South" band for brining it with the brass all game long... Pre-game evidence below...

And the place didn't look like it had 24,000 in it watching...

But Troy and Neal Brown did something in this game as Sun Belt Conference champs...

They put up half-a-hundy on North Texas in a 50-30 win that ended in a "sad touchdown" by UNT...

A couple of things here...

Should the touchdown pass have happened by Troy that made the score what it was...???

There's two schools of thought...

1) Neal Brown is trying to make a statement of some kind for a team he thinks should be ranked at the end of it all. A ranking and a big number helps with recruiting for a #FunBelt Champ. The HQ gets that...

2) He's running up the score when running the ball would have been just fine for burning clock late in the fourth quarter.

There are arguments for both...

Now, North Texas...

There is no question that the program is making great strides in a very short period of time under new head coach Seth Littrell. But QB Mason Fine should have been pulled late in the third quarter when it appeared the game was getting out of hand and Fine was getting planted into the Superdome turf more than not.

With an offensive line that has THREE GUYS OVER 6-5 starting for the Mean Green, something has to be addressed in the off-season around pass protection. Smaller, faster defensive rushers for Troy simply went around Littrell's O-Line and got to Fine consistently.

Fine got beaten up and that has to stop for Mean Green QB's down the line...

Upright is good... as is finding a running game...

Bowl Weeks roll on, y'all...