SMU running back Xavier Jones and linebacker Patrick Nelson earned American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors as the league's offensive and defensive players of the week, respectively, the league announced on Monday. The pair helped the Mustangs to a 49-27 win over North Texas on Saturday night in the team's home opener.

Jones, a Spring, Texas native, rushed for 127 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries with touchdown runs of 24, 10 and 51 yards. Nelson, a Chicago, Ill. native, had seven tackles to go with two sacks and an interception for a defense the limited the Mean Green to 396 yards and 27 points.

Head coach Sonny Dykes said after the game that it's Jones' comfort level and health that's allowing him to total 183 yards and six touchdowns on 34 carries in his first two games of his senior year. Jones is averaging 5.38 yards per carry.

"I think he understands the offense better. I think he's comfortable with it," Dykes told reporters. "I think at this point last year, we were still trying to convince our players that the plays that we call work. Were still trying to convince them, look, this is how you run power. This is how you block it. Might not have been how you did it before, but it's actually going to work if you do it the right way. There's a little bit of that going on in your first year so we dealt with some of that.

"We're not dealing with that now. I think guys do what we ask them to do and they're willing and they're playing hard and they're playing with some confidence. We've got to see where it takes us."

Nelson is a versatile defender that played linebacker and safety at times for SMU against the Mean Green. Quarterback Mason Fine was under pressure much of the night, including when Nelson got to him for sacks and when he intercepted Fine.

"I think like anything else that's coverage," Dykes said Saturday night. "I think some of those are coverage sacks where we had guys covered and had to hold the ball just a little longer and somebody got home. Other times we won some 1-on-1s. We had some guys beat some linemen and get there pretty fast. I think we played really hard defensively. Hated the touchdown at the end on the fumble. Just because I think those guys played better than to give up 27 points, but it was a great effort against a really good quarterback and a good offense."

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