Houston 45, Alabama-Birmingham 20

It was a tale of two halves at Robertson Stadium last Thursday.

The Coogs started out slow and played like absolute crap through the first half. Neither quarterback Case Keenum, nor his receivers, had a good showing: too many poorly-thrown balls, and too many dropped passes. The Cougar offense sputtered and was essentially unable to mount any effective drives during the first half, allowing UAB's offense to control the clock for most of the time. Houston's beleaguered defense vainly struggled to contain mobile Blazer quarterback Joe Webb, who ran for 86 yards on 16 carries, scored one rushing touchdown, and thre for another. The Coogs found themselves in a 3-20 hole at halftime. (Sounds familiar, eh?)

But then things changed. Whether it was a good halftime pep-talk by the coaching staff, a few critical halftime adjustments, a sense of awakening by the team, or (most likely) a combination of the three, the Cougars simply dominated during the second half of the game. The UH offense that sputtered during the first half was unstoppable during the second half, and the defense found a way to shut Joe Webb and the rest of the Blazer offense down. The Cougars scored 42 unanswered points, including an interception returned for a touchdown, and kept UAB from scoring any points of their own during the last thirty minutes of the game.

Case Keenum ended the evening with decent statistics: 24-for-36 with 360 yards, two touchdown passes, one touchdown run and no interceptions. The Cougars also gained a healthy 132 yards on the ground. Moreover, the "Unholy Trinity" of turnovers, penalties and special teams miscues turned out not to be a factor. The Coogs only committed three penalties, fumbled the ball just once and, while special teams did muff a couple of punts in the first half, they also recovered a botched UAB punt attempt in the second half which led to an easy score.

Right now, the Coogs' biggest problem is not the Unholy Trinity, but rather their propensity for starting games slow, putting themselves into a big hole, and trying to rally their way out in the second half. It worked last night. But it didn't work against Air Force or Colorado State. And it's not going to work against explosive C-USA West foes like Tulsa or Rice. A successful season is still in store for the Cougars, but only if they come out of the locker room ready to go and play a full four quarters of football.

There are two personalities to this team: one that plays poor football, and another that plays flawlessly. Thursday night both sides were on display. Here's to hoping that, as the Coogs enter the second half of their season, we see less of the former and more of the latter.