Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Houston 38, #25 Memphis 42

A second-half defensive meltdown prevented the Cougars from upsetting the #25-ranked Memphis Tigers at TDECU stadium last Thursday.

The Good: The Cougars looked good in the first half, and led the Tigers 17-0 at halftime. The UH offense, in fact, did everything they needed to do to win the game. Kyle Postma passed for 315 yards and a touchdown, and Duke Catalon and Dillon Birden combined for 171 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

The Bad: The second half. Although the Cougar offense continued to perform, they were completely let down by a defense that allowed the Tigers to score on every one of their second half possessions. Cougar special teams surrendered a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, as well. The UH secondary had no answer for the Tiger passing game in the second half, being lit up to the tune of 471 passing yards (Memphis only had 30 rushing yards, but why run the ball if the Cougars can't defend the pass?!).

The Ugly: If there's one spot in the game where the offense failed to perform, it was late in the game with the Coogs still ahead by three. The Cougars had second and one but failed to gain any yardage. They tried another ineffective running play on third and one. Major Applewhite elected to punt the ball on fourth down, thereby putting the game into the hands of his reeling defense. Memphis, obviously, scored what would be the game-winning touchdown on the ensuing possession. (So why not just go for it anyway?)

But wait... there's more! On replay, it looked like the punt was intended to be a fake, but the play was so poorly executed that the ball landed into the hands punter Dane Roy anyway.

What It Means: Houston falls to 4-3 on the season and is essentially out of contention for the AAC West title. Their streak of six consecutive wins over top-25 opponents is also snapped.

The Cougars next go to Tampa to play, and presumably get destroyed by the South Florida Bulls. I honestly don't know if the Cougars are going to win another game this season.

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