Wednesday, November 24, 2021

#17 Houston 31, Memphis 13

The Cougars defeated Memphis at TDECU Stadium last Friday, ending their five-year losing streak to the Tigers.

The Good: Clayton Tune passed for 264 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 59 yards and a touchdown. Ta'Zhawn Henry and Alton McCaskill combined for 131 rushing yards and two TDs. On defense, Marcus Jones notched two interceptions - one of which was an amazing one-handed grab - and the Tigers were limited to just two third-down conversions on 14 attempts. Special teams also blocked a Memphis punt. 

The Bad: After a five-game streak without throwing any interceptions, Tune threw two against Memphis. The first one was tipped and wasn't really his fault, but the second - an attempt to throw into the endzone into double coverage - was ill-advised (especially since that turnover took away what should have been an easy field goal). 

The Ugly: Too many penalties. The Cougars were flagged 11 times for 122 yards;  Dana Holgorsen even had a personal foul penalty called on him after he chewed into the officiating crew.  To be fair, this was not a well-officiated game.

The Scary: Early in the game, Houston junior linebacker Donavan Mutin was knocked out cold while trying to tackle a Memphis player and had to be removed from the field on a stretcher. Fortunately, he'll be okay, but at the time things looked dire indeed.

What It Means: In addition to breaking their five-year losing streak to Memphis, the Cougars notched only their second undefeated conference record in program history and achieved double-digit wins for the first time since 2015.

Ryan, Underdog Dynasty and Paper City have more.

The Cougars end the regular season with a road trip to face former conference mate Connecticut.

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