Houston 12, Oklahoma 16

Well... The Coogs covered the spread:

Jackson Arnold threw two touchdown passes and No. 15 Oklahoma held off Houston 16-12 on Saturday night.

The Sooners (2-0) struggled to move the ball and punted eight times. The Cougars (0-2) outgained Oklahoma 318-249 in total yards, including 260-174 in passing.

Oklahoma got a late interception from Robert Spears-Jennings to end one drive and a late safety from Gracen Halton to extend a slim lead.

“We did enough things wrong to deserve to lose,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “We were fortunate to find a way to win. Overall, our body of work on offense not very good today. I’m really proud of the guys that stepped up when they had an opportunity."

The Good: The UH defense only allowed OU to score 14 points - none after halftime - and seven of those were the result of a short field caused by a muffed punt (more on that in a moment). They picked off Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold once, sacked him three times, and limited the Sooners to 4-14 on third down conversion attempts. 

The Bad: If Oklahoma's offense sputtered, Houston's wasn't much better. They themselves could only manage 4 third-down conversions on 15 attempts and only gained 58 rushing yards. Ryan takes note of Houston's abysmal offensive numbers through two games:

The Cougars are 129th in scoring (out of 133) at 9.5 points per game. Only three teams have scored fewer touchdowns than UH.

The Coogs are 130th in third down conversion percentage. UH was 4/7 converting on 3rd and short (1-4 yards) vs. OU, with the notable difference in attempts being way up from week one (UH was 0/2 vs. UNLV). UH is 2/14 converting on third and long this season (9+ yards).

The Ugly: Punt returner Mekhi Mews was charged with a muffed punt on Houston's ten yard line early in the game. Although reviews suggested he didn't actually touch the ball, the referees did not reverse their call and the Sooners subsequently scored. The Cougars failed on their two-point conversion attempt after they scored early in the third quarter (way too early to start chasing the points, IMO). And a poorly-executed run from the Coogs' own five yard line resulted in a safety that effectively ended the game.

What It Means: The Sooners made just enough mistakes to lose; however, the Cougars made just enough errors of their own to be unable to take advantage and pull off the upset. I don't want to take anything away from this result; facing the 15th-ranked team in the nation in front of 83,653 fans and losing by only four points is an accomplishment, especially given how poorly the Cougars played a week ago, and certainly suggests that this team is improving. 

But wow... What could have been.

Next up for the Coogs is crosstown rival Rice, at TDECU Stadium. Can they avenge last year's loss?

Houston 7, UNLV 27

 Yeah, it's going to be a long season.

The University of Houston Cougars football team endured a tough 27-7 loss to the UNLV Rebels in their home season opener on Saturday evening.

It marked a challenging start for Houston, as the Cougars went scoreless through the first three quarters, trailing 14-0 at halftime. The Cougars' lone score came in the final minute of the fourth quarter when wide receiver Joseph Manjack IV managed a 2-yard touchdown, narrowing the deficit to 27-7. However, this late effort was not enough to overcome a sluggish offensive performance.

If the 7-27 score, with the Coogs' lone touchdown coming in garbage time, sounds familiar, that's because it is. (They were passing out rally towels to fans commemorating the tenth anniversary of TDECU Stadium's opening. I guess the team decided to do some commemoration of its own...)

The UH defense, in spite of some lapses, actually held its own. They gave up a respectable 20 points and 308 yards of offense, even though they were oftentimes put in bad positions by the offense. They intercepted Las Vegas once and stuffed them on fourth down once. 

The offense, on the other hand, was abysmal. Quarterback Donavan Smith had his worst game in a UH uniform, completing only 15 of 30 passes for 135 yards and two interceptions. He looked tentative, held on to the ball too long, and made poor decisions; it simply wasn't a good game for him. It certainly didn't help that he has no protection from what is probably the weakest offensive line in recent UH football program history. It can neither pass block - Smith was sacked six times - nor run block, as evidenced by the Cougars' pathetic 38 total rushing yards.

It's true that the football program is adjusting to new players, new coaches, new schemes, new everything. It's also true that the Rebels are not a bad team - they won nine games, were Mountain West Conference runners-up, and went to a bowl last year. But I was nevertheless very surprised at just how bad the Cougars looked last Saturday: aside from the poor offense, there were special teams miscues, missed tackles, and too many penalties (ten for 74 yards). This team has a lot of work ahead of them.

Ryan runs some numbers from Fritz's "horrific" debut, while Brad believes that, with this loss, the Cougars "set the bar so low that it is nearly impossible to not improve" as the season progresses:

I don’t believe that hardships build character. I believe that hardships reveal character, and your response to hardships is what builds character. You might also hear that competition makes you stronger. That is partially true because competition reveals your weaknesses. How you address those weaknesses is what makes you stronger.

Next up for the Cougars is a trip to Norman to play the Oklahoma Sooners. They are 29-point underdogs.