The Houston Cougars have breezed through the regular season, but Friday’s road game at Tulsa was supposed to be a true test. If so, UH needs to move up a grade.
Houston (12-0, 8-0) put itself on the precipice of a BCS bowl bid with a 48-16 win over TU. All that’s left for the Cougs is next week’s Conference USA title game versus Southern Miss, which UH will host.
Led by a resourceful defense, the Golden Hurricane managed to hold Houston and Heisman candidate quarterback Case Keenum in check for a half, trailing 13-10 at half. Keeping the Cougs O under wraps for the entire game proved to be too tall of an order for TU, though, as Keenum and his dynamic supporting cast rolled up 35 points in the third and fourth quarters.
Keenum put up his typically sparkling numbers, completing 33 of 46 attempts for 457 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. His chief target, Patrick Edwards, caught eight balls for 181 yards and four touchdowns on the day.
However, for all of the Cougars’ offensive brilliance, it was the play of their defense that was the true story of the game.
UH held Tulsa to 337 total yards, far below the Hurricane’s season average of 465. Averaging 6.37 yards per play coming into the game, Tulsa gained roughly 4.3 Saturday. Star TU QB G.J. Kinne was harrassed into throwing two picks as well.
No one would mistake it for the show LSU put on later that day against Arkansas, but it was an impressive defensive performance none the less by the Cougars.
Even with all the talk of BCS chaos around them, Houston has no legitimate shot at playing for the national championship. For a team that hasn’t tasted any kind of national success or prominence in a good while, however, just playing with the big boys in the postseason has to sound pretty cool.
The Cougars are almost there.
