Arizona Football: Can Khalil Tate get it together vs Houston?
Arizona football laid an egg in their season opener against BYU. Will the Wildcats bounce back with a win over the Houston Cougars?
This week we travel to the grand city of Houston, Texas to see the Arizona Wildcats (0-1) attempt to bounce back against the promising Houston Cougars (1-0) in TDECU Stadium in Week 2.
Arizona had a second wind in the latter half of the season with the sudden emergence of Khalil Tate. Unfortunately, head coach Kevin Sumlin may have screwed the pooch in Week 1 with his Heisman contender quarterback by only allowing Tate to run the ball eight times.
Tate averaged 18 carries for 124 yards and 1.3 touchdowns a season ago and while he threw 34 passes against BYU, he only threw more than 30 passes once all last season. One bright spot last week was running back JJ Taylor who carried the ball 18 times for 85 yards (4.7 YPC) and a score.
The Houston Cougars looked as good as advertised last week against the Rice Owls. D’Eriq King looks to be the second coming of Greg Ward Jr. with 320 passing yards and three touchdowns with 33 yards and a score on the ground.
Junior running back Patrick Carr got a mere eight carries but busted for 74 yards and a score in the win. The Houston defense forced ten tackles for loss and three sacks against Rice who had to abandon their heavy run offense in order to keep pace with the high-powered Cougar offense.
Know that we’ve looked over the Week 1 performances, let’s take a look into what Week 2 has for us.
Date: Saturday, September 8, 2018
Time: Noon ET
Location: Houston, TX
Venue: TDECU Stadium
TV: ABC/ESPN2
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Players to Watch
Arizona
- QB, Khalil Tate
- RB, JJ Taylor
- LB’s, Colin Schooler and Tony Fields II
- S, Isaiah Hayes
- WR, Shawn Poindexter
Houston
- QB, D’Eriq King
- WR, Marquez Stevenson
- DT, Ed Oliver
- LB, Roman Brown
- DB, Isaiah Johnson
Keys To Victory
Kevin Sumlin, if you are reading this, let Khalil Tate run the ball. Tate had six games with more than 100 yards on the ground last season in his nine starts. For him to be an effective player, you need to move Tate out of the pocket and let him throw on rollouts or give him the option to take off.
Also, the defensive line needs to make tackles. The top three tacklers for the Wildcats against BYU were either Linebackers or defensive backs. This can only mean that they are blitzing effectively every play or they are so bad up front that the backs are already in the secondary before a tackle is made. Houston’s offense is far greater than BYU’s and defense is key for Arizona if they don’t wish to start 0-2.
If Kevin Sumlin uses Khalil Tate as a pocket passer again, Houston will have already won this game. Ed Oliver is an incredible player and he will play a key role in keeping Tate in the pocket. OC Kendal Briles is an incredibly gifted offensive coordinator and knows that the Arizona defensive front struggled to make tackles a week ago. Use stud quarterback D’Erig King in the run game to keep the linebackers guessing and just throw overtop to Marquez Stephenson and it is a smooth ride to 2-0 from there.
Betting Odds
Points Spread: Houston -7
Over/Under: 64
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Prediction
Kevin Sumlin has given me no reason over his 10-year coaching career to believe that he will change up his offense to fit the personnel he has on hand. He might let Khalil Tate run a bit more, but Houston’s strengths are in the front seven and will find ways to make Khalil Tate beat them.
Final Score: Houston 35, Arizona 31