Mistakes and a lack of points nearly doomed Houston football against AAC West rival Tulsa. Here are three takeaways from the Cougars comeback victory at home.
It was a sometimes ugly, mostly close showdown in the American Athletic Conference on Thursday night, as Houston hosted Tulsa at TDECU Stadium and managed to pull away late for a 41-26 victory at home.
The Houston defense gave up 426 yards to the Golden Hurricane, and the visitors enjoyed a 23-17 lead heading into the fourth quarter. They added a field goal early in the final frame for a nine-point lead.
But that proved anything but insurmountable for the Cougars. Let’s look at how Major Applewhite‘s team pulled off the 15-point win through a look at three takeaways.
1. Turnovers nearly doomed Houston in first half, saved them at the end
On just their second drive of the game, Houston coughed up the ball three plays into their possession as D’Eriq King was picked off by Cooper Edmiston. Courtney Lark punched the ball free from Edmiston as the linebacker tried to find the endzone on the return. Tulsa maintained possession, though, and kicked a field goal to turn the turnover into three points the other way.
That actually proved to be the only score punched in by Tulsa despite gaining three takeaways in the first half of the road trip. What was costly about those truncated possessions was not that they resulted in allowing the Golden Hurricane to take a big lead. Rather, they prevented the Cougars offense from putting more points on the scoreboard and allowed the visitors to remain in the contest.
Houston tightened up their grip on the football in the second half, preventing any turnovers the rest of the way. That fit the trend from September, where the Cougars ranked sixth in the nation in giveaways. In the span of one half, they doubled the number of turnovers they have coughed up so far this season.
But at the end of the game, Tulsa was facing a third down deep in their own territory. Elijah Gooden came through the trenches and wrapped up Golden Hurricane quarterback Seth Boomer. But instead of just bringing Bonner to the turf, Gooden whipped his right arm and punched the football out of Boomer’s grasp. Emeke Egbule pounced on the ball, and the Cougars scored a touchdown on the ensuing play to extend their lead to eight points.
Deontay Anderson picked off Boomer on the next drive, and the Cougars ultimately put away the game thanks to the late reversal of fortunes.