Houston Football: 3 takeaways from season-opening win over Tulane
By Andrew Tineo
1. Houston’s defense played well, given the circumstances
Although, Tulane did score 24 first half points, it wasn’t entirely on the defense. Tulane scored 21 points in the first half off of turnovers including two defensive touchdowns for the Wave, headlined by just a mere 24 total yards in the entirety of the second quarter.
Tulane was held to under to an astonishing 1.8 yards per carry in the game. True freshman quarterback Michael Pratt was limited to just 55 yards in the first 30 minutes and had one play of over 20 yards.
Houston’s defense a year ago, struggled mightily in defending the pass, did a great job with Pratt.
The Cougars didn’t force many turnovers. However, they did not let Pratt beat them deep and kept Tulane pedestrian when they didn’t have excellent field position. Houston’s six sacks of the freshman quarterback certainly did enough.
The Wave were 3-for-14 on third down and had no existence of a run game. With giving up a total of (blank) yards, Houston’s defense was consistently rushing Pratt, while also keeping the entire receiving core in check