The No. 14 Houston Cougars had to place a lot of trust in their offense this past weekend. Going up against an Oklahoma State that came in ranked No. 18 and featured one of the best scoring offenses in the country, Houston knew it would have to put up a lot of points and be at peak performance on the offensive side of the ball.
That's exactly what the Cougars did in front of a packed TDECU Stadium on Saturday night on national television. Houston racked up over 500 yards of offense and kept the ball for more than 35 minutes. A big part of that keep away from the explosive Drew Mestemaker and the Cowboys was converting first downs.
"We just knew we were going to have to be aggressive. We had a few times where it was a long-range field goal. In a game like that, three points don’t help you a whole lot, so you need touchdowns," coach Willie Fritz said.
Houston is simply one of the best in the country at doing that. It's such a crucial part of the game, especially in Week 6 against Oklahoma State. The Cougars went for it on fourth down three times and converted each time. UH and Fritz were quite bold in some of these calls, but it was needed.
Houston's Key Conversions
Houston first went for it on its own 27-yard line facing a fourth-and-one. The Cougars were up just 7-3 at this point at the start of the second quarter.
Quarterback Conner Weigman got it done with his legs, even after getting slightly banged up. Houston ultimately punted, but it led to pinning Oklahoma State back at its own three-yard line. Redshirt junior cornerback Will James then got an interception of Mestemaker at the OSU 26-yard line.
Houston quickly punched it in for its second touchdown of the game, and that involved the second fourth-down conversion of the game. The Cougars faced fourth-and-two at the Cowboys' 17-yard line. Instead of kicking the field goal to go up 10-3, Houston decided to go for it and it paid off big time.
Weigman found redshirt tight end Patrick Overmyer in the flat for a five-yard pass. On third-and-goal, senior wide receiver Amare Thomas made an incredible touchdown catch in between two defenders in the end zone for the seven-yard touchdown pass from Weigman.
Houston took a commanding 14-3 lead at halftime. It was an offensive shootout in the second half and Oklahoma State cut the lead to 21-17. The Cougars responded. The final fourth-down conversion came on this drive. Houston faced fourth-and-three at the Cowboys' 21-yard line.
This was gutsy and not easy to make. Instead, Weigman threw the deeper pass to Thomas for a 21-yard touchdown. It was a big risk and the pass was right where it needed to be. Even with the pass interference against Thomas, he made an incredible catch fading away. It brought Houston up 28-17.
"We knew we were going to have to do it, and those are good calls by me but you gotta have the call by the coordinator," Fritz said. "Slade did that to convert them and that’s the tough part of it. It’s easy for me to say go, but he does a great job of getting the conversions."
The Cougars have also used analytics in the past to assess these situations.
“We use analytics. I know some people have dogged analytics. We don’t always use it. It’s based on momentum. How we’re playing. How they’re defending. How we feel like we’re playing on defense too," Fritz said.
That's a good way to look at it. Houston was in sync on offense the whole game, and it made sense. The Cougars still lead the Big 12 in third-down and fourth-down conversions, as well as a number of first downs.
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