The No. 14 Houston Cougars suffered another close road loss, 21-13, to a high-quality opponent in the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City on a late Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Houston dropped to 6-2 on the season and 3-2 in the Big 12. The loss took a massive hit to the Cougars' Big 12 Championship and College Football Playoff hopes. Meanwhile, Utah remains undefeated at 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big 12.
Here are five key takeaways.
Low Scoring First Half
Most expected another offensive shootout in this game, but it was extremely low-scoring in the first half. Both teams were held scoreless for most of the half. Houston led 3-0. Both teams had difficulty finishing drives. The Cougars had a couple of chances to score early, but were stopped on fourth down and had to kick a Jonathan Dimas field goal.
Utah’s Devon Dampier threw an interception in the first half, and the Utes also missed a chip-shot field goal. Both defenses were stout and making plays. Senior wideout Amare Thomas was the best player on offense for Houston with five catches for 133 yards.
Containing Utah’s Runs
Houston did a good job for the most part on the interior runs. However, Dampier caused a major problem for the Cougars throughout the game. They weren’t able to contain him as he ran all over for 150 yards and two touchdowns. The Cougars did well against junior running back Wayshawn Parker as he was contained for just 47 yards on 13 carries with one touchdown.
Utah still ran for 226 yards total, and the Cougars got completely outgained. Houston was only able to run for 86 yards.
Injury Issues
This isn’t to make an excuse as Utah played better as a whole and deserved to win; however, Houston was clearly playing at less than 100 percent on offense. Fifth-year quarterback Conner Weigman aggravated his leg injury that he suffered against Oklahoma State on a run in the first half and just didn’t look the same mobility-wise for the rest of the game.
He wasn’t able to use his legs and had eight carries for only 20 yards. That was a big missing part of the offense, but Utah did well containing him. Additionally, tight end Patrick Overmyer wasn’t available for the rest of the game after he was hit awkwardly on the first third down of the game.
That was another big miss throughout the game as he gets a lot of attention in the middle of the field as one of the best tight ends in the country.
Houston’s Offensive Collapse
The Cougars scored 0 points in the fourth quarter and had three different chances to take the lead on a field goal. They also had another chance to tie the game late. They shockingly weren’t able to do anything at all. Knowing how explosive this offense can be, it was a big disappointment. A bad delay-of-game call hurt Houston on the next drive after going down 14-13. It became third and eight after initially being third and three.
Houston’s offense also wasn’t able to run the ball for most of the game as well, and it was 0 out of two on fourth down. Houston had the 10-0 and 13-7 lead, but wasn't able to respond on offense when needed.
Pressure and Environment
Weigman was much more stationary in the pocket, and the pass rushers started to get after him. He got sacked after the Utes defender just rammed right guard McKenzie Agnello into him. Even after Latreveon McCutchin’s huge interception in the fourth, no momentum transferred to the offense. That was really where Houston lost the game.
Weigman continuously missed Trent Walker in the receiving game, and the pressure that Utah was generating sped up his clock. The environment got to the Cougars with the delay of game.
Add us as a preferred source on Google