Surprising Houston offense snaps early-season funk, carries Cougars past Horned Frogs

The Houston Cougars entered Friday’s game at TCU with a 1-4 record and were coming off back-to-back Big 12 shutout losses.

The Cougars were ranked dead last in scoring offense in the FBS. Yet, against the Horned Frogs, the Cougars offense dominated the Horned Frogs in a 30-19 win as they gained 361 yards and held a 12-minute advantage in time of possession.

The win snapped the Cougars’ nine-game losing streak to the Horned Frogs and also marked their first win in Fort Worth since 1989 behind Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware.

TCU’s defense started the game with a fourth-down stop to end a promising Houston drive. But after that initial stop, the Cougars scored on four of their next five drives for their highest-scoring first half of the season with 24 points with 260 total yards.

Houston Cougars quarterback Zeon Chriss got his first start of the season replacing Donovan Smith and was 15-of-18 for 141 yards with a touchdown while posting a 167.5 passer rating and also gashed TCU with his legs for 97 rushing yards including a 71-yard touchdown run. He left the game with an injury in the second half, but a bulk of the damage was done.

Senior linebacker Namdi Obiazor said Chriss’ ability to change the game with his legs made him difficult to slow down.

“His ability to run. You know, you have a dual-threat quarterback and kind of have to respect both. So it kind of puts you in a weird situation, rather than just playing a quarterback who has one trait,” said Obiazor.

After giving up 151 rushing yards against Kansas last week, the Horned Frogs gave up 207 yards on the ground, including 116 to Houston quarterbacks.

The Horned Frog defense played much of the game without safety Abe Camara after he was ejected for targeting after a big hit on running back Stacey Sneed.

TCU’s defense was able to force three fumbles during the game but was unable to recover any of them.

Coming into the game the Horned Frogs had the 84th-ranked red zone defense in the FBS and the Cougars went 5-for-5 in the red zone and scored more red zone touchdowns in the first half (3) than they had for the entire season (2).

Dykes had a simple explanation for how the Cougars were able to have so much success.

“They just executed. They had good game plan. I mean, they were going to try to keep the ball away from us, from the offense, try to work the clock, run the football, which they did” said Dykes, “We had opportunities to get off the field. We missed tackles and that’s the thing that was frustrating for us, is, you know, there were time after time after time, and it’s third down, and we’re telling the players, it’s quarterback draw, and they run quarterback draw, and we just don’t tackle them.”

Obiazor echoed Dykes comments referencing a successful conversion in the fourth quarter on third-and-six off a QB draw by Donovan Smith.

“Those situations where you know you have a chance to have a kick a long field goal, or just get off the field right there, and then, kind of like when they get the first down, it’s kind of just like a disappointment all around,” said Obiazor.

Dykes did compliment his defense for holding Houston to six points in the second half.

“Thought we came out and played really well in the second half defensively, gave ourselves a chance to get back in the game, but we just couldn’t make any couldn’t do it on offense,” said Dykes.

TCU’s offense had four turnovers, three of which came from QB Josh Hoover who threw for 233 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions with a fumble. Hoover has thrown six interceptions in the past three weeks.

TCU has a bye week and then will travel to play Utah on Oct. 19 at Rice Eccles Stadium at a time to be determined.