Early shootout turns into UH heartbreak
With Houston down 10 points early in the first quarter, Demarcus Ayers took the kickoff, made a move inside and sprinted to the end zone for a 95-yard touchdown.
The track meet was just getting started.
UH and BYU set a dizzying back-and-forth pace in the first half Saturday at Reliant Stadium. It eventually gave way to a defensive battle after halftime as BYU rallied late — on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Taysom Hill to Skyler Ridley with 1:08 remaining — to stun previously unbeaten UH 47-46 in front of a crowd of 33,115.
UH (5-1) had one final shot, but true freshman quarter-
back John O’Korn was intercepted by linebacker Alani Fua in the final minute.
“There are no moral victories,” UH coach Tony Levine said. “A loss is a loss.”
The two teams combined for 1,164 yards on offense with only one drive lasting longer than three minutes. BYU ran 115 plays to tie a Football Bowl Subdivision record.
UH recorded most of its points on big plays, including kickoff and interception returns for scores and touchdown catches of 69 yards (Xavier Maxwell) and 41 yards (Daniel Spencer).
“We’re all hurting, but we have to move on,” said Spencer, who had seven receptions for 186 yards. “We have to put it behind us.” Bad habits hard to break
But some of the problems UH managed to overcome during a 5-0 start continued.
They were called for 10 penalties, including a pair that aided BYU on its final two scoring drives. They wasted a 76-yard catch by Spencer to the BYU 4 early in the fourth quarter, as O’Korn was sacked for a 15-yard loss one play before a missed 40-yard field-goal attempt.
Other struggles were new.
Richie Leone, UH’s usually reliable kicker, missed on field-goal attempts from 40 and 45 yards. O’Korn, who had thrown only one interception all season, had three in the game. He finished with 363 yards and three touchdowns.
“We made some plays — and we blew some opportunities,” Levine said.
BYU (5-2) showed a different look early as Taysom Hill, who entered as the nation’s top rushing quarterback, came out throwing and finished with a career-high 417 yards and four touchdowns. BYU eventually went to its running game with Hill accounting for 128 of the 264 yards.
Cody Hoffman had seven receptions for 156 and a touchdown, and Ross Appo had two touchdown catches for BYU.
“I really thought they were going to come out and pound the ball hard on us,” said UH middle linebacker Derrick Mathews, who had a 29yard interception return for a touchdown and three sacks.
With UH ahead 38-34 at halftime, Mathews provided the only points of the third quarter when he recorded backto-back sacks, the last for UH’s first safety since 1992. Late gamble backfires
O’Korn hooked up with Deontay Greenberry for a 10-yard touchdown pass to give UH a 46-41 lead with 5:20 remaining. The two-point conversion pass failed.
After BYU took the lead with 1:08 remaining, the UH began its final drive at its 25. On the first play, O’Korn fired a pass across the middle intended for Spencer, but Fua made the interception near midfield to seal the win.
“(O’Korn) was being aggressive and certainly felt like he had a receiver open up the seam and he was not,” Levine said of the final interception.
Senior defensive back Thomas Bates had two interceptions for UH, which recorded a season-high eight sacks.