So close yet so far for UConn
Huskies can’t get over the hump vs. Houston
East Hartford — Some UConn football losses are tougher than others.
Place Saturday's 24-17 defeat in that painful category.
The Huskies could have beaten Houston and put an end to a winless drought. But mistakes and missed opportunities doomed them in the American Athletic Conference game before an announced crowd of 19,760 at Rentschler Field.
They extended their losing streaks to 22 straight against FBS competition, 15 in a row against AAC foes and six consecutive this season.
"Sure not what we wanted in the end," coach Randy Edsall said. "The moral of the story is when you get opportunities, you've got to take advantage of them. We just didn't do that today. And it was all three phases that we had the opportunities to make things happen and we didn't.
"Proud of the guys effort. We gave ourselves a chance to win but just didn't do enough in terms of executing and trusting our fundamentals and our technique."
The Huskies (1-6, 0-4) did many things right but just enough things wrong to fall short.
Their improved offense piled up a season-high 438 yards with freshman quarterback Jack Zergiotis (27for-44, 270 yards, a career-best two touchdowns, one interception) in charge and had a 12-minute edge in possession. Zergiotis made his fourth start, replacing Mike Beaudry.
But Zergiotis overthrew open receivers down the field on four different occasions, twice on one drive early in the fourth quarter with UConn trailing 17-10. He missed a streaking Ardell Brown and sailed a ball over the head of Cam Ross, who finished with a career-high nine catches for 75 yards.
Zergioitis didn't put enough air on his long throws.
"I've got to get the ball to my guys and I couldn't do it today," he said. "I
had some guys open down field and I overthrew them. Got to get better . ... Can't be missing those."
In the second quarter, Zergiotis threw behind a receiver and right to linebacker Donavan Mutin. Two plays after the interception, Houston's Kyle Porter broke off a 12-yard touchdown run for a 10-7 edge.
"Those are some of the things that you get when you play a young kid," Edsall said. "He competed and he battled and made some really great throws out there, too."
Defensively, the Huskies had their share of highlights. They limited the Cougars to 284 yards and 3 for 11 on third down conversions despite playing nearly all underclassmen. Houston, which entered the game third in the AAC in rushing offense at 240.8 per game, had 106 yards on the ground. The Huskies had three sacks.
UConn allowed the fewest points since its season-opening win over Wagner.
The Huskies allowed a season-low for points in the first half, trailing 107 at the break.
"We brought the same intensity out as we brought against Illinois," said sophomore Kevon Jones, referring to a 31-23 loss on Sept. 7. "That's what gave us a chance to execute and be in the game. Everybody just played hard and executed their assignments. We were down a few starters and players that came in stepped up big for us on defense."
But the Huskies couldn't stop Houston (3-4, 1-2) when they really had to in the second half. After Clayton Harris booted a 43-yard field goal to tie the game at 10-all in the third quarter, the Cougars answered with two straight touchdowns.
The game's key series happened late in the third quarter right after Houston seized a 17-10 edge on quarterback Logan Holgorsen's 58-yard touchdown strike to Jeremy Singleton.
On the ensuring possession, UConn's Kevin Mensah broke free up the middle and bolted 58 yards to set up a first and goal at the Houston fouryard line. But the Huskies failed to punch it in on four attempts.
Thompkins took a direct snap and didn't gain any ground on first down. Then Zergiotis threw an incomplete pass to Mensah while under pressure. Thompkins fought forward for two yards to make it fourth down and two.
But Thompkins went up the middle and got stuffed for no gain to turn the ball over on downs.
"That was tough," Zergiotis said. "We could have tied it up at 17. I don't know what to say about it. It was a little bit demoralizing."
Edsall defended his play-calling on that series.
"I've got no problem with any of the calls down there," Edsall said. "I thought they were good calls. We just didn't get it done."
Later in the final quarter, Harris missed a 40-yard field goal and the Cougars responded by capping a 13-play, 78-yard drive with Bryson Smith's two-yard touchdown run for a 24-10 lead.
To their credit, the Huskies cut the gap to seven on Zergiotis's seven-yard touchdown pass to Thompkins with 1:40 left. But the onside kick went out of bounds.
"We played fairly well and we still lost, that's the frustrating part," Ross said. "We came so close. We lost by one score and we didn't get blown out but we lost. That's hard." g.keefe@theday.com.