Cougars collapse in 2nd half
Defense, offense come undone late en route to blowing 17-point lead, opportunity at upset
On more than a few occasions, the University of Houston has turned to its defense for a bailout. It did not come Thursday night. No. 25 Memphis came alive in the second half, rallying from a 17-point deficit to steal a 42-38 victory over the Cougars before an announced crowd of 30,001 at TDECU Stadium. Riley Ferguson delivered the game-winner on a 21-yard pass to Sean Dykes with 1:28 left.
A week after suffering an embarrassing 45-17 loss to Tulsa, the Cougars suffered yet another stinging defeat after appearing to have the game in hand with a 10-point lead and less than seven minutes remaining.
“When you’re talking about making a run for your side of the conference in terms of a championship, you have to play well at crunch time,” UH coach Major Applewhite said.
The Cougars did not do that in any phase in the second half.
The defense allowed 42 points, the most since SMU scored 44 in 2012. Special teams allowed a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Tony Pollard. And while the offense showed improvement with Duke Catalon producing a career-high three rushing touchdowns, turnovers once again doomed them with quarterback Kyle Postma losing a fumble and throwing an
interception — all in the final 88 seconds.
“It comes down to finishing and securing the ball,” Postma said. “We lacked that in the end.”
The Cougars fell to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the American Athletic Conference West Division. The schedule does not get any easier with an Oct. 28 game at No. 16 South Florida.
Memphis (6-1, 3-1) failed to score in the first half of a game for the first time since 2012. But the Tigers showed their quick-strike ability after halftime, putting together five straight touchdown drives that took only eight minutes off the clock.
Applewhite said there was a “multitude of things” the Cougars did wrong, among them defenders being out of position, taking the bait on double moves, a pass interference call that extended a drive and a special-teams breakdown that allowed Pollard to return his third kickoff for a touchdown this season.
“We have to learn to finish,” said safety Garrett Davis, who notched his fourth interception to set up a field goal that gave the Cougars a 17-0 halftime lead.
Applewhite said the Cougars’ lack of experience, which includes considerable losses on both sides — among them quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and three NFL draft picks on defense — has caught up with the team.
“There’s a lot of things I knew coming into this season in terms of our competitive experience,” he said. “This team does not have a lot of competitive experience. It’s never an excuse, but hopefully the last two weeks we’re learning as a football team and developing some competitive experience. What does that mean? That means you haven’t been in a lot of damn games and haven’t been in a lot of crunch-time situations.”
Patrick Taylor had four touchdowns in the second half for Memphis, scoring on runs of 2, 9, 1 and 5 yards. The last score pulled the Tigers within 38-35 with 5:14 remaining.
On the ensuing possession, the Cougars needed 1 yard for a first down near midfield. Dillon Birden (106 rushing yards) and Catalon were stopped for no gain on two straight runs. UH elected to punt.
“We didn’t run the ball well on second and third down,” Applewhite said. “So I was not excited about putting an offense that can score a lot of points at midfield.”
Catalon scored on a 4-yard run in the first quarter and added two 1-yard scores in the third quarter, the last to give the Cougars a 31-14 lead. Steven Dunbar added an 8-yard touchdown grab to put UH ahead 38-28 with 6:44 left.
The Cougars harassed Ferguson in the first half, with freshman David Anenih and Ed Oliver posting critical third-down sacks on back-to-back possessions. Isaiah Johnson also came up with a critical pass breakup in the end zone. Memphis was 1-of-8 on third-down conversions.
But Ferguson bounced back after halftime, going 17-of-26 and finished with a game-high 471 yards.
After Memphis took the lead, Postma fumbled the ball with 59 seconds left. The Cougars forced a punt and had one more chance at a comeback. But T.J. Carter picked off Postma’s pass at the Memphis 34, and the Tigers took a knee to run out the clock.
UH’s Linell Bonner had eight catches for 121 yards.