Loss about more than 4th-and-20 lapse
Fourth down-and-20.
If Dana Holgorsen and his staff crunch the numbers, the analytics surely would have put the odds in the University of Houston’s favor.
A stop in the first overtime Saturday, and the Cougars leave the South Plains with a signature win, plenty of momentum and perfect record intact. Give up 18 yards, even 19, and the Cougars rush off the field in celebration.
Texas Tech took advantage of UH’s busted coverage as quarterback Donovan Smith rolled out and found Jerand Bradley near the sideline for a 21-yard gain. Two plays later, the Red Raiders scored to tie the game at 27.
“Dumb. Inexcusable,” Holgorsen said Monday, two days after a soul-crushing 33-30 doubleovertime loss to Texas Tech. “Our safeties were too deep. I can get technical. We didn’t play that play like we should. It would’ve been very easy to stop them on fourth-and-20. The only thing you really give up is a Hail Mary. It’s bad. Is that why we lost? No. Too many things happened.”
Maybe it was the 27-yard run just past midfield by Smith on the final drive of regulation. It was the second week in a row that UH’s defense inexplicably allowed an opponent to march down the field in the final minute for a field goal to force OT.
“How can you have that happen last week and go out there and do it again? I don’t know man,” Holgorsen said.
Maybe it was the roughingthe-punter penalty that wiped out a Nathaniel Dell touchdown for the second week in a row.
“If we don’t kill the punter in the first quarter it probably doesn’t come to overtime,” Holgorsen said. “How many times did returns win us games last year? Three. We got away with (mistakes in the season opener), but we didn’t away with it this week. Not to pinpoint that being the reason we lost. There’s a lot of things that could’ve happened throughout the course of the game.”
Maybe it was the 11 penalties for 121 yards. Maybe it was the two touchdowns in six trips inside the red zone. Maybe it was the 35 first downs that allowed the Red Raiders to control the clock for more than 37 minutes. Maybe it was the inability to sustain drives; nine of UH’s possessions lasted five plays or fewer.
Maybe it was another slow start by the offense, which has produced just 10 first-half points in two games.
“We’ve been talking about it,” quarterback Clayton Tune said.
“That’s the thing. We’ve been preaching discipline and not shooting ourselves in the foot. But for whatever reason, we’ve done so a few times the last couple games. Maybe we need to try something different.”
The Cougars benefited from some key plays of their own: A 63-yard catch by Dell on the first play of the second half that seemed to breathe life into the offense. A pick-six by Jayce Rogers to tie the game at 17. Then came an interception by Gervarrius Owens deep inside Texas Tech territory with 57 seconds left in regulation. Rather than take some time off the clock, the Cougars ran for 1 yard, threw an incomplete pass, and had a 2-yard run. Total time elapsed: 20 seconds. Bubba Baxa’s 35-yard field goal put the Cougars ahead 20-17.
Thirty-seven seconds was all Tech needed.
“When it comes down to it, we didn’t finish the right way,” Holgorsen said.
What Holgorsen can take away from two games is his team’s resiliency in the face of a combined five overtimes, the most of any team in FBS.
“We got down two scores in both games and didn’t panic. We didn’t quit. We just fought hard and got ourselves back in it,” Holgorsen said.
Defensive end Derek Parish, who set American Athletic Conference single-game records with 4½ sacks and 6½ tackles for loss, has no doubt the Cougars will overcome their early-season issues.
“We’re going to be OK,” he said. “I know my team. I know my guys and I’m going to ride with them.”
Holgorsen was asked about the message moving forward. The Cougars host Kansas, off to a surprising 2-0 start and averaging 55.5 points per game, in the next “preview of the Big 12.”
“We’ve got to play more disciplined football,” Holgorsen said.
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