Mistakes and turnovers costly in Tulsa's 24-14 loss to Houston
As bad as Houston is, Tulsa was worse on Saturday night, as the Golden Hurricane got hammered 24-14 by the Cougars in front of an announced crowd of 16,120 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
With hated rival Houston (4-7, 2-5 AAC) displaying virtually no offense for most of the game, Tulsa’s offense showed amazing ineptitude against a bad Houston defense that averaged giving up over 40 points over the previous three games.
Tulsa (3-8, 1-6) turned in its worst performance of the year on offense, considering the opponent, which was a shame because its defense was strong.
“A disappointing game. I thought our defense played extremely well,” said TU coach Philip Montgomery. “Offensively, we just couldn’t get out of our own way.”
The Golden Hurricane defense allowed only 10 points, playing a tremendous game. But a pick six and a kickoff return for a touchdown by the Cougars combined with poor offense to doom TU.
The Golden Hurricane looked early like it would deposit Houston into the dumpster, as Tulsa got up 7-0 on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Zach Smith to Sam Crawford. The score was set up by a fumble recovery by Allie Green.
But a poor punt set up a 35-yard touchdown drive by Houston five minutes into the second quarter, and the game was tied at 7-7. Houston scored again as Smith was intercepted on a short route and returned for a TD with less than two minutes left in the first half, and a stunned TU went into halftime down 14-7 despite out-gaining UH 138-105 in the half.
After getting down 17-7 in the third quarter, TU finally showed some life on offense, as Smith connected with Keylon Stokes on a 62-yard pass and run on a short pass from its own 2-yard-line. A 1-yard plunge on fourth down by T.K. Wilkerson followed, and Tulsa trailed only 17-14 early in the fourth quarter.
But a 94-yard kickoff return by Marquez Stevenson on the ensuing play completely finished Tulsa. Yes, Tulsa had chances after that to close the lead to three, including a dropped easy long touchdown pass from Smith to Keenen Johnson less than midway through the fourth quarter.
However, in the end, Tulsa kept shooting itself in the foot although it had finally started to move the ball in the second half.
The biggest example of frustration came with 8:50 remaining with Tulsa facing fourth-and-10 from the Houston 44-yard-line. Originally going to punt, Tulsa called two timeouts on the play, then Smith, who was hit while throwing, barely missed a wide open Stokes down the right sideline on what could have been a big gainer.
Key fumbles, dropped passes and missed open receivers haunted the Golden Hurricane all game. Tulsa had four turnovers, with Smith being intercepted twice and fumbling once, and Stokes also lost a fumble.
“You can’t turn the ball over four times,” Montgomery said. “We get things going, then we shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Smith finished 29 of 45 for 381 yards and a touchdown, with Stokes gaining 144 yards on nine catches, while Crawford caught 10 passes for 102 yards. Stokes and Crawford’s combined yardage total was bigger than Houston’s total offense for the game.
Tulsa out-gained Houston 380 to 231, but TU’s ground game was almost non-existent. Shamari Brooks gained 22 yards on nine carries to lead Tulsa’s ground attack that netted minus one yard on 23 carries. Brooks carried once in the second half for minus one. Smith’s rushing totals contributed to minus 27 yards, including four sacks.
Houston quarterback Clayton Tune was held to 89 yards passing on eight of 12 attempts, and Kyle Porter led the Cougars in rushing with 57 yards on 14 carries.
It was a rough way for the seniors to end their home career at H.A. Chapman Stadium on senior night.
“I think our guys were juiced up to play,” Montgomery said. “I think our emotions a little bit - they were trying so hard instead of just relaxing and letting some things come to them and started pressing a little bit. We really hadn’t done that all year.”
In the end, it was an extremely disappointing end result in another losing season.