UH head football coach Kevin Sumlin and defensive coordinator John Skladany will probably have sore eyes after spending this week breaking down footage of the Cougars’ humbling 56-37 loss to Oklahoma State.
As if watching the performance from the sidelines wasn’t torture enough, Sumlin and Skladany will again be reminded of how often the Cougars’ secondary was torched and how the Cowboys ran the ball down the throats of the front seven defenders. They’ll have to figure out what went right, what went wrong and where the Cougars’ defense needs to go from here.
The truth is, little went right and almost everything went wrong. And the next stop for the Cougars should be the practice field.
The statistics from Saturday’s game are about as ugly as they can get. Oklahoma State racked up 699 yards of offense, scoring on all but one of its six drives in the second half after trailing 16-14 at halftime. The other drive ended with Cowboy junior quarterback Zac Robinson taking a knee at the Cougars’ 1-yard line as time expired.
Oklahoma State sophomore wide receiver Dez Bryant had defensive backs eating his dust all night, snagging nine catches for 236 yards and three touchdowns, and returning a punt 71 yards for a touchdown in the fourth. Cowboy sophomore running back Kendall Hunter had a career outing with 210 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
The defense wasn’t alone in having a tough night. The Cougars’ special teams unit missed an extra point, botched a snap on a field-goal attempt and allowed Bryant’s punt return for a touchdown. The offense had some dropped passes, a crucial penalty erasing a touchdown and a key fumble in its own territory that allowed Oklahoma State to move ahead 28-16 early in the third quarter.
"A lot of little things hurt us tonight," sophomore quarterback Case Keenum said. "We put the ball on the ground a few times. We had some other mental mistakes – a couple of dropped balls here, a couple of badly thrown balls on my part and not executing when we had to."
The defense, however, will have to shoulder most of the blame for this loss, and rightly so. Keenum (35-of-61 passing, 387 yards, 4 TDs) and the rest of the offense played well enough in the second half to keep the Cougars in the contest. Despite the Cowboys’ second half surge, the Cougars trailed 42-30 with 12:20 remaining in the game and were only a defensive stop away from making things interesting.
That stop never came. The Cowboys pistol-whipped the Cougars’ defenders, sending them back to Texas with their tails tucked between their legs. Coincidentally, the Cougars received a similar treatment in their last trip to Oklahoma, a 56-7 loss to Tulsa last season.
Clearly, the Cougars’ defense is a far from finished product. The secondary, which was picked on frequently last season, probably needs more work than any other unit.
How much longer can they afford to work out the kinks before this problem puts a serious dent in their aspirations of contending in Conference USA this season? Not much longer, judging by the schedule.
UH will face Air Force (2-0) and Colorado State (1-1) in the next two weeks before traveling to Greenville, N.C. for its C-USA opener against Associated Press No. 14 East Carolina on Sept. 27. How tough is ECU? Well, all the Pirates have done so far is open the season with back-to-back upsets of then-No. 17 Virginia Tech and then-No. 8 West Virginia.
ECU seems to have already found its midseason form. The Pirates’ defense played relentlessly in Saturday’s 24-3 win over West Virginia, and the offense, led by talented senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney, has been solid. The Pirates’ offense will no doubt have a breakout game at some point this season.
The Cougars certainly hope it won’t be against them.
