Alabama-Birmingham should be thankful the Cougars forgot to show up in the first half of Thursday’s game.
Otherwise, the Cougars might have been tempted to drop 60-plus points on the hapless Blazers instead of settling for a 45-20 win.
The Cougars went to halftime trailing 20-3 and looking like a team playing in the wrong stadium. The offense couldn’t stop shooting itself in the foot, the defense struggled to contain fleet-footed UAB junior quarterback Joe Webb and fans quickly grew restless.
Almost nothing went right.
But when the Cougars returned to the field for the second half, they could do no wrong.
Sophomore quarterback Case Keenum threw the ball with more accuracy, the wide receivers made plays all over the field, the defense relentlessly harassed Webb, junior cornerback Brandon Brinkley had a big interception return for a touchdown and senior defensive end Phillip Hunt came up with three big sacks. All this and so much more went in the Cougars’ favor.
The Cougars sprinted to 42 unanswered points and left no doubt which team was better.
They punched the Blazers in the mouth. They humiliated them. They put out what little fire the Blazers had left in the first half.
Late in the third quarter, the Cougars put out that fire when one of Robertson Stadium’s sprinklers unexpectedly went off near the UAB bench, drenching players, coaches and any fans sitting near that section. If you didn’t realize the game had swung in the Cougars’ favor for good at that point, you were either laughing too hard or not paying attention.
The Cougars didn’t get off to as strong a start as they did in their 41-24 win over then-No. 23 East Carolina on Sept. 27, but they put everything together when it mattered most.
"Last week was a step in the right direction, and we kind of added to it today with this win against UAB," Hunt said. "We just want to start a winning tradition around here and go to the conference championship, and hopefully win that, too."
The Cougars are going to be a tough out for any team remaining on their schedule, especially when they can figure out how to get off to better starts in the first half.
"(When) the players do what we ask them to do, we can be pretty good as team," UH head coach Kevin Sumlin said.
