The Houston football team will be taking on Texas Southern at 7 p.m. Saturday at TDECU stadium as part of the deal the schools made for UH to use TSU’s basketball arena last season.
Houston is hoping to make amends for its loss against Texas Tech last weekend with a win at home, while Texas Southern is trying to make up for its loss last weekend at Alcorn State by stealing a win against an FBS opponent.
Houston is a clear favorite to win the match, as Texas Southern plays in the lower FCS Division. The Cougars should focus on learning and cleaning up bad tendencies during the game.
Offensively, Houston has been dominant over its opponents and has averaged 46 points per game. The defense has been on thin ice, and its opponents have averaged about 36 points per game, including a 14-point loss against Tech.
If the Cougars want to improve overall, they should look to work on their tackling against the Tigers. A majority of points scored by Tech were due to poor tackles by Houston that let offensive players slip through and gain extra yards
Houston needs to become more ironclad in its man-to-man coverage as well. The defensive backs often lost track of who they were supposed to be covering, which led to big plays.
The Cougars play even bigger teams later in the season, like USF and Memphis, and this weakness will be open to further exploitation.
Another thing the Cougars can work on is slowing down the tempo on offense. Because the offense gets off the field so quickly, it causes problems with the defense’s stamina, according to the Houston Chronicle.
According to the Chronicle, the defense has played the fourth most snaps in the nation with 284 this season. While increased depth will help the Cougars, they do not yet have it. So, they need to play around that weakness.
Since Texas Southern University is not playing Tier One football, Houston should score a lot at home and improve to 3-1 before the bye week.