Three Biggest Plays of Memphis Game (to me)

After rewatching the Memphis game, these are the biggest plays to me:

  1. KO return for a TD. It was a fast answer to a long drive that kept things from getting out of hand. And Memphis started to believe.

  2. Postma fumble on n the blind-side sack. He had Bonner wide open out of the break, but he double hitched. He never saw the blitzed. It allowed Memphis to get back to within 10 when we could have knocked the, out.

  3. Dropped Interception/Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty: not only did Winchester drop a gimme, but the penalty change it from 3rd and goal from the 5 to 1st and Goal from the 2.

In the end, UH choked. With 1:30 left in the third Q we pooch kicked. They scored in under a minute.
We scored again to go up 17 and choked.
Our DBs gave a ton of cushion. Safeties were 15 yards deep often and back pedaling at the snap.
Memphis Gave up on running and we gave them 12 years passing per attempt.
Memphis also played everyone in the box and run blitzed and pass blitzed most of the second half. They forces bad decisions. And we could not stop them.
Time to get USF…Go Coogs!

Norvell specifically mentioned the KR TD as the spark that allowed them to believe.

Not sure what was up with Novikoff as he had been getting touchbacks pretty regularly before that game (when not kicking it out of bounds).

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There were so many bounces that had to happen just right in the 2nd half for Memphis to come back and win. And they all went Memphis’ way. But that’s what good teams do. Our secondary has not matched up well with the Tigers receivers the last few years, even when we have NFL talent back there. Their receivers are YAC machines and they will make you miss one on one.

Memphis is a good team and this year they are better than us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t match up better against other good AAC teams. On to USF.

Their coaching staff sure is.

The pooch punt was supposed to have been a fake, according to CMA.

And, I think that is right - just look at the surprised man in front of the kicker when the ball sailed too high for him to catch. But, if the fake had been executed properly, that would probably have failed too. We should have just lined up and run a regular play!

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Agree. I said to my son as we sat in section 230 “I hope they don’t try a fake punt. Memphis will be expecting that!”

A regular would have been better.

Similar to what needed to happen two years prior when Postma led the UH comeback. I put Memphis vs. UH second only to UH vs. Navy for match ups each season that I look forward to seeing. I thought by now that Tulsa would be up there and it’s hard to get excited about SMU even when jerseys are taped to the floor.