Tulsa game thoughts

There’s nothing to prove this team is better than their record. Luckily Tulsa is a turnover machine and fit the script last night.

The defense isn’t good. They aren’t good at tackling, they aren’t good at catching the ball and they are weak up front. They were pushed around in the 3rd quarter against Tulsa and that’s a problem with better teams on the horizon. I was stunned by Tulsa’s play calling in the 4th and thought is was very simple and not playing to what they did well earlier in the game. It was enough tonight but this team won’t be walking through anyone.

The team isn’t well coached on either side of the ball. They play flat uninspired and are unimaginative, yes even the genius Briles. Why in the world did they not call timeout at the end of the first half and force Tulsa to punt? Maybe they snap it over his head, maybe there’s a big return?

The offense needs to run through King first just like it did with Ward. He’s faster than any running back on the roster and his running will open up everything else. He took the game over in the 4th and luckily he only had to lead drives of 9 and 20ish yards to put Tulsa away.

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King bailed the offense out last night. He avoided sack and ran for 19 yard TD. His long run was a good call but King simply outran 3 unblocked defenders. Tulsa covered our pass routs

I have to agree with RedDeath on everything.

Interesting (to me) defensive facts from last night: Tulsa scored on its first three possessions of the second half, then gained 32 yards and had two turnovers on its last five possession of the game. Tulsa’s play-calling didn’t change much during that timeframe - our defense just adjusted to the run game and started making tackles.

It was a weird game, and King really looked off when he threw short/medium passes. He did throw some awesome long balls, but only a couple of them were caught.

Hey, this was a 6 TD turnaround from last year’s game vs Tulsa. :slight_smile:

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Tulsa didn’t do anything complicated on offense. The big pass plays early were blown coverages.
The first TD Pass on 4th and 4 was Joell Williams.
UH was playing 6 under Cover 2…Williams was safety to that side…he reacted to out route …which was covered by Egbule and Myers. It’s called Cover 2 for a reason…2 deep players each have half the field.
The moron announcer McElroy said it was Quarters coverage…it wasn’t .

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When we went up by 1 late Tulsa threw in the towel on both sides of the ball. They have had many, many heartbreaking close losses recently and we broke their will.

This defense was much more fun to watch than the death by a thousand cut bend and break.

We got some lucky breaks against a 1-3 team who is playing with a freshman quarterback and their injured running backs.

I am hoping that one day we will look back at the fourth quarter of this game as the turning point of our D and the beginning of a great season, and not as a fluke win against a bad team.

Step up coach.

I don’t know. I agree the secondary played better tonight with a couple big breakups, but receivers are running wide open down the field far too often.

The no timeout at the half was bizarre. Shit, even without a big return they still had a third timeout, or am I mistaken? Even then they could have taken a few shots down the field. It’s not like 30+ seconds is a small amount of time in college football when the clock stops on first downs.

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King has a supremely impressive deep ball. To me he looks like he’s more accurate downfield than Keenum or Ward.

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Definitely not a fluke win. UH played terribly. Tulsa played pretty well. And with all of that, if not for a few drops, the Cougars win by 25 easily.

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Blockquote
The no timeout at the half was bizarre. Shit, even without a big return they still had a third timeout, or am I mistaken? Even then they could have taken a few shots down the field. It’s not like 30+ seconds is a small amount of time in college football when the clock stops on first downs.

Applewhite lack killer instinct. I remember in an earlier game this season, he took off his headphone and started for the locker room before the half was over. Then came back and wasted his remaining time running the ball.

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I am cautiously optimistic that this is the turning point, but am concerned about the better teams on the schedule.

Sam, don’t confuse them with the facts

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I honestly did not see where Tulsa’s D stymied our offense. It seemed like the offense was on cruise control last night. No real hurry up. No real attacking down the field. King has wide receivers he could have attempted long, but he chose to throw the short intermediate stuff.

UH usually has a WTF every year that we lose. Hopefully this is the WTF game and we somehow happened to win.

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I believe they had two, so you call one for 4th down and still have another. It’s like he wanted to get off the field to avoid disaster. I hated it.

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Then you missed the 3rd quarter.

They threw downfield several times in the first half. One was broken up and one should have been a TD but was dropped. Luckily King started to run and then moved out of the pocket to complete some balls in the 4th.

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For sure…this team obviously still has flaws. The secondary is not good. Tackling is pretty awful. I have concerns about the offensive line providing the push in running the ball against a better d line.

But the offense has lots of weapons. The team does play hard, albeit not always cleanly. And, for real, King is the truth. I was skeptical coming into this season of his passing ability. His deep ball is legitimately among the best I’ve seen in person as a UH fan. Better than Keenum. Better than Ward.

Picks by King were uncharacteristic really. Is it because teams now have film on him and are disguising coverages or is he forcing a little. Referring to the TSU pick and picks last night.