LOUISVILLE-HOUSTON GRADES: COUGARS’ DEFENSE SHUTS DOWN LAMAR JACKSON
Heisman favorite earns low grade after Houston defense gets heavy pressure in Week 12 win.
Houston front-seven dominates Louisville offense
The Cougars defensive line, led by true freshman Ed Oliver, came to play on Thursday night. The defense sacked Heisman hopeful Lamar Jackson 10 times and also forced an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone that resulted in a safety. Despite exiting the game late in the third quarter with an injury, Oliver had the best game of his young collegiate career, as he batted down three passes, recorded two sacks and a quarterback hurry, and also forced a fumble. In addition, linebacker Steven Taylor made a team-high 10 defensive stops and also recorded seven total pressures, including three sacks.
Oh yes, and UH isn’t a “big” school and doesn’t have enough fans. Has anybody checked out the home crowds and TCU and Baylor today? The stands have a large amount of empty seats.
"The Coogs struggled to move the ball for much of the game " this concerns me for tomorrow. UofL had 3 defenders graded 80 or higher. We had two but Ed was at 90.
The play calling was very conservative in the second half as they were really just trying to run the clock. Here’s hoping wards shoulder feels a little better this week as well. I think that contributed to a couple missed deep balls where the receiver was running free.
