Houston Football Case Study

From the opening kickoff Houston Football's offense was clicking. Greg Ward Jr returned from a high ankle sprain, and led the Houston Cougars to a 52-31 win over the Navy Midshipmen. However, if it weren't for an outstanding game by the defense led by Senior captain Elandon Roberts, Houston Football would not be playing for the American Athletic Conference Championship December 5th against Temple or USF in Houston.

The Houston Cougars came out ready to play after their first loss of the season last week to unranked UConn that caused the Cougars to fall out of the CFP top 25. Houston Football out gained Navy 555 yards to 459, and rushed for 218 yards to Navy's 147. Both QBs threw for over 300 yards and ran for 80 yards.. Keenan Reynolds did
out throw and out rush Greg Ward, but only by 4 yards passing and one yard rushing. Wide Receiver, Demarcus Ayers threw one pass on a trick play that went for 29 yards and a touchdown to Linell Bonner. Ayers, also, had 8 catches for 161 yards and 2 rushes for 6 yards. Including, an amazing one-handed catch for a 62 yard touchdown

Demarcus Ayers
Nov 27, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Cougars wide receiver Demarcus Ayers (10) makes a reception during the first quarter against the Navy Midshipmen at TDECU Stadium.
Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
The defense put a strangle hold on the triple-option run threat of the Navy Midshipmen and held them to 147 rushing yards after back-to-back 400 yard rushing games. Most of the yards came from QB Reynolds as he had 84 on 19 carries, but 52 of those yards to a his first run of the game. He and his two options were held for less than 100 yards after that run on their first drive of the game. Navy was helped by the big play to score. Each touchdown drive was helped by at least one play of 25+ yards on their drive.

The Houston Football offense scored on 8 of their 9 drives including 7 touchdowns. The Navy defense could not stop the high powered Cougar offense. As they could not be stopped on third down as they were 16-19 on third down efficiency and they were 2-2 on fourth down. Navy scored on 5 of their 9 drives, but they were forced to punt twice and Reynolds threw an intercept. Navy was driving down the field well on their last drive, but they ran out of time as the game ended. Navy struggled on third down efficiency as they were 4-11, but they were 4-4 on fourth down
efficiency.

The fans came out ready to make some noise as they kept the stadium loud every time the Navy offense took the field. Over 40,000 fans showed up on black Friday to cheer on the Cougars on senior day. The fans were treated to a dominating win over the no.15 ranked Navy Midshipmen.