I will be completely honest on this one. I did not see that coming at all. I know Houston has been riding a bit of a streak since Ward has been implanted as the starting quarterback but for me personally I still wasn't ready to tab Houston as one of the top teams in the American Athletic Conference.
I've been waiting on a game like this from Ward, granted I will never wish a kid ill but I had a feeling a game would come where his inexperience at quarterback would take over and he would try and force too many plays and end up hurting Houston more than it helped. Unfortunately for him and Houston, I think that day came today.
I know some may look at his numbers and see that he went 31-of-45 completing 68-percent of his passes for 342 yards and two touchdowns. The fact remains that he did seem to try and do too much at times. He was sacked three times and threw three interceptions.
The biggest surprise to me for this game was Tulane's ability to really limit Houston's running game. The Cougars averaged just 2.8 yards per carry on Saturday and Greg Ward was the leading rusher with just 59 yards on 18 rushing attempts.
Two thoughts on that, I don't think you really want your starting quarterback to be the top ball carrier in terms of rushing attempts, those hits will take a toll as the season wears on. My other concerns on that is Kenneth Farrow and Ryan Jackson had a combined 13 rushing attempts, eight by Farrow and five by Jackson. That to me doesn't signify that you were trying to establish the running game with your top two running backs. I know Tulane stopped Farrows and Jackson but 13 rushing attempts between two backs isn't really a legitimate effort to establish those two players if you ask me. But to give credit where it's due, Tulane did do a great job overall at slowing down the Houston ground game.
Defensively, the Cougars again had another turnover by standout safety Adrian McDonald who's turned into a turnover machine for Houston. The thing I was surprised the most by defensively for Houston was they let Tanner Lee a quarterback who had been struggling have a big day on the road. Lee completed 24-of-35 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns, with one interceptions and one sack.
Tulane's offensive line was quite effective throughout the game and did well protecting Lee who was only sacked the one time and only hurried twice throughout the entire game.
I'm growing increasingly impressed with true freshman Matthew Adams. The Missouri City (TX) Hightower product had his best game to date stepping in with 11 tackles and 2.5 tackles-for-loss.
Lets not forget Efrem Oliphant who's have a monster season for Houston and continues to do so in the absence of Derrick Mathews. Oliphant finished the day with 13 tackles and one sack and has really turned into a reliable option at linebacker for the Cougars.
The Cougars head into a bye this week and will have plenty of things to work on as the microscope for Levine and Co has likely now officially been turned back on. I'm not sure that he could make another switch at quarterback at this point as that could make him look like he's grasping for straws, but the fact remains that there are plenty of issues for this Houston offense. They just lost to a team they should have beat decisively for the second time this season. This bye week is coming at a great time for Houston, we'll see if they can use it to fix a lot of their offensive woes and work out some of the kinks at the quarterback position.
I've been waiting on a game like this from Ward, granted I will never wish a kid ill but I had a feeling a game would come where his inexperience at quarterback would take over and he would try and force too many plays and end up hurting Houston more than it helped. Unfortunately for him and Houston, I think that day came today.
I know some may look at his numbers and see that he went 31-of-45 completing 68-percent of his passes for 342 yards and two touchdowns. The fact remains that he did seem to try and do too much at times. He was sacked three times and threw three interceptions.
The biggest surprise to me for this game was Tulane's ability to really limit Houston's running game. The Cougars averaged just 2.8 yards per carry on Saturday and Greg Ward was the leading rusher with just 59 yards on 18 rushing attempts.
Two thoughts on that, I don't think you really want your starting quarterback to be the top ball carrier in terms of rushing attempts, those hits will take a toll as the season wears on. My other concerns on that is Kenneth Farrow and Ryan Jackson had a combined 13 rushing attempts, eight by Farrow and five by Jackson. That to me doesn't signify that you were trying to establish the running game with your top two running backs. I know Tulane stopped Farrows and Jackson but 13 rushing attempts between two backs isn't really a legitimate effort to establish those two players if you ask me. But to give credit where it's due, Tulane did do a great job overall at slowing down the Houston ground game.
Defensively, the Cougars again had another turnover by standout safety Adrian McDonald who's turned into a turnover machine for Houston. The thing I was surprised the most by defensively for Houston was they let Tanner Lee a quarterback who had been struggling have a big day on the road. Lee completed 24-of-35 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns, with one interceptions and one sack.
Tulane's offensive line was quite effective throughout the game and did well protecting Lee who was only sacked the one time and only hurried twice throughout the entire game.
I'm growing increasingly impressed with true freshman Matthew Adams. The Missouri City (TX) Hightower product had his best game to date stepping in with 11 tackles and 2.5 tackles-for-loss.
Lets not forget Efrem Oliphant who's have a monster season for Houston and continues to do so in the absence of Derrick Mathews. Oliphant finished the day with 13 tackles and one sack and has really turned into a reliable option at linebacker for the Cougars.
The Cougars head into a bye this week and will have plenty of things to work on as the microscope for Levine and Co has likely now officially been turned back on. I'm not sure that he could make another switch at quarterback at this point as that could make him look like he's grasping for straws, but the fact remains that there are plenty of issues for this Houston offense. They just lost to a team they should have beat decisively for the second time this season. This bye week is coming at a great time for Houston, we'll see if they can use it to fix a lot of their offensive woes and work out some of the kinks at the quarterback position.
