Houston Cougars' Impressive Streak Snapped in Ugly Win Over Oregon State
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Coming out of their Week 4 bye, the Houston Cougars were among one of the few remaining undefeated teams in the nation.
More impressively, they were part of an exclusive group of teams who had yet to commit a turnover while on offense. Among teams like Alabama, San Diego State, Temple, and UConn, the Coogs were the poster boys for ball security and winning the turnover battle.
In Friday night’s scary 27-24 victory against the Oregon State Beavers, quarterback Conner Weigman threw his first interception of the season, effectively snapping the Cougars’ impressive streak.
Houston Cougars and the Turnover Battle
ESPN’s live broadcast was late getting to the Houston and Oregon State game thanks to the Virginia versus Florida State game going to two overtime periods in an absolute thriller. As soon as the Cavaliers won and the focus shifted to the Houston game, Weigman sailed a ball over his target and right into the arms of freshman Oregon State defensive back Trey Glasper.
”The first component of the plan to win is to win the turnover-takeaway margin,” head coach Willie Fritz said before the game. “When I’ve been plus one or better, all these different stops for 31 years as a head coach, we’ve won 91 percent of our games… Last year we won four games, and in the four games we won, we were plus in the turnover takeaway margin. In all the games we didn’t win, we were minus. I harped on that throughout the spring and summer and how important that statistic is.”
Heading into the game, the Cougars had done nothing but win the turnover battle. The team had recorded five interceptions and one fumble recovery, while tallying zero interceptions thrown or fumbles lost by their own offense. Against Oregon State, the Coogs threw an interception and failed to record a defensive turnover for the first time this season. Throughout the game, there were plenty of opportunities where the ball was on the ground but the Cougars just could not capitalize.
Despite losing the turnover battle, Fritz, Weigman and the Coogs managed to eek one out to remain unbeaten in Corvallis.
Looking at the road ahead for Houston, winning the turnover battle will mean all the difference. Next week, the Cougars host the ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders and a trip to face the Arizona State Sun Devils in Week 9.
While interceptions are almost never wanted, just one until this point in the season is still something Weigman, Fritz and the Cougars should be proud of.
