Houston Defense Shines Going Into Halftime vs Baylor
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Heading into Houston’s final regular season game against the Baylor Bears, the Cougars have an opportunity to even the score against an old Southwest Conference rival.
With Baylor leading the all-time series 15-14-1, Houston has a chance to get revenge for the two team’s 2024 meeting that saw the Bears come away victorious 20-10.
Heading into the half, Houston has stood tall on defense and allowed for quarterback Conner Weigman and the offense to build an early 17-9 lead.
Houston Forces Two Early Turnovers
Every where Houston coach Willie Fritz has gone throughout his coaching career, he has emphasized the importance of winning the turnover battle.
”The first component of the plan to win is to win the turnover-takeaway margin,” Fritz said earlier this season. “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.”
The Houston offense had done a great job of keeping the ball out of the Baylor defense’s hands, except for a Weigman interception four minutes into the second quarter.
The Coogs struck first on a 27-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Amare Thomas. On the very next drive, defensive back Marc Stampley II stole a pass from the Baylor Bears, completely shifting the momentum in Houston’s favor. Shortly after, Houston recovered a Baylor fumble, further slanting the momentum.
Two plays into the second quarter, the Coogs struck again when Weigman took a quarterback keeper 28 yards into the end zone to give Houston a 14-3 lead.
Baylor capitalized on the Weigman interception and came away with a 34-yard field goal to make it 14-6, Houston.
On the Cougars’ next drive, they marched all the way down the field and punched in a 29-yard field goal to extend their lead to 11.
On the last drive of the half, Baylor marched down and knocked down another field goal to make it 17-9.
Houston has out-gained Baylor 226 yards to 216. If the Coogs can continue their pattern of scoring touchdowns in response to the Bear’s field goals, they should be in pretty good shape through the second half.
Houston will receive the second half kickoff and will look to extend its lead.
