(AP Photo/Tom Stratton; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
The Texans (5-4) basically rolled over and played dead against the Colts (8-0) for the first quarter and a half. By early in the 2nd quarter, the Colts led the Texans in first downs 15-0 and total yards 196-12, while Texans already had seven penalties.
But amazingly, the Texans made a game of it and would have sent the contest into OT but for Kris Brown’s missed 42 yard FG attempt in the final seconds of the game.
However, even more important than Brown’s miss was head coach Gary Kubiak’s blunder with two minutes to go in the first half. With the Texans poised to score with a first and goal at the Colts 2-yard line, Kubiak elected to allow the play clock to run-down to the two-minute warning timeout rather than run a first down play. The timeout gave the Colts coaching staff time to challenge the preceding play in which the Texans’ Ryan Moats appeared to fumble while being tackled at the out-of-bounds line. The instant replay official overturned the ruling on the field and ruled that the fumble was recovered by the Colts on the goal line, resulting in a touchback and ball to the Colts at the 20-yard line.
Had Kubiak directed the Texans to run the first down play prior to the two-minute warning, it is extremely unlikely that the Colts’ coaching staff would have gotten it together in time to challenge the call on the previous play. It’s precisely that lack of situational awareness that makes me wonder whether Kubiak really has what it takes to be an above-average NFL head coach.
The Texans now have their off-week and so don’t play again until the Monday night before Thanksgiving when they meet the Vince Young-led Titans (2-6), who have won two straight. The Texans get the Colts again at Reliant Stadium the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
What is Case Keenum going to do for an encore?
Last week, the amazing Houston Cougar (8-1/4-1) QB drove his team 78 yards for a TD in 30 seconds of the final minute to pull out a victory over Southern Miss.
On Saturday night against Tulsa (4-5/2-3), Keenum drove the Coogs 60 yards for a TD in the final 3 minutes to close to within 45-43 with 21 seconds to go. Then, after the Cougars recovered the ensuing on-side kick, Keenum drove the Cougars 28 yards in 17 seconds to set up Matt Hogan’s game-winning 51-yard field goal as time expired.
For the game, Keenum was 40/60 for 522 yds, 3 TD’s and 0 INT. That was the 10th time that Keenum has passed for more than 400 yards in a game. The 4th-quarter comeback victory was the fourth that Keenum has engineered this season and the eighth of his collegiate career.
He is simply the best quarterback in college football this season.
By the way, the win was particularly sweet for a couple of reasons. First, it gave a Houston team another victory over Tulsa head coach Todd Graham, much to the delight of most Rice Owl fans.
Moreover, the Coogs also prevailed despite the strong appearance that Graham had at least a half-dozen of his players fake injuries during the Cougars’ 4th-quarter comeback in an effort to slow down the Houston no-huddle offense. C-USA officials should be taking a careful look at the game films and sanctioning Graham unless Tulsa provides evidence that the suspicious-looking injuries were legit.
The 13th-ranked Cougars travel to Orlando next Saturday to play Central Florida (5-4/3-2), which held out its starting QB and top RB in its game against Texas this week so that they would be ready for Houston. That’s life in the Top 20.
This one hurt the Aggies’ (5-4/2-3) fragile rebuilding project badly.
The Aggies led 21-10 at the half and 31-21 midway through the 4th quarter before a pretty bad Colorado (3-6/2-3) rallied to pull out the victory with a TD pass with 2 minutes to go. Even then, the Ags had two more chances to move into field goal range, but blew those opportunities with an interception and a fumbled punt. Ouch!
The Ags must now regroup to travel next Saturday to Norman to take on a wounded Oklahoma (5-4/3-2) team, which — after their upset loss to Nebraska (6-3/3-2) on Saturday — has dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time in memory. That sixth win for bowl eligibility is not going to come easily for the Aggies.
Texas Longhorns 35 Central Florida 3
This amounted to nothing more than a well-attended scrimmage for the 2nd-ranked Horns (9-0/5-0).
With Central Florida (5-4/3-2) holding out their starting QB and top RB for Houston next week, the Horns cruised to victory while finally showing some signs of a consistent passing offense (star WR Jordan Shipley went off for 273 yards on 11 receptions).
But the story of this UT team remains the defense, which held UCF to 150 yards of total offense. Interestingly, the top three teams in college football this season — Texas, Florida and Alabama — all have suffocating defenses with somewhat underachieving offenses. Call it the backlash of the defenses to the spread offense.
The Horns travel to Waco to play Baylor (4-5/1-4) next week before returning home to face Kansas (5-4/1-4) and the Aggies in their final two regular season games. With Kansas State (6-3/4-2) or Nebraska (6-3/3-2) as their opponent in the Big 12 championship game, Texas has the easiest route of the top three teams to the BCS National Championship game.
Rice (0-9/0-5) played their best game of the season, but a 10-point turnaround at the end of the first half (blocked Rice FG attempt was returned by SMU for a TD) was more than the struggling Owls could overcome against improving SMU (5-4/4-1). The Owls have their two best chances for a victories this season against Tulane (3-6/1-4) and UTEP (3-6/2-3) at home over the next two weekends before finishing the season with their traditional post-Thanksgiving Saturday game against Houston.