Houston walked out of Salt Lake City with a loss that felt heavier than the final 21-13 score. The No.
14 Cougars had chances, led at points, and even got a huge fourth-quarter interception, but they never could land the knockout punch against No. 10 Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium on a late Saturday night.
The defeat dropped Houston to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, dealing a major blow to its Big 12 Championship and College Football Playoff hopes. Utah stayed unbeaten at 7-0 and 4-0 in conference play.
What stood out first was how little room either offense had early. The game moved into halftime with both teams struggling to finish drives, and Houston’s 3-0 lead was the product of a field goal after the Cougars were stopped on fourth down. Utah’s Devon Dampier also threw an interception in the first half, and the Utes missed a chip-shot field goal in a first half that belonged to the defenses.
For Houston, senior wide receiver Amare Thomas was the most dangerous offensive weapon. He finished with five catches for 133 yards and gave the Cougars the kind of vertical threat they needed in a game that kept tightening.
But Utah owned the ground game in the end, and Dampier was the difference. Houston did a solid job against the interior run for stretches and limited junior running back Wayshawn Parker to 47 yards on 13 carries with one touchdown, but it never found an answer for Dampier. He ran for 150 yards and two scores and kept the Cougars on their heels all night.
The Utes finished with 226 rushing yards, while Houston managed only 86. That gap told the story as much as anything else.
Houston also was not operating at full strength offensively. Fifth-year quarterback Conner Weigman aggravated the leg injury he suffered against Oklahoma State on a first-half run and never looked the same as a runner after that. He finished with eight carries for 20 yards, and the loss of that part of his game took away a major piece of the Cougars’ attack.
Tight end Patrick Overmyer also left after taking an awkward hit on the first third down of the game, and his absence was felt in the middle of the field.
The Cougars had too many missed chances down the stretch to survive on the road. They put up zero points in the fourth quarter, failed on two fourth-down tries, and came away empty on three separate opportunities to take the lead with a field goal. They also had a late chance to tie and couldn’t convert.
A delay-of-game penalty after Utah went ahead 14-13 made the next Houston drive even harder, turning a third-and-three into third-and-eight. From there, the offense never really recovered.
Houston’s running game never got going, and the pass protection crumbled as the night went on. Weigman stood in the pocket more often, Utah’s rush started getting home, and one sack came after a Utes defender drove right guard McKenzie Agnello back into him. Even after Latreveon McCutchin’s big interception in the fourth quarter, the offense couldn’t turn it into anything.
Weigman also repeatedly missed Trent Walker in the passing game, and Utah’s pressure seemed to speed everything up for Houston. In the end, the Cougars had the kind of road performance that leaves a team wondering what might have been.
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Devon Dampier was central to the turnaround, steering the offense through the second half with a mix of passing and running that helped Utah string together the scoring drives it needed. The result keeps the Utes in the conference title conversation, but they are still expected to stay behind BYU in the Big 12 pecking order for now, which only adds to the pressure in a race with very little margin for error. [Read more 🡒]