Houston 33, Cincinnati 30: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_19960" align="alignright" width="300"]Photo by Diana Porter Photo by Diana Porter[/caption] The third quarter was Houston’s Thunderdome.  After going into halftime tied 14-14, Houston went on a 16-8 run in the third quarter, and dominated everything about the stretch but the final minutes. But it was a lot crazier than that. In one sequence, Houston faced fourth-and-goal, appeared to jump offsides, and then Greg Ward Jr. was brought down short of the goal. But the Bearcats were called for a facemask, and then three successive personal fouls/unsportsmanlike conduct penalties as they melted down. The Coogs eventually made them pay by scoring a touchdown, and the third quarter cost Cincinnati because it ended up being the difference by the end of the game. They could never make that deficit up. The Cougars’ defensive front did just enough. Cincinnati quarterback Gunner Kiel had a nice game on the whole, throwing for 523 yards and completing just over 50-percent of his passes, but Houston came up big in plenty of spots to keep him off balance, drop him for a sack, or bat a ball away. The two most pivotal plays coming when Kiel was dropped for a safety during that crazy third quarter, and in the fourth quarter when a pass was swatted into the air and intercepted to help preserve Houston’s cushion. Houston held up its end of the bargain for the hyped showdown with Memphis.  Ever since Memphis beat Ole Miss, all eyes have been on the Nov. 14 clash between potential undefeated American teams Memphis and Houston. All that stands between that scenario now is Navy. Anyone else ready to party in Houston next weekend?