Houston Beats Oklahoma State 35-32 In 2nd Half Shootout After First Half Lack of Rhythm

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HOUSTON, Texas – A weird first half did eventually give way to scoring fireworks. In the end Houston beat Oklahoma State 35-32 and had its sixth win of the season (6-1/3-1) while Oklahoma State suffered its second loss to fall to  4-2(2-1).  

“Yeah, I mean, just kind of same story with us,” OSU coach Eric Morris said. “You know, the things that we've been emphasizing: starting fast, and being able to, you know, get out for the lead and thought, you know, defense comes up with an interception to start. We have a great drive, settle for a field goal. Then the next possession, you get a big explosive play down there. And don’t set up for a field goal. Went for it on fourth down. Didn't convert it, and so I thought you know the slow start stuff has to stop. We're two different teams first half, second half right now, and blows my mind to be honest with you.”

The momentum in the funky first half really shifted to Houston as Oklahoma State was driving for a touchdown to take the lead trailing 7-3. Drew Mestemaker and Wyatt Young acted like they were back in Morgantown in the second half against the Mountaineers. It was a drive that went from the first quarter into the second and started with Mestemaker going down the left sideline to Young for a 55-yard vertical and a landing spot at the 23 in Cougars territory.

From there it got more difficult. Mestemaker fired into the back of the end zone for Justin Bowick and Bowick just missed getting a foot down. The next play went in the Pokes favor as Young ran a post route and was interfered with by Houston’s safety Jordan Allen to give the Cowboys a first down at the eight-yard-line. Two carries by Caleb Hawkins only got the Cowboys to the three and Mestemaker ran a quarterback draw only to see the hole close with Cougar defenders Jordan Allen Kahlil Laufau nearly taking his head off. End of quarter.

The second quarter started with Eric Morris back to going for it on fourth down. I would have too, but Mestemaker’s attmept to hit Young on a short route crossing in the end zone was batted away by Will James. Two possessions inside the five-yard-line and three points to show for it.

“It sucks,” Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker lamented. He threw for 365-yards and three touchdowns as well as ranfor 34-yards in a losing effort. “It is a good team and we were right there, but honestly, we scored three points in the first half and we can't be a team that can't score in the red zone, an offense that is a one half-two half team. We have to play a full game on offense and it starts with me. I have to play better at the end of the day.”

The Cougars burned part of their over 21 minutes of first half possession with a 14-play drive that included a confusing third down that first was called a first down and then reviewed to show Weigman was a yard short. He converted on fourth down on a sneak but again, nothing but burned clock was the result. That is still valuable against Mestemaker and the Cowboys. 

The field position helped as well as Mestemaker was picked off on a third down when Chris Barnes fell on the route and Will James leaped up and picked it.

From the OSU 25, Houston needed seven plays including a fourth down conversion with Weigman to handy tight end Patrick Overmyer. Weigman got blasted by Oklahoma State defensive end James Williams but his pass to Amare Thomas in the end zone was on the mark and Houston led 14-3. 

That was the halftime score.

Houston’s first touchdown of the game had been an answer score as they went 75 yards in 12 plays. The biggest pickup was a 15 yard crossing route to Koby Young, his second catch on the drive. Makhi Hughes had 17 yards on the ground on the drive, but it was the familiar combination of Weigman to tight end Patrick Overmyer for the score.

After Houston took the opening kickoff and moved into Oklahoma State territory as deep as the 35, Weigman was picked off when his pass across the middle bounced off Oklahoma State defensive tackle Saadiq Clements’ helmet and was picked off by LaDainian Fields, who returned it to the Cougars 48-yard-line. 

Drew Mestemeker went to work with a improvised “Utah” pass to tight end Carson Kolb for 16 yards. The other big play in the 43-yard drive as a 20-yard strike to Miles Coleman on the 10-yard-line. The drive stalled at the five and Keltner came in and the Cowboys led 3-0.

The second half started the way you kind of thought the game would go period as Oklahoma State took the opening kick and went down the field with Caleb Hawkins having his best success in the running game. The drive ended with Mestemaker going 18 yards on a scramble and Ayo Adeyi coming in to spell Hawkins and taking a draw 13 yards into the end zone to make it 14-10 Houston. 

Houston came right back and answered with a 75 yard drive in four plays as Oklahoma State was penalized twice and big. First, it was a blindside block. Yes a blindside block on the defense on Vincent Holmes. Later a pass interference penalty gave Houston fresh downs at the one-yard-line and they punched it in when Weigman hit Trent Walker at the front pylon for the score to go up 21-10.

Oklahoma State’s turn and Houston’s turn to help out with a key penalty on a pass interference in the end zone. The big play was Mestemaker to Miles Coleman in the flat that turned into a 47-yard catch and run into Houston territory. It ended with Wyatt Young’s second catch on the drive, this one in the middle of the end zone for the two-yard touchdown. Houston led 21-17 with 4:45 left in the third quarter. 

Just 2:45 off the clock later, Houston was back up by 11. Oklahoma State blitzed with six-man pressure on a third down and Weigman escaped to the left and ran 45 yards deep into OSU’s end of the field. A couple of plays later Weigman hit Amare Thomas in the back of the zone falling down after he was interferred with. It didn’t matter, Thomas caught it for a 21-yard touchdown and a 28-17 lead on the scoreboard.

It looked like the Cowboys were going to score again when star linebacker Javion White and middle linebacker Sione Fotu made a sandwich out of Mestemaker for the sack and friendly fire in the form of a Cowboy lineman helped knock the ball loose and Houston recovered at the Houston 35 early in the fourth quarter. What was really sad was that came after Mestemaker converted a fourth and seven near midfield with a 13 yard completion to Justin Bowick. 

Houston punted the ball back to Oklahoma State and on the very first play Mestemaker hit Caleb Hawkins wide open in the left flat and he ran the distance with little interference to deal with on the 66 yard touchdown. Mestemaker hit Bowick in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion and Houston led 28-25.

Houston’s serve and they took advantage with Weigman completing four passes on the 85 yard drive, which started after a UH penalty set them back. After a review that gave them a first down in OSU territoy at the Cowboy 48, Weigman dialed up Koby Young straight down the left sideline on the vertical where he had outraced Kobi Foreman and caught the ball in stride on his way into the end zone. The Cougars lead back up to 35-25 with 9:48 to go in the game.

Back to the Cowboys and Mestemaker mixed in several passes including a touchdown pass to Bowick with a quarterback keeper on a scramble that gained the bulk of the 96-yard drive that started on the Pokes four-yard-line after Coleman couldn’t get the handle on the bouncing kickoff from Cougars. Now, with 4:54 left it was 35-32 Houston. 

“We have a gritty group and that's what I told them in the locker room,” Morris said. “We're building this program up right now and you put yourself in these chances to win these games on the road. In a matchup like this, it's tough, right? We're right there. There's so many good things going on right now. But I've always been one to tell the truth. There's a bunch of areas that we got to fix as a program in general right now. I thought we had a bunch of one-on-one plays today. We didn't make enough of those one-on-one plays today and I thought their kids did.”

Here came another for the Cougars. The next series, Houston couldn’t afford to give it back to Oklahoma State and on third and three the Cowboys played no safeties, straight zero man coverage and Weigman hit Thomas on a bloop throw for the first down at the their own 48. 

“We had to stay aggressive,” said Houston head coach Willie Fritz. “We knew we were going to stop them three or four times in a row. They’re good, very good offensively. We just had to keep going. I thought Conner [Weigman] got better as the game progressed. He had a couple big runs there at the end that allowed us to take knees. That was a really big first down conversion and ending to the game.”

By the way at this point the total yardage was creeping toward the combined 1,000 yard mark. It was at 995 yards when Weigman hit Trent Walker on a post route for a first down at the Cowboys 31-yard-line. All it seemed Oklahoma State needed was a stop. They had burned all their time outs. One more first down and Houston would be able to kill the clock after the two minute time out. A Weigman run finished off and the Cougars were taking their knee to victory.

“I thought just overall, we had some self-inflected, I mean there's some penalties showed up. You know, we got them stopped into a third down. You know, we had a selfish penalty that we made on ourselves for a personal foul, puts them in position,” Morris said. “You know, we rush the snapper there at the end, puts them in a position where they can kick a kick the way that they did and pin us back. So yeah, there's a lot of things that we did that we need to get cleaned up in a hurry as a program.”

They have a week to do it before Colorado comes in for America’s Best Homecoming next Saturday