Houston found that out when he was injured last season, and the Cougars lost to CT. Looking at the final score viewers would be forgiven for thinking that UH ran away with the game. Houston took a 12-10 lead with 10:30 left in the third quarter when Tion Green tried to run from its own one-yard line and, predictably, was stuffed for a safety by outside linebacker Tyus Bowser.
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Meanwhile, Cincinnati heads into this game on good form as well and has won its opening two games to start the season. Carter Jacobs forced the fumble as Johnson was going out of bounds, and a 15-yard facemask penalty on the play gave Cincinnati the ball on Houston’s 19-yard line. The Cougars also continued to suffer from a misfiring red zone offense and inopportune turnovers.
Nobody was under the spotlight more than Ward, who sat out a 42-0 victory over Lamar on Saturday because of a sore shoulder. The coaches appeared to be protecting him, trying to take him out of the running game so that he would be exposed to less punishment.
Greg Ward Jr. waited … and waited … and waited.
The Bearcats took advantage of the momentum swing with a five-play, 78-yard touchdown drive to go ahead 16-12. Immediately after it stopped the Bearcats on the two-point conversion, Houston marched 71 yards on nine plays to regain the lead. Then Ward led the team to another TD to put the Cougars up 26-16. They expanded their lead when Steven Taylor intercepted another Moore pass and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown to make it 33-16 with 3:47 remaining. “I’ve been reassured by the doctors that he’s at no greater risk for damaging it further than he was before the injury, so the healing process is one that we’re going to have to continue to manage”.
After this win, Ward side-stepped the locker room to meet a few fans waving a Cougars helmet and asking for autographs. And it wasn’t a dominating win like the Oklahoma game.
This aren’t the Cougars of the Art Briles or Kevin Sumlin eras. Houston coach Tom Herman told the Houston Chronicle that both players will be available on Thursday night, in the first American Athletic Conference game of the season for both teams. In many ways, this UH squad is still evolving. “You’ve got to be able to run it”.
Both Cincinnati and Houston are among the narrow list of candidates still receiving consideration to enter the Big 12 conference.
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Tonight’s Houston Cougars vs Cincinnati college football game has a start time schedule of 7:30pm eastern time and will air on TV channel ESPn. Moore had been impressive for most of this Thursday night game, but crumbled under pressure late. Last year’s game was a shootout, but ended at 33-30, which wouldn’t hit this total.
