SALT LAKE CITY – Conner Weigman never looked right. He was not comfortable. He rushed. He sailed passes that he’d made look routine all year. Outside of a first-quarter run, his four rushes went for 0, 0, 3, and 7 yards, in that order. He favored his left leg and struggled to push off late in the game.
With 2:20 to play and down by one, Conner went back to throw from his own 20, and Utah came with a beautifully designed blindside blitz. They slid the DT over to occupy the middle linemen, and the Ute rushers outnumbered blockers on the left side. Safety Jackson Bennee exploded into Conner; he fumbled, Utah recovered, and then scored on the next play.
Still, UH could have driven down to score, then got a two-point conversion to tie the game.
The defense did not tackle well. All night, the defense had no answer for QB Devon Dampier, who turned broken plays into first-down runs. PFF says Utah forced 16 missed tackles in the run game and gained 179 yards after contact.
Weigman’s security blanket, tight end Patrick Overmyer, left the game after just six snaps. The UH running game never got moving, with the two running backs averaging 2.7 ypc.
The Cougar offense committed four penalties, including three drive killers. The most crucial of all was a delay of game on 3rd and 3 with Houston trailing by one in the 4th.
Still, after all of that, there was still life with 2:09 left.
As he has for nearly every game in his two seasons, Weigman kept Houston in the game. After his best game as a Cougar in Manhattan two weeks ago, and even after a better game against Oklahoma State, Weigman simply didn’t have it Saturday. It happens. Rice-Eccles is a hard place to play, and a lot of people, including the PA announcer and the in-game host, said it was as loud as they’ve ever heard it.
And still, there was a chance.
One of my beliefs about college football is that teams don’t get up three weeks in a row. It’s damn near impossible to keep a full team of guys focused on three emotional games in a row. Players knew UH hadn’t scored the last time they went to Kansas State and wanted that win in a big way. The Oklahoma State game was the biggest home crowd any of these Cougars have seen, and they won an emotional game over a top-20 opponent. Now they’re going to Utah to face a top-10 team, with College Gameday and Homecoming on their campus? That was a tough, tough ask.
And still…
But UH didn’t win it. Conner didn’t have another heroic finish in him. It was a missed opportunity in a hellacious environment against a top-10 team. Big 12 teams in the top-12 don’t lose at home (14-0 the last two seasons), so it would have been an impressive feat. With a week to get healthy before the final month of the season, this group can still achieve things no other UH program has in its history.
