Houston Cougars Thump Marshall 63-28: Where Do They Go from Here?

By Robert H Kelly

Copyright 2011 TexSport Publications

Photo by Darla Tamulitis-La Vita LocoPhotography, 

Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved.

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 22, 2011) What can one say after a football game that ends in a35-point win for the home team and raises the team’s season record to 7-0?

Some may think that the score says it all and that nothingmore needs to be said.

If the world was so simple that above statement would simplybe enough.

More precisely, if the game of college football was sosimple it might make for an easier time of understand the game as a whole.

But college football is not that simple. One must indeedlook at what else happened in the game.

Yes, the Houston Cougars are now 7-0 after their 63-28thumping of the Thundering Herd of Marshall.

Marshall came into Robertson Stadium sporting a 2-1Conference USA record and leading the East Division of the conference.

The Thundering Herd controlled the ball for 42 minutes ofthe game. That means the Cougars’ defense was on the field for nearly 3/4 ofthe game.

No matter what one thinks about the Houston defense, thatfact definitely had an impact on the game.

Add that to the realization that Houston has been strugglingwith their defense all season makes for a dangerous situation if theiropponents offense ever gets on the move.

Case Keenum threw for 376 yards and sixtouchdowns in Houston's 63-28 win over Marshall. Photo by Darla Tamulitis-LaVita Loco Photography, Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

Houston gave up 506 total yards to Marshall. That is way toomuch.

Holding them to 28 points was a factor in the game, but thefact is Marshall failed to capitalize on their offensive drives and Houstonscored easily when they did have possession of the ball.

Case Keenum had a very successful day. He competed 24 of 28passes for 376 yards and six touchdowns.

That performance did enable him to become the NCAA's career total offense record holder.

If he keeps this up, he should have no problembreaking both the NCAA all-time passing yardage record and the NCAA all time touchdownpasses record.

The Cougars should have their next gameagainst cross-town rival Rice. The Owls

sport a 2-5 record and should be no matchfor the Cougars. But the way college football is, nothing is guaranteed.

Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin needs toevaluate the defensive performance from today’s game and continue to tweak andrefine where the defense is going.

To his credit, the Houston defense hasshown improvement this year and is steps above when it was this time last year.

However, if he hopes to build on what hasdome so far and continue to see improvement, he must expect…no, he must demandthat the defense step up and do a better job than it did against Marshall.

After all, he has at least five games togo in 2011 and possibly two more if he gets to the C-USA championship game and theeventual bowl game that may come at the season’s end.

Add that to all the speculation of apossible move to the Big East Conference and all that implies makes the defensivesituation crucial.

After all, this is college football andanything can happen.