Then the game settled into the shape the preview worried about. Over the last 3 quarters Cincinnati outscored Houston 24-17. The Bearcats put up 10 in the 2nd quarter to make it 21-10 at the half, and that was a defense that had just given up 49 at home to Utah, now with nose tackle Josh Hough and center Taran Tyo listed as expected back. The 1 box score search for this recap didn't come back with clean individual lines for Weigman, Overmyer, Hough or Tyo, so the line score has to tell their story: Houston's offense was very good early and ordinary after that.
The 3rd quarter was the closest thing to a scare. Houston managed only a field goal, Cincinnati answered with a touchdown, and the lead was down to 24-17 going into the 4th. That's the same kind of quiet stretch that cost Houston in Salt Lake City, where the run game stalled and the passing game went with it. Last time the other team took the game over from there. This time Cincinnati didn't.
The 4th quarter went 7 apiece, and that was the game. Every time Cincinnati scored, Houston had a score of its own to answer it with, and the Bearcats never got the 1 stop that would have let them tie it. They never held a lead. A team that scored 42 at West Virginia was supposed to be the threat to drag this into a shootout, but Houston's defense kept them to 24, well under that pace. The Cougars' defense did its usual job of keeping an opponent in the low-to-mid 20s, and on this day that was the whole margin.
Houston moves to 7-2 and gets the ranked win it needed after the Utah loss, though the 2nd-half dip didn't go away: 21 points in the first half, 10 in the second. Cincinnati falls to 5-4 and 2-4 in the Big 12, with a loss that looks a lot better than the Utah game did. The defense came back to life after a terrible week, and it still wasn't enough, because the Bearcats spotted the home team 14 points before they showed up.
For Houston, the fix for the next 3 weeks is the same one it brought into Saturday. The Cougars have proven they can start fast. They still have to show they can close a game out without inviting the other team back into it.
