Houston scores 29 fourth-quarter points to stun Pitt

FORT WORTH, Texas – Houston quarterback Greg Ward had just thrown his third touchdown in a flurried comeback that included two recovered onside kicks in a row to get the Cougars within a point in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Interim coach David Gibbs never had a second thought on what to do with less than a minute left in the game.

“We decided to go for two at the end because we had the momentum,” Gibbs said.

Deontay Greenberry, already with two TD catches in that final 3:41, made a leaping catch in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion and the Cougars beat Pittsburgh 35-34 on Friday with an improbable comeback – the largest in an FBS game this season, and largest in a bowl game that didn’t go overtime.

“We’ve been through a lot of games where we was coming from behind and we got close to coming back and winning the game, but we just couldn’t finish it,” Greenberry said. “It’s all about just never quitting.”

Pitt (6-7) led 31-6 when James Conner had his second touchdown run with 14 minutes left in the game. The Panthers were still up 34-13 after Chris Blewitt’s 29-yard field goal with 6:14 left.

Ward had an 8-yard TD pass to Greenberry before Houston recovered its first onside kick. That led to a 29-yard catch by Demarcus Ayers on a fourth-and-13 play with 1:58 left. Houston tried another onside kick.

While the second one didn’t go 10 yards on the rain-slickened field, the ball was touched by the same Pitt defender who couldn’t handle the first one before Houston running back Kenneth Farrow jumped on it at the Cougars 43. Greenberry started the drive with a 38-yard catch, then on third-and-16 had a 25-yard TD with 59 seconds left.

Houston prepared for such a situation to use a two-point play since defensive coordinator Gibbs took over as interim for fired coach Tony Levine.

“The truth is our first bowl practice … we made a decision that day at practice that if it came down to the end of the game, we were going for two no matter what,” Gibbs said. “This is a true story. We started practicing the two-point play the very first practice. So we’ve probably run that play, I don’t know, 25, 30 times in practice.”