Top 25 College Football Capsules: Houston spoils Louisville’s playoff hopes with 36-10 win
HOUSTON – Duke Catalon scored three touchdowns and Houston hurried and harassed Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson all night to propel the Cougars to a stunning 36-10 victory over Louisville on Thursday night that dashed No. 3 Louisville’s playoff hopes.
Louisville (9-2) entered the game ranked fifth in the College Football Playoff rankings, but was outdone by a Houston team that saw its own playoff hopes foiled by two losses to unranked teams after a 5-0 start.
“We blew it,” Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said.
Things went wrong quickly for the mistake-prone Cardinals when they fumbled the opening kickoff to Houston (9-2). Greg Ward threw his first touchdown pass on the next play to make it 7-0. Brandon Radcliff lost a fumble later in the first and Houston added a field goal on the ensuing drive to make it 10-0.
Jackson threw for 211 yards and a touchdown, but it didn’t come until the second half.
Houston then scored touchdowns on three straight possessions in the second quarter to push the lead to 31-0 at halftime. Catalon caught a touchdown pass, ran for another score and Houston got the third score in that span on a 50-yard pass by receiver Linell Bonner after a lateral.
“When we’re fresh, we’re healthy, we can play with anybody in the country,” Houston coach Tom Herman said.
Louisville opened the second half with a 12-yard touchdown pass by Jackson, but he fumbled in the red zone on the next possession to ruin a chance to close the gap.
The Cougars were in Jackson’s face constantly, sacking him a season-high 11 times and keeping him from hurting them with his feet. He ran for a season-low 33 yards after piling up 338 yards rushing combined in the last two games.
After Jackson was sacked for the 10th time he threw up his hands and two of his lineman looked to be yelling at each other about who was to blame for his latest takedown.
But the Cougars weren’t done getting after him just yet. On the next possession he threw the ball away while under heavy pressure from Tyus Bowser and was flagged for intentional grounding, giving the Cougars a safety.
The Cardinals set a season-high with 15 penalties, punted a season-high six times by halftime and the 11 sacks they allowed were more than double their previous season-high. It’s the fewest points they’ve scored since a loss at North Carolina in 2011.
“We didn’t look like ourselves,” Radcliff said.
Ward threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns to help the Cougars to the victory that left Cougar fans storming the field to celebrate.
Arkansas State 35, No. 25 Troy 3
TROY, Ala. – Chris Humes caught a 31-yard pass on a fake punt and recovered a fumble in the end zone to help Arkansas State upset Troy.
The Red Wolves (6-4, 6-0 Sun Belt Conference) gained the inside track for a fifth league title in six years after starting the season 0-4.
Four days earlier, Troy (8-2, 5-1) had become the first ranked Sun Belt team after winning seven straight games. But the league’s top scoring offense committed five turnovers and couldn’t reach the end zone. rkansas State remains the team to beat, having won 15 straight conference games.
Humes had a big role in two straight touchdowns. Arkansas State turned a well-executed fake punt into a 7-3 halftime lead. Cam Echols-Luper took the punt snap and hit a wide open Humes, who raced down the left sideline to inside Troy’s 10. Three plays later, Justice Hansen hit a leaping Kendall Sanders in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown.