Zeon Chriss threw for a touchdown and ran for another Friday night as Houston rebounded from consecutive shutouts to earn a 30-19 Big 12 Conference win over TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.
Chriss completed 15 of 18 passes for 141 yards while running for a game-high 97 yards on 11 carries. The Cougars (2-4, 1-2), who hadn't scored a point since Sept. 14 vs. Rice, rolled up 361 total yards and kept the ball for almost 37 minutes.
Chriss sat out Houston's next-to-last drive with an apparent forearm injury but backup Donovan Smith came in and led the team on a 66-yard march that lasted nearly 7:27 and concluded with Jack Martin's third field goal, a 27-yarder with 1:58 to play for a two-possession advantage.
Josh Hoover completed 23 of 37 passes for 233 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for the Horned Frogs (3-3, 1-2). Hoover tossed a 29-yard scoring strike to Jack Bech with 9:25 remaining that got them within a possession, but he also absorbed three sacks, losing a fumble after the final one with 48 seconds on the clock to end it.
TCU came into the game as a 16 1/2-point favorite but it was Houston that controlled the first 30 minutes with its best offensive half of the year.
Getting help from a targeting penalty that led to the ejection of the Horned Frogs' Abe Camara and gifted the Cougars a first down at the 13, Houston scored first via Chriss' 8-yard touchdown pass to Devan Williams at the 5:29 mark of the first quarter.
Houston made it 14-0 less than 90 seconds into the second period on a 2-yard run from Re'Shaun Sanford II, then got a 34-yard field goal from Martin with 4:55 left in the half.
Hoover got TCU on the board just before the two-minute timeout on a 21-yard touchdown strike to Savion Williams.
However, Chriss answered back with 1:48 remaining on a 71-yard scoring jaunt, enabling the Cougars to take a 24-6 cushion to intermission.
--Field Level Media
Houston | Texas Christian | |
Zeon Chriss | Player | Cam Cook |
11 | Attempts | 14 |
97 | Yards | 77 |
8.8 | Avg Yards | 5.5 |
1 | Touchdowns | 0 |
0 | Long | 0 |
Houston | Texas Christian | |
Maliq Carr | Player | JP Richardson |
2 | Receptions | 9 |
39 | Yards | 98 |
19.5 | Avg Yards | 10.9 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
0 | Long | 0 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Houston | 361 | 207 | 154 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3.0 | 2 |
Texas Christian | 299 | 66 | 233 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 3 |