A few weeks back, the Texas Tech Red Raiders had no problem going into the Bayou City and securing a lopsided, dominant win over Willie Fritz and the Houston Cougars. The Red Raiders looked really impressive in beating a Houston team that up to that point hadn’t lost a single game and had been playing really solid defense.
The Cougars are still playing solid defense and haven’t lost a game since they fell to the Red Raiders and now Houston is fresh off of a really solid road win against an Arizona State team that Texas Tech wasn’t able to handle in Tempe.
Like the Red Raiders who beat them 35-11, Houston is now 7-1 overall on the season and 4-1 in Big 12 play. The Cougars were able to steadily build a solid lead over Arizona State on Saturday and then managed to maintain that lead by clinging onto the ball and avoiding mistakes. Thus the over 37 minutes in time of possession for UH against the Sun Devils.
Houston was able to get a road win over Arizona State while Texas Tech wasn’t able to. Here’s why that matters.
This UH win is really impressive for Fritz and the Cougars. Houston might just be the most improved team in the country and the Coogs clearly have a legit shot in this race to get to the Big 12 championship game. By beating Arizona State, a team that Texas Tech lost to, the Cougars cleared what was arguably the toughest hurdle left on their schedule at this point.
Houston has upcoming games against the West Virginia Mountaineers, the UCF Knights, the TCU Horned Frogs, and the Baylor Bears. All of those games are certainly winnable for Fritz and the Cougars this season.
Right now, Texas Tech is tied with Houston for third in the Big 12 standings and it certainly matters that the Red Raiders won that game. If Texas Tech is able to continue on with their winning ways, then they’ll do what it takes to at least maintain that tie with the Cougars. But if Tech drops a game at any point down the stretch, Houston is in a really good position to leapfrog the Red Raiders.
And that would not be ideal.