Houston offense awakens in 30-19 win over TCU

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