Sunday, October 23, 2011

2011 UH Cougar Watch-Cougars Maul Marshall

This was the first game in the 2011 NCAA season that the University of Houston Cougar footballers have played while ranked, and oh yeah did I forget to mention that it was homecoming as well?

In front of the fourth largest crowd to attend a game at Robertson Stadium the number 21 ranked Cougars scored early and often to handle their football business and maul the Marshall Thundering Herd 63-28.

Um UH, can y'all teach your pro counterparts on Kirby Drive how to close out games in the second half?   I'm just sayin'.

But back to the Cougars. Case Keenum only needed 130 yards to pass Hawaii's Tommy Chang and the become the all time NCAA offensive leader and eclipsed that record in the first quarter.
 
A 70 yard touchdown bomb to Patrick Edwards a mere eight seconds into the start of the game got the scoring party started to stake UH to an early 7-0 lead.   Marshall fought back to tie the score at 7-7 but UH responded with another lighting strike drive capped off by a 12 yard TD to Tyron Carrier to bump the lead to 14-7. 

After the Herd scored seven seconds into the second period to once again tie the game at 14-144, the Cougars broke the game open with three unanswered touchdowns and a critical defensive stop of Marshall's Tron Martinez on a fourth and goal on the 1 yard line just before halftime that allowed the Cougars to take a 35-21 lead into the locker room.

After Marshall quarterback AJ Graham scored on a 6 yard run to narrow the gap to 35-21 early in the third quarter, the Cougars put the game away with another Keenum TD strike to Justin Johnson and a Derrick Matthews 20 yard pick six

Keenum was 24 of 28 for 376 yards and six touchdown before yielding to his backup Cotton Turner who also tossed a TD pass in mopup duty.

The Cougars move to 7-0 and 3-0 in the C-USA West Division and have a short week.  They have a Thursday night Bayou Bucket showdown with our crosstown rivals Rice at the Rob and the Owl.faithful haven't let us forget who won last year's game. 

You know the Owls would like nothing better than to do unto us what they did last year and ruin what is shaping up to be a very special season here on Cullen Blvd.

The Gospel Of Diamond Stylz

She's back!.  Diamond Stylz in an interesting video tells you about her relationship with God.

Happy Birthday Kye!

Had to give a collegiate brother some love and a TransGriot shout out on his birthday since he's had a very interesting year.   The collegiate brother I'm talking about is Kye Allums, who is moving into his senior year at George Washington University.  

Happy birthday Kye!   May it be a blessed and low stress day for you, may you have many more and an outstanding kick butt senior season on the hardwood.

TransGriot's NFL Picks-Week 7

We're getting closer to the midpoint of the 2011 NFL season and there have been some interesting twists and turns in this season as always.  One of the interesting twists this week is only the second NFL regular season game in the UK with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on the Chicago Bears in historic Wembley Stadium.

If you think the NFL doesn't have a following in Europe, think again.  Wembley will be sold out for this game and here's the NFLUK website for you to peruse to make my point about the popularity of American football there
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I had an interesting Week 6  pundit wiseI thought Indy would finally break through and get a win but Andy Dalton and the Bengals had other ideas.  I went back and forth on the Bills-Giants and Vikings-Bears game and didn't expect the 49ers to beat the red hot Lions at home.  


And of course I'm not liking what I saw last Sunday  with my hometown NFL franchise in their loss to Baltimore.  I'm also not liking the fact the Texans been outscored 89-40 in the second half lately after dominating teams early.
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Week 6 is done.  So let's get busy with my TransGriot NFL picks for Week 7.  

Teams getting their byes this week are the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, New England Patriots, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers.    That means once again I'm only picking 13 games this week.   


As for the prognostication competition I'm having with Michael Watts, we had identical 8-5 records and I'm still trailing him by two games so let's see if I can make up some ground on him this week.   Mike's NFL picks are here.  Team I'm picking to win will be on the left with home team in bold print.

Week 6 record  8-5
TransGriot Season Record  56-34

Week 7
Sunday, October 23

Noon Games
Houston over Tennessee
Seattle over Cleveland
Detroit over Atlanta
Denver over Miami
San Diego over NY Jets
Tampa Bay over Chicago
Carolina over Washington

3 PM Games
Kansas City over Oakland
Pittsburgh over Arizona
Green Bay over Minnesota
Dallas over St. Louis

Sunday Night Game
New Orleans over Indianapolis

Monday, October 24
Baltimore over Jacksonville