Tulsa Outruns Sam Houston 23-17 Behind Two Long Touchdown Runs
Take away Trequan Jones's 81-yard touchdown run and Sam Houston wins 17-16. Tulsa left with a 23-17 victory instead, and the whole thing came down to a pair of long runs in the third quarter.
Sam Houston started well. Landyn Locke hit Chris Reed from 39 yards for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, and after Jones tied it with a 3-yard run, Locke connected with Jerrian Parker Jr. on a 94-yard pass for 14-7. Tulsa trimmed it to 14-10 with an Owen Carey field goal just before the half, and Sam Houston did not score again until late in the third.
Then the running game arrived. Tristan Lawyer broke a 56-yard touchdown run (the extra point failed) to put Tulsa up 16-14, and Jones followed with his 81-yarder at 7:22 for 23-14. Sam Carpenter's 39-yard field goal for Sam Houston with 1:02 left in the third quarter was the last score of the day. Nobody scored in the fourth quarter.
The totals tell you which team wanted the ball on the ground. Tulsa ran for 244 yards and threw for only 126, with no turnovers and five sacks. Sam Houston threw for 316 yards and ran for 55, lost a fumble and had a quarterback who finished with minus 24 rushing yards on 10 carries.
Tulsa is 2-0 and Sam Houston is 0-2, two losses that have each been closer than the score of a blowout.
Fantasy owners got Jones at 24.5 and Locke at 22.2, with Reed's 19.3 third.