Tulsa – Dropped balls and missed opportunities was the story of the Saturday night for the Bearkats as they fell to Tulsa University 56-3.
The Golden Hurricane offense ran, threw and fake field goaled their way around the field. The defense was able to push Tulsa, but in effect could never get off the field.
“I think their receivers were a bit faster than our secondary, that helped them out a lot,” said wide receiver Jason Madkins.
The Bearkats offense was first to receive the ball and quickly ran their first two plays, gaining five yards, but became a bit confused having to call a time out after two plays.
The drive continued as Blake Joseph made big plays with his feet and his arm. However, the drive stalled out as the Bearkats got to the Tulsa 39 yard line and were in a situation to go for a fourth, down but failed to capitalize on the opportunity and turned the ball over to Tulsa.
Tulsa promptly marched down the field and scored. Taking just one minute and five seconds to score on the Bearkats on a 30-yard pass by G.J. Kinne to Slick Shelley.
The Bearkats got the ball back, and again moved the ball well on the Golden Hurricane defense. Blake Joseph completed a 47-yard pass to Jason Madkins, the longest play of the night for the Bearkats. But the drive stalled out again when incomplete passes stopped the offense. The kats settled for a field goal, which would be their only points of the night.
The next drive for Tulsa set the pace of the game. On their second play Kinne hit Johnson for a 63-yard touchdown pass on a drive that lasted two plays, went 72-yards, and lasted just 36 seconds.
Sam Houston tried to answer again, but missed a field goal after an eight-play drive.
“Well I just think we moved the ball early as in the first two or three drives,” said Madkins. “I believe we could’ve played better but we made some mistakes that we usually haven’t made in the past two games.”
Sam Houston’s offense was put to a halt as the Tulsa defense adjusted to their play, and the Tulsa offense went on a frenzy racking up 35 points in the first half and only punting once.
By the end of the third quarter Kinne had passed for 264-yards and four touchdowns.
Backup quarterback Bryan Randolph came into the game in the third quarter after Blake Joseph hurt is non throwing shoulder.
Randolph went down field for some long opportunities, but his efforts were too little too late.
The Tulsa offense racked up 516-yards of total offense against the Kats.
The loss dropped the Bearkats to 2-23 against football bowl subdivision teams, their last win coming in 2002 against Louisiana Monroe.
The Bearkats will be in action next Saturday, Oct. 3, against Saint Joseph University at 2 p.m