An old-fashioned Western shootout

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles are still licking their wounds from a 50-43 loss to Houston Saturday at Robertson Stadium on the Houston campus.

It may look like another “L” in the wins and losses column, but the game has garnered some national attention for the Eagles, who came up seven points short in the final minute against the nation’s 15th-ranked team.

ESPN broke regular programming to show the final five minutes of the contest live, and Southern Miss quarterback Martevious Young would have been named Conference USA Player of the Week if not for his counterpart at Houston Case Keenum, who had a career day with 559 yards and five touchdown passes.

The Eagles amassed 608 yards of total offense – 248 rushing and 360 passing. They earned a season-high 28 first downs, and pinned Houston inside its own 20-yard line on three out of four punts.

Southern Miss quarterback Martevious Young had by far his best game as a signal-caller, completing 21 of 35 pass attemps.

“They’re the best in the country,” USM coach Larry Fedora told reporters post-game. “We knew they were good. We knew they were going to make plays and we knew we’d make plays. We ran out of time, that’s all that happened.”

Houston, on the other hand, did not run out of time.

Three plays and 27 seconds is all it took for Keenum to land the haymaker that put an end to the Eagles’ upset bid.

The game ended with Young throwing into the Houston end zone.

Houston’s offense proved to be too much for the Golden Eagle defense, who dropped from 25th to 64th in the national rankings for scoring defense following the loss.

Houston’s total offensive output of 750 yards is a new record for a Southern Miss opponent.

Even worse, the Eagles are now locked in a four-way tie for second place in Conference USA’s Eastern Division.

To earn a rematch with the high-flying Cougars, the Eagles will almost certainly have to beat East Carolina and Marshall on the road, while hoping UAB gets another loss.

The Eagles will have to endure the taste of Saturday’s loss in their mouth over an open date this weekend before travelling to Marshall for one of the two do-or-die games.