Posted on: Sunday, October 5, 2003
Once bright offense vanishes into night
| • | Tulsa hands UH low blow |
| • | Hawai'i continues to sputter away from home |
| • | Kilian's decision to stay pays off |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
TULSA, Okla. — Now that Kobe Bryant has finally put in an appearance, it is time to turn our attention to finding another prominent no-show, the University of Hawai'i's offense.
Last seen in the opening minutes of the second quarter of last night's football game holding a 16-3 lead, what had been among the nation's leaders in total offense and scoring is now deemed to be missing in action after a head-scratching 27-16 loss to Tulsa.
The team that had been picked to win the Western Athletic Conference just up and disappeared for the final 40 minutes, 11 seconds against Tulsa, which had been picked dead last in the 10-team conference.
After scoring on its first three possessions of the game — two touchdowns and a field goal — the Warriors' offense inexplicably went missing in the cool, rainy night, not to be heard from again.
Searchers were left to sift through UH's last eight possessions — two interceptions and six punts — for clues to the bizarre disappearance on a night when UH managed just half its 33.8 point average and 130.5 yards less than its 379.5 yard passing average.
Even Tulsa head coach Steve Kragethorpe, whose team inflicted the stunning loss, was hard pressed to explain how, "with the explosiveness of their offense," the Warriors could vanish so suddenly and completely. "In some respects that surprised me," Kragethorpe acknowledged.
Most curious was that UH's longest string of shutout minutes in nearly two years came against a team that dared to play a lot of man-to-man coverage, something the Warriors all but beg teams to employ.
What's more, the Golden Hurricane dared quarterback Tim Chang, the triggerman in the nation's No. 2 passing attack, to take the easy, underneath spaces.
"I told our team — and I don't have the stat sheet yet — that Chang would complete 30 passes (he went on to complete just 21 of 35 before leaving woozy late in the fourth quarter)," Kragethorpe said. "I know that's going to happen because of the nature of their offense, because he's such a great player. But as long as they aren't 50 yards down the field, we're going to be fine. So don't get worried when he completes four, five or six balls in a row because the guy will do it against the New England Patriots."
Kragethorpe was right. The Golden Hurricane, rushing just four defenders and dropping six and seven back, kept Chang and the Warriors, minus deep threat Jeremiah Cockheran, who watched from the bench with his ankle injury, in front of them.
The Golden Hurricane, employing successfully what Southern California and Nevada-Las Vegas did, allowed only two passes of more than 20 yards after UH took the 16-3 lead — the longest of which went for 26 yards. And, the more the offense struggled and became impatient, the longer the field became.
Without an offense to complement it past the point of the 16-3 lead, a defense that had surrendered just one touchdown in seven quarters gradually wore down.
In the aftermath of a victory so large that Tulsa officials were thumbing through the record books trying to find a recent one to compare it with, UH, which hasn't stumbled this badly since the Portland State loss of 2000, has bigger problems.
It has to put out an all-points bulletin and find its offense in time for Fresno State Saturday.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
