Houston's dreams of the College Football Playoff likely dashed with Navy loss
It’s hard to see how Houston gets to a New Year’s Six bowl for the second-straight season. And you can probably forget about the College Football Playoff.
The No. 6 Cougars were steamrolled by Navy on Saturday as the Midshipmen ran for 305 yards in a 46-40 win.
Houston did stuff Navy on a 4th-and-one midway through the fourth quarter while trailing 41-33 to keep its hopes alive. Navy eschewed the 33-yard field goal attempt and 11-point lead on the play in favor of a potential touchdown, but Houston read the inside handoff perfectly.
The offensive possession that followed was far from perfect. The Cougars gained two yards and had two incomplete passes. Houston decided to punt and the punt snap sailed out of the end zone for a safety and a 10-point Navy advantage.
The Cougars tried an onside kick on the ensuing free kick and Navy recovered, adding a field goal for its final points of the day.
Houston made the Peach Bowl in 2015 as the best team from the Group of 5 thanks to a one-loss regular season. A one-loss regular season could have conceivably meant a repeat in 2016, but the circumstances of the loss to Navy make it tough.
The Midshipmen and Cougars are in the same division in the American Athletic Conference. Given that Navy now has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Houston, the one-game lead in the standings is essentially a two-game lead. Houston can’t tie Navy in the standings and hope to get to the title game.
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There’s also a couple other pesky factors at play. Both Boise State and Western Michigan are still undefeated along with an Air Force team that beat Navy a week ago.
Boise State has looked unstoppable at times in 2016 and WMU has beaten two Big Ten teams. If either of those two go undefeated, it’ll be hard to see how the College Football Playoff would consider Houston to be the best team from outside the Power 5 conferences.
And there’s also the Louisville factor. Houston plays the Cardinals and Heisman hopeful quarterback Lamar Jackson at the end of the season. Any realistic scenario involving Houston making a New Year’s Six bowl includes an impressive win over Louisville.
Speaking of the Heisman, while Houston’s NY6 hopes were severely damaged, so were the Heisman hopes of Greg Ward. The QB accounted for all three of Houston’s turnovers, throwing two interceptions and also fumbling. While Ward had flashes of brilliance, he missed wide open receivers on multiple occasions.
Ward finished 31-of-48 passing for 361 yards and three touchdowns.
After watching his team deliver the upset win, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo could hardly contain himself.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
