University of Houston Athletics
Duo Named American Players of the Week
9/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
HOUSTON -- Houston's Greg Ward Jr. and Steven Taylor swept The American Athletic Conference's Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors for their efforts in Houston's 40-16 win at Cincinnati the league office announced Monday.
The two honors give Houston four for the season after just three weeks of action as Ward claimed the offensive honor on Sept. 5 after Houston's win over Oklahoma while Brandon Wilson was named the Special Teams Player of the Week the same day.
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The nation's leader in sacks, Taylor collected a team-high nine tackles including two sacks while returning a fourth-quarter interception 74 yards for his first career touchdown to seal Houston's road win. He helped lead a Houston defense that held Cincinnati to its lowest offensive output at home since 2010 as the Bearcats totaled just 307 yards including 30 rushing yards on 25 attempts.
Taylor now has a sack in a nation's best five consecutive games with multiple sacks in all three games this season. With his efforts Thursday night, Taylor moved into fifth on the Houston career sacks and tackles for loss charts with 22.5 sacks and 44 tackles for loss. The pick-six also gave him interceptions in back-to-back games against Cincinnati after intercepting a Bearcats' pass in Houston's 2015 win.
Ward collected his fifth career 300-yard passing game when he threw for 326 yards and one touchdown in Houston's win while also rushing for 73 yards and two touchdowns. Both rushing touchdowns came in the fourth quarter after Houston had fallen behind 16-12 as Ward willed Houston to its 16th straight win when the Tyler, Texas, native starts.
Ward leads all quarterbacks nationally with his 16-game winning streak and ranks 10th nationally with an average of 323.5 passing yards per game and ninth nationally with an average of 360.5 yards of total offense per game. With his two rushing touchdowns Thursday, Ward moved into a tie for third on the Houston career rushing TDs chart with 31 scores and needs just eight more to tie Bryce Beall for the Houston career record in the category.
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