Memphis Tigers vs. Cincinnati Bearcats: The Truth
The Memphis Tigers will travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats this evening, in the American Athletic Conference opener for both schools.
Memphis is a slight favorite in this conference matchup, but this one is a tough one to predict.
The Bearcats were a strong pre-season favorite to win the American Athletic Conference title this season, and offensively they’ve shown why they were a favorite, averaging almost 40 points per game.
The problem for the Bearcats has been on the defensive side of the ball, where they’ve allowed an average of 36 points per contest. The problem is obvious for any team that cannot be effective on both sides of the ball.
Whether you put up a consistent defensive effort but cannot produce on offense, or whether the reverse of that is true, you have issues.
Clearly, offense is not an issue for this Cincinnati team. Speed is a definite weapon for them, averaging scores this year in under two minutes per drive, and a huge part of that effort has been the effective play of quarterback Gunner Kiel (what a name for a quarterback, right?).
Kiel missed last season after transferring from Notre Dame, but with Cincinnati he has completed almost 66% of his throws for 1,041 yards so far, and 14 TDs, and is sixth in college football in passing with a nice 185.8 rating. Not bad!
Helping Kiel is the fact that he has some great receivers on this Bearcat team. Chris Moore already has five TDs on the year, and set an NCAA FBS record for yards per catch (a whopping 73.7 per catch) in Cincinnati’s game against the Ohio State Buckeyes
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Obviously, it’s going to be important for the Memphis Tigers to pressure Gunner Kiel, take him out of his element, and for the corners to contain Moore as well. They will also need to stop the development of any running game the Bearcats may try to develop, an element in their game severely lacking against Ohio State.
As for the Memphis Tigers, their defense has played pretty well this season, and has been a major reason they’ve made things so tough for powerhouse teams like the UCLA Bruins. Just last week, the Tiger’s defense caused 10 turnovers and two interceptions against Ole Miss in the 24-3 loss.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Tiger offense led by quarterback Paxton Lynch. While their defense has been stellar, the offense has been quite pathetic, and that’s not really been Paxton’s fault, but more an O-Line problem. As I said in my opener, the problems are obvious for any team that cannot be effective on both sides of the ball, and against Mississippi, as an example, the Tigers put up just a measly 104 total yards!
They’ll have to do much better than that against a quick Cincinnati team who scores a ton of points quickly through the air. Bo Wallace with Ole Miss exploited some issues with the pass defense of the Tigers, and it’s possible that Gunner Kiel does the same if Memphis is not on its game.
This is a tough one to predict, but I have the Memphis Tigers with a slight edge in this game, despite their offensive issues. I think they have enough to get the job done, and I think their defense will step it up to limit the Bearcat offense in this one.
My predcition? Memphis 28, Cincinnati 21
Game Details
When: 8:00 p.m. EST
Where: Memphis, TN. – Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
Outlet: You can watch this one on ESPN2