Moore was able to steady the offense, and the defense made life on Purdue difficult. The opportunistic Cincinnati defense nabbed 5 interceptions and turning them into points. Going into the 4th quarter Purdue had only 7 points on the board, before scoring 13 garbage time points. Up 31-7, Cincinnati laid off the gas and cruised in for a 38-20 win. They’re going to need an even better tonight against the Houston offense. Quarterback Greg Ward Jr. passed for 321 yards and 2 touchdowns on the Sooners. I see him doing something similar tonight against Cincinnati. For the Bearcats to win though, they’re going to need to do what they did against the Boilermakers and force turnovers.
Ward Jr. got all of the accolades against Oklahoma, but it wouldn’t have been the case to begin with if it weren’t for the performance of the defense. We’d be talking about how prolific the Oklahoma offense is and Ward Jr. would be an afterthought. Oklahoma were held to only 23 points, after a year where they averaged around 40 points per game. The running game was held in check, with Oklahoma’s leading rusher, Joe Mixon, only getting 40 yards rushing. The Houston defensive line is fast and fierce, they’re all over the place. How Cincinnati cracks these guys is the key to the game.
Defense travels. I think the Cougars are going to have their defense running at a high level again tonight. There are a lot of guys on the defensive side of the ball looking to get recognized by NFL scouts, and there are a few there. Cincinnati will have to establish some kind of ground game to be successful in this game. And I just don’t see that happening tonight against the front-seven of Houston. Cincinnati had to replace all five of their receivers, too. The offense was all out of whack against Tennessee-Martin and only hit 38 points against Purdue thanks to turnovers. There is way too much speed on Houston for them to put together a complete game. However, I don’t see the Houston offense and Greg Ward Jr. going crazy on the Bearcats on the road. He is nicked up and going to protect his shoulder. I was expecting a total of around 60 or 60.5, so the UNDER looks like an attractive option in my opinion.
Under 64.5
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