I would take Tulsa’s stats with a grain of salt. As others have said, offensive miscues, mainly in the first quarter, have greatly affected the points given up by the defense and lack of points by the offense. A typical TU first quarter this year would include at least one interception (possibly a pick six), two fumbles (one deep in our territory and one inside the opponents 5), a bad snap past the QB and a turnover on downs in our territory. We normally get things settled down before halftime and play strong after that.

I’m hoping Montgomery goes against type and starts Brin if Smith isn’t 100%. Smith had a “torso” injury against Tulane and you could tell it was still bothering him against Navy. He threw a bunch of godawful passes and would often grab his side after throwing a pass. Unfortunately I suspect we will trot Smith out no matter what. You might get some takeaways but if we can just avoid the giveaways and silly penalties then it should be a good tight game that will go either way depending on the unforeseen bounces. If we have a typical TU first quarter then it would be tough to come back against your defense.

You can't just throw out stats and things that happened. If that has been your MO all season, what makes you think that will change against Cincinnati? UC has beaten the doors off of teams - average score of 41-16 in conference play. If Tulsa is fumbling the ball around the first half as they have all year - they'll be in a hole at half time. That lets UC's rushers (Sanders, Ponder, etc.) pin their ears back and with that secondary (2nd best in the country per PFF) then Tulsa is in big time trouble...

Cincy 28-7. To much for a thin Tulsa.

Cincinnati fans are too cocky. Yes they’ve looked good but they haven’t played anyone as good as Tulsa yet this season. They’re showing a bunch of hubris and if the team does the same thing then they’re going to lose.

I think part is Smith’s problem is needing to get into a Rhythm but I think part of it has been dealing with a wet ball. At UCF and at Navy he was throwing really poorly to start the game off, but there was also some weather that had been soaking the field. I wonder if he can do better in a hopefully dry game. Monty has historically had the team playing up to the competition. There have been very few games outside of the couple of seasons where we had abysmal QB play, where we just weren’t in a game vs a good team. With the time off, I fully expect our offense to have a game plan for Cincy.

Our defense is better than the Army team that Cincy didn’t decimate and our offense is obviously better than there’s when it comes to playing from behind.

I think this comes down to a Maxwell award finalist on Cincinnati and a Heisman contender on defense for Tulsa.

I’m curious if Cincy will try to do more of the option type stuff that they showed against SMU / Army or if they’ll try to win through the air.

If they try to win through the air, they will lose. Their best option is to keep the option.

(12-11-2020 11:29 AM)TUCandoit Wrote:  If they try to win through the air, they will lose. Their best option is to keep the option.

Idk, we have speed and smarts in the front 7. I think we showed that against Navy. This is the first year that we’ve really dominated mobile QB’s.

(12-11-2020 11:11 AM)invisiblehand Wrote:  Our defense is better than the Army team that Cincy didn’t decimate and our offense is obviously better than there’s when it comes to playing from behind.

FBS Total Defense [NCAA.com]
4 Army
10 Cincinnati
20 Tulsa

Scoring Defense
4 Cincinnati
8 Army
21 Tulsa

Rushing Defense
18 Cincinnati
23 Army
50 Tulsa

Red Zone Defense
6 Army
17 Cincinnati
26 Tulsa

I don't think you're giving enough credit to Army's dee. Plus, Desmond Ridder is a better QB over the second half of the season compared to the first half. We also made some changes on our offensive line that helped improve his overall play. Make no doubt, we will run the ball but passing and Ridder improvising with his legs will be a part of the gameplan too.

(12-11-2020 06:47 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 11:11 AM)invisiblehand Wrote:  Our defense is better than the Army team that Cincy didn’t decimate and our offense is obviously better than there’s when it comes to playing from behind.

FBS Total Defense [NCAA.com]
4 Army
10 Cincinnati
20 Tulsa

Scoring Defense
4 Cincinnati
8 Army
21 Tulsa

Rushing Defense
18 Cincinnati
23 Army
50 Tulsa

Red Zone Defense
6 Army
17 Cincinnati
26 Tulsa

I don't think you're giving enough credit to Army's dee. Plus, Desmond Ridder is a better QB over the second half of the season compared to the first half. We also made some changes on our offensive line that helped improve his overall play. Make no doubt, we will run the ball but passing and Ridder improvising with his legs will be a part of the gameplan too.

Army's defensive stats are always skewed by their time of possession offense (as Navy's can be when our offense isn't broken). But the red zone ranking did make me raise an eyebrow.
I was impressed with Tulsa's D in the sense that it ain't just Zaven Collins. #90 and #97 straight up blew some stuff up on us. Good up the middle on all three levels. But Navy's not necessarily a good yardstick vis a vis UC's O scheme even in a better year than this.

(12-11-2020 07:31 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  Army's defensive stats are always skewed by their time of possession offense (as Navy's can be when our offense isn't broken). But the red zone ranking did make me raise an eyebrow.
I was impressed with Tulsa's D in the sense that it ain't just Zaven Collins. #90 and #97 straight up blew some stuff up on us. Good up the middle on all three levels. But Navy's not necessarily a good yardstick vis a vis UC's O scheme even in a better year than this.

Oh, I agree Tulsa has a good dee but Army is no slouch. To be fair, Tulsa has played a tougher schedule than Army and Army also lost to Tulane - a common opponent to both Tulsa and Navy. Best of luck tomorrow BTW.

(12-11-2020 08:30 AM)JFlight21 Wrote:  You can't just throw out stats and things that happened. If that has been your MO all season, what makes you think that will change against Cincinnati? UC has beaten the doors off of teams - average score of 41-16 in conference play. If Tulsa is fumbling the ball around the first half as they have all year - they'll be in a hole at half time. That lets UC's rushers (Sanders, Ponder, etc.) pin their ears back and with that secondary (2nd best in the country per PFF) then Tulsa is in big time trouble...

Joke's on you. We've been in a hole at halftime in nearly every game we've played. And then we won.

(12-11-2020 06:47 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 11:11 AM)invisiblehand Wrote:  Our defense is better than the Army team that Cincy didn’t decimate and our offense is obviously better than there’s when it comes to playing from behind.

FBS Total Defense [NCAA.com]
4 Army
10 Cincinnati
20 Tulsa

Scoring Defense
4 Cincinnati
8 Army
21 Tulsa

Rushing Defense
18 Cincinnati
23 Army
50 Tulsa

Red Zone Defense
6 Army
17 Cincinnati
26 Tulsa

I don't think you're giving enough credit to Army's dee. Plus, Desmond Ridder is a better QB over the second half of the season compared to the first half. We also made some changes on our offensive line that helped improve his overall play. Make no doubt, we will run the ball but passing and Ridder improvising with his legs will be a part of the gameplan too.

Army was getting a lot of penetration in that game with the old starters on the line. Since we’ve made those changes we haven’t seen the type of batter balls and pressure up the middle that we did early in the season.

Definitely respect Tulsa’s defense and think they are probably a better overall unit when considering turnovers and explosive plays, but wanted to point that out as it was a major factor in Ridder’s improvement and this the offenses improvement.

Tulsa's a better defensive team than army (24 sp+ defensive efficiency v. 44) but uc offense is totally different since the smu game.

This was started too soon.

Are we really expected to talk about... Tulsa... for another whole week?

(12-12-2020 08:22 AM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  This was started too soon.

Are we really expected to talk about... Tulsa... for another whole week?

Well, who else is there for Tulsa and UC fans to talk about?

(12-12-2020 08:45 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(12-12-2020 08:22 AM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  This was started too soon.

Are we really expected to talk about... Tulsa... for another whole week?

Well, who else is there for Tulsa and UC fans to talk about?

UC.

The flagship.

Army dee pretty good, no?

The line has shifted a tad...

SAT DEC 19, 8:00pm ABC
24 Tulsa o47.5
8 Cincinnati -14.5

Also, will Tulsa move up a notch in the rankings since #21 Colorado lost? I don't believe they did last week.

(12-12-2020 07:54 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Tulsa's a better defensive team than army (24 sp+ defensive efficiency v. 44) but uc offense is totally different since the smu game.

I agree.

The Chip game will feature the following Cincinnati and Tulsa 2020 AAC postseason award winners....

Luke Fickell - Coach of the Year
Desmond Ridder - Offensive Player of the Year
Desmond Ridder QB - All-Conference First Team
James Hudson OT - All-Conference First Team
Gerrid Doaks RB - All-Conference First Team
Myjai Sanders DL - All-Conference First Team
Jarell White LB - All-Conference First Team
Ahmad Gardner CB - All-Conference First Team
Coby Bryant CB - All-Conference First Team
James Wiggins S - All-Conference First Team
Michael Young Jr. WR - All-Conference Second Team
Josh Whyle TE - All-Conference Second Team
Marcus Brown DL - All-Conference Second Team
Elijah Ponder DL - All-Conference Second Team
Darrian Beavers LB - All-Conference Second Team
James Smith P - All-Conference Second Team
Tre Tucker RS - All-Conference Second Team
Darrick Forrest S - All-Conference Honorable Mention
Darius Harper OT - All-Conference Honorable Mention
First Team Total - 8
Second Team Total - 7
Honorable Mention Total - 2

Zaven Collins [unanimous selection] - Defensive Player of the Year
Zaven Collins LB [unanimous selection] - All Conference First Team
Tyler Smith OT - All-Conference First Team
Jaxon Player DL - All-Conference First Team
Keylon Stokes WR - All-Conference Second Team
Chris Paul OT - All-Conference Second Team
Justin Wright LB - All-Conference Second Team
Christian Williams S - All-Conference Second Team
Zach Long K - All-Conference Second Team
Dante Bivens OG - All-Conference Honorable Mention
Dylan Couch OG - All-Conference Honorable Mention
Allie Green IV CB - All-Conference Honorable Mention
Kendarin Ray S - All-Conference Honorable Mention
Gerard Wheeler C - All-Conference Honorable Mention
First Team Total - 3
Second Team Total - 5
Honorable Mention Total - 5