It was never pretty, but the Bearcats won last week. That seems to be the theme of the season for the Cats this year, as much as fans may hate it, but it has led UC to a 9-1 record (6-0 AAC) with that lone loss being on the road in Columbus to the No.2 team in the country. Fickell and company have done everything they needed to do to this point and because of that the season essentially starts this Saturday. A win this week against Temple would secure the East Division in the American and guarantee UC a spot in the conference title game, whether or not that game would be hosted at Nippert Stadium would depend on the season finale against Memphis. Yes, the Bearcats still have everything in front of them and completely control their own destiny, and it’s simple really, win out and you play in the Cotton Bowl.
Temple will be coming to Nippert this week with a 7-3 record looking to play the role of spoiler for UC’s Senior Night. Last week Temple beat Tulane at home boosting their AAC record to 4-2. Temple consistently fields a defense that can keep them in football games and aside from a two week blip that saw them give up 45 to SMU and 63 to UCF this season has been no different. After all, this is still the same Temple team that already beat West Division leading Memphis earlier this season. Which begs the question, what Temple team shows up to Nippert on Saturday?
Unfortunately for UC, because of the way the season has gone week by week I have a sneaky suspicion the Temple team who takes you to the wire will be the one on the field Saturday. If Temple is going to have a chance to overcome Nipp at Night and Senior Day it will have to have a big game from QB Anthony Russo. Russo is a junior who has had big games this year, like combining to throw for over 600 yards and seven touchdowns in week 1-2 against Bucknell and Maryland, but he has also had a nine completion game against Georgia Tech that saw him only throw for 127 yards and an interception. Russo will need to limit the mistakes (10 interceptions on the season) if Temple is going to have a chance.
Much like UC in the recent weeks, Temple has a two-headed rushing attack they’ll try to get going to help Russo. Freshman Re’Mahn Davis leads the Owls with 724 yards on the season, while Senior Jager Gardner is not far behind rushing for 561 this year and both backs have found the end zone five times this year. Stopping this will be no small task for the Bearcats, that defensive line especially needs to be generating more pressure than they have been since both Davis and Gardner average more than 4 yards a carry.
Sophomore Jaden Blue is the guy to stop on the outside, the WR is closing in on 1,000 yards this season eclipsing the 800 yard mark (803) last week and has three touchdowns to go with his 80.4 yards a game. He is not the only threat in the passing game however, Junior Branden Mack will go over 700 yards (698 on the season) on the season with his next reception and he’s found the end zone five times this year. After watching ECU and USF torch this Bearcats secondary two of the last three weeks it is reasonable to have some worries about Temple getting into a rhythm in the passing game. The difference is UC is night and day team when they get to play at home instead of the road, so I am cautiously optimistic that the defense irons out any lingering issues before this game.
Defensively Temple gives up 25 points a game, a lot of this is inflated because of the two week SMU, UCF stretch removing those two games and Temple has surrendered just about 17-18 a game. UC’s offense struggled in a big way last week and it is still unclear what kind of shape Desmond Ridder will be in on Saturday, he can still make plays with his legs, but this is a game UC is going to need to throw the ball downfield for a chance to wrap up the division. Senior linebacker Shaun Bradley is the leading tackler for that defense with 65 tackles. This is a Temple defense that gets after the quarterback and gets after them a lot, currently the Owls have sacked opposing quarterbacks 32 times, for comparison UC has recorded only 23, and junior defensive end Quincy Roche is responsible for 9.5 of those sacks alone. This will be the key to the game for both teams, Temple needs to generate pressure all night and Ridder has already looked shaky this season behind an offensive line that hasn’t exactly been the best so far.
If Ridder and the Bearcats offense can shake off whatever happened in South Florida and the offensive line can protect him long enough to make plays then the packed Nippert Stadium should be cheering a first ever American Championship berth come Saturday Night.
