I don’t think many people have considered how the Cincinnati Bearcats are actually doing in the Big 12 this season. I think plenty of people noticed the Bearcats lose to the Nebraska Cornhuskers and then kind of checked out on what Cincinnati was doing for the rest of the season up to this point.
Well now we’ve got to talk about a Cincinnati team that is 3-1 overall and 1-0 in Big 12 play.
The Bearcats are currently in the right sort of position to cause a little chaos in the conference and while they likely aren’t going to compete for the conference championship, they technically have a better shot than many Big 12 members right now.
That’s because they met up with the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kansas and took down a KU team that many expected to be a bit of a darkhorse (and/or a complicating factor) in the race to the Big 12 championship game.
Now, Kansas’ season isn’t over just because they lost to Cincinnati, but the Bearcats did kind of provide a formula for securing a win over the Jayhawks.
And that formula involves so many yards and so many points.
Cincinnati proved that Texas Tech’s offense should be able to explode for yards and points when the Red Raiders meet up with Kansas
Against the Jayhawks on the road, Cincinnati managed to accumulate 603 total yards of offense. That, my friends, is a lot of total yards of offense. The Bearcats didn’t commit a single turnover, they had 29 first downs, and Cincinnati managed to convert on 7-of-16 third down opportunities and 3-of-3 fourth down opportunities.
If you assumed that those stats led to a lot of points, you’d be right. 37 of them, to be exact.
The Bearcats managed to get 388 passing yards against KU’s defense (I’m sure Behren Morton and Texas Tech’s receiving corps are thrilled about that) while also running for 215 yards on an average of 5.8 yards per carry.
Now, entering this weekend, Cincinnati’s offense was kind of in the upper middle class of the Big 12. The Bearcats were averaging 40.3 points per game (which is actually good for No. 4 in the conference), but they were only getting 438.3 total yards of offense per game (sitting at No. 7 in the conference).
When Texas Tech faced Kansas (and the Red Raiders held the lead in the Big 12 in both of those categories entering this weekend), the Jayhawks are going to be in Lubbock and will face an offense that is so much more productive than what they got this weekend. And I think that will be fun for Texas Tech fans.