Last week’s low-scoring win over USF was a dreadful watch, but defensive football may be the Tigers’ best bet against the high-powered offense of North Texas this Saturday.
Contrary to preseason predictions, North Texas (5-1, 2-0) has established itself as the Tigers’ best remaining competition until the Thanksgiving Day matchup against Tulane. While the Tigers must win to keep any conference championship dreams alive, an overperforming Mean Green could work to their benefit.
Unlike the Tigers, the Mean Green are scheduled to play undefeated Army on Nov. 9. Memphis fans should hope for a win this weekend and an Army conference loss, which could put their team’s destiny back into it’s own hands. But a win is not going to come automatically.
Make ’em run
When you hear the name North Texas, you probably think of Rice, UAB and the rest of the AAC bottom-feeders. But I think the Mean Green could bring a surprise on Saturday, led by quarterback Chandler Morris.
Already with 20 passing touchdowns this season, Morris has had a tremendous start to the year, especially when he’s found top receiver DT Sheffield. The Mean Green average an impressive 346 passing yards per game and passed for 336 yards in their comeback win over FAU last week.
Excluding the triple option, Memphis has defended the run decently this season. If they can force the Mean Green to put the ball on the ground it should limit their scoring output significantly.
North Texas has averaged 40 points per game while Memphis has only allowed more than 17 points once (56-44 against Navy). While it may not be as fun to watch, a low-scoring game is in the best interest of the Tigers.
Get Henigan in rhythm
Remember how I said North Texas is not Rice or UAB? It’s likely Seth Henigan agrees with that sentiment as he’s a Denton, Texas native. Hopefully, playing his hometown school can give the Memphis QB a little more juice to what’s been a surprisingly inconsistent season for him.
Henigan has looked conservative passing the ball. This season he’s on pace to throw his fewest interceptions but also his fewest touchdowns. Even when overthrowing or checking down to the sideline has been the right decision, I’d love to see him make the difficult passes with confidence that we’ve become accustomed to seeing.
If Mario Anderson can refrain from spitting on a defender, the Memphis run game should not be anything to worry about. Add a touchdown or two through the air, and the Tigers should come out of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium with a comfortable win on Saturday.
Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPNU.
