Frankly, I should’ve known when Daily Helmsman sports reporter Austin Reynolds and me were still stuck in traffic at kickoff that last night’s game between the Memphis Tigers and the Cincinnati Bearcats at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium was going to be special. Little did we know we ended up missing about only 10 minutes of a 4-hour, 99-point offensive bonanza. Here are five quick takeaways from Memphis’ 53-46 win.
1. Yes, the Tiger defense gave a up a team record 752 yards of total offense, 557 of those yards coming from Bearcats redshirt freshman backup quarterback Hayden Moore. However, somehow, someway, they made enough plays when it mattered most to preserve another Memphis victory. The Tigers are now 4-0 for the first time since 1961, and have won 11 straight for the first time in school history. If that doesn’t show how the culture of this program has changed, nothing will.
2. Memphis’ defense has given up 87 points in the last two weeks, and the Tigers have won both games. The main reason for that is arguably because of the best offense in Tiger history. Memphis’ 53 points last night means they’ve scored 215 through the first four games in 2015, the most in any four-game stretch in team history. With a solid running game and and a special quarterback who will be mentioned below, expect the high-scoring outputs to continue.
3. The leader of that record-breaking offense is none other than Tigers redshirt junior quarterback Paxton Lynch. For the third week in a row, he set another career-best in passing yards last night with 412. Critically, he didn’t turn the ball over, and has now thrown for 1230 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions this season. With the running game struggling last night, Lynch also stepped up in that department and led the team with 52 rushing yards. His performance last night surely impressed the 11 NFL scouts in attendance. If it's starting to feel like Lynch needs to perform this well every week for Memphis to win, he probably needs to, at least until the Tiger defense shows some improvement.
4. With less than four minutes left in the first quarter, Bearcats starting quarterback Gunner Kiel went down after taking a brutal hit to the upper body from Tiger cornerback Chauncey Lanier. Though Lanier was initially penalized for targeting, and therefore an automatic ejection, the replays showed it was a legal hit as he led with the shoulder and on further review the penalty was rescinded. Kiel was down for several minutes and was taken off the field on a cart via a stretcher. The play was awful to watch live and on replay, but the fact the penalty was rescinded (even though it was the right call) felt like insult to injury for the Bearcats. To Cincinnati's credit, they came back from that and played their part in a fantastic game.
5. The Kiel injury aside, it was a fantastic night at the Liberty Bowl. Memphis beating the preseason American Athletic Conference favorite alone was important. Beating them on ESPN meant the Tigers got to show off their new-look program on a national stage. Memphis is not a program that plays on ESPN (or TV for that matter) every week, so when the chance is there the team (and program) must deliver and they did just that. The crowd was not quite the 50,000 people were hoping for (45,172), but the game more than made up for it. Times are changing, and Thursday's game solidified that once again the Memphis Tiger football program has arrived.
