A Look At The AAC
AAC Report: Coogs get back in the win column and some close calls in the AAC
Nov 27, 2019, 6:55 am
UH Football Official Twitter Account
Week 13 in the AAC was pretty darn good. Four of the six games were decided by one score. UH was almost in that category, but held on to win by 10. And can you call a game an upset if a ranked team lost to a conference opponent that had a 7-2 record coming into the game? Let's take a look at the week that was in the AAC:
UH improves to 4-7 with road win over Tulsa and get some good news this week
Turnovers were the name of the game in the Coogs road win at Tulsa. While they were outgained by 149 in total offense, the Coogs were a +3 in the turnover department. It also helped that Tulsa had -1 yard rushing. Most of that was due to their four sacks of Zach Smith. Smith, however, threw for 381 yards. But he was responsible for three of their four turnovers (two interceptions and a lost fumble). The Coogs will close out their season hosting a tough Navy team and their daunting rushing attack. While that may be enough to make some fans nervous, the team did get some good news this week as Fort Bend Foster's three star defensive tackle Chidozie Nwankwo announced his commitment to UH via a video on his Twitter account. I'm not saying he's the next Ed Oliver, but his potential is intriguing.
Other Key Results
Navy 35, #25 SMU 28: The Midshipmen played their brand of old school triple option football and ran over the Mustangs. Navy rushed for 378 yards and even mixed in 162 yards in the air. SMU was up 21-10 at the half and were essentially choked out in the second half.
#19 Cincinnati 15, Temple 13: The Bearcats went up 13-0 in the third quarter and maintained that lead into the fourth. That's when things got weird. Temple scored a touchdown, had the PAT blocked, and returned for two points. They scored another touchdown and made the PAT. Had the Owls made their first PAT, they could've potentially won the game.
#18 Memphis 49, USF 10: The Tigers set themselves up for an AAC Title game appearence with tihs win. Their run game ran wild and quarterback Brady White threw another two touchdown passes. They made light work of the Bulls and didn't allow themselves to be tripped up.
Stars of the Week
Patrick Taylor Jr, RB, Memphis: While Kenneth Gainwell may have had more rushing yards (128 to 95), Taylor had three rushing touchdowns and Gainwell had none. Advantage Taylor.
MalcolmPerry, QB, Navy: Perry had 195 yards and two touchdowns rushing, along with 162 yards and a touchdown passing in their win over SMU. He was singlehandedly responsible for the Midshipmen's biggest win of the season.
Doug Gabriel, QB, UCF: Gabriel was another quarterback who put his team on his back this week. He had 317 yards and a touchdown through the air along with 58 yards rushing in the Golden Knights' 34-31 win on the road over Tulane.
Games to Watch This Week
#19 Cincinnati @ #18 Memphis
Tulane @ SMU
Navy @ Houston
Players to Watch This Week
Brady White, Memphis: If the Tigers beat Cincinnati, they'll have a rematch against the Bearcats for the AAC Title game. But...
Malcolm Perry, Navy: ...if the Tigers lose and the Midshipmen beat SMU, they have a shot at the AAC Title game. But...
Shane Buechele, SMU: ...if the Mustangs can win and the Tigers lose, the Mustangs will go to the AAC Title game. Interresting final week in the AAC!
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Jacob deGrom went eight innings to win his fourth consecutive start for the Texas Rangers, who got Jake Burger's solo home run off Hunter Brown in a 1-0 win over the Houston Astros on Thursday night in an anticipated pitchers' duel that certainly lived up to expectations.
Two-time Cy Young Award winner deGrom (4-1) is having quite a comeback after missing most of the last two seasons following Tommy John surgery. The 36-year-old right-hander struck out seven, two of those to end innings with two runners on base, while walking one and giving up five hits.
Brown (6-2), who is 10 years younger that deGrom, struck out nine without a walk while scattering three hits in his first career complete game. The righty was tied for the major league lead in wins and retired the first 12 batters he faced before Adolis García lined a double to left to start the fifth.
Shawn Armstrong worked around a two-out walk in the ninth for his second save.
Burger went deep leading off the sixth, a 394-foot drive into the Texas bullpen in right-center for his fourth homer of the season.
Key moment
Rangers right fielder García made a sliding catch of a sinking liner by Mauricio Dubón for the final out of the seventh when Houston had a runner at second base. García had several nice plays, including a sliding catch near the line after running a long way to open the fourth.
Key stat
Bruce Bochy got his 2,195th career win to break a tie with Sparky Anderson for the sixth-most by an MLB manager. Bochy, who turned 70 last month, is in his 28th season as a manager, his third in Texas.
Up next
Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (4-2, 1.78 ERA) goes into Friday night having allowed only two earned runs over 25 innings in his last four starts (3-0). Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (0-1, 15.75) makes only his third start for Houston since the 2022 World Series.