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ALEX LIFESON wrote:Houston has announced a blackout for Saturday, they will be wearing all black uniforms.

I appreciate the practicality. Already in mourning attire before kickoff. Saves them from having to change for their funeral.

I will say I'm worried the Tech job rumors might affect the teams performance but I hope they're able to focus.

Yes, Dana Holgorsen has been mentioned as a candidate for the sand aggie job. Houston will just use that as an excuse when they lose.

From Gene Clemmons in The Athletic:

SMU at Houston -1, 7 p.m.
This is essentially a coin flip game according to the line. I would not be surprised to see this line flip a couple times before SaturdayΓÇÖs game. SMU is undefeated this season and HoustonΓÇÖs only loss this year came in the first game of the season against Texas Tech. Now both enter this contest looking to get a leg up in the conference standings. SMU is currently 3-0, while Houston is 4-0.

Houston has relied more on its defense this season. The Cougars are allowing less than 18 points per game and they are holding teams under 300 total yards of offense each contest. SMU has been leaning heavily on their offense. They average over 525 yards per game and score more than 42 points per game on average. While neither team has been bad on the opposite side of the football (Houston is scoring over 36 points per game and SMU is surrendering a little over 22 points per contest).

For SMU the success of the offense has been on the back of the passing game where Tanner Mordecai is putting up numbers reminiscent of the old EA Sports game on freshman level. The Houston defense has been as productive as SMUΓÇÖs offense. Five players with 3.5 or more sacks lead a defense that has 28 total sacks. They have also been able to take the ball away. They have six interceptions and nine forced fumbles with seven recoveries. This defense is fast and brings the heat. The issue for matchups of an offense vs. a defense is that the defense has to be perfect every play. That is pressure because if they make a mistake the result could be a touchdown. A prolific offense only needs to be special a few plays, especially when they can strike from anywhere on the field.

Pick: SMU wins 37-31

Houston would be ranked higher than us if they had not lost to Tech in game 1 (a game that they were leading by 2 TDs at halftime).

We will need same effort from O-Line that we saw at TCU to pull this off.

I am going to predict that we show up to play - but end up in a tight game that is won in OT.

SMU 44 UH 38 in OT

Over 62.5 is a gift to all.

Changing my mind as we are going to be so F'ing distracted...Thanks Sand Aggies! UH 31 SMU 21.

Dykes will manage his team well through this rumor stuff. For some odd reason, I feel good about this game. We still are not good enough to take a week off and we certainly looked bad a couple of times this year. I think it will be determined by turnovers. If we turn it over more than once, we'll probably lose. If we limit turnovers, then we'll win. 41-24.

UH 45
SMU 21

Start of a 4 game losing streak...

We have to believe .... the last 2 years we lacked depth and had injuries everywhere. We are mostly healthy and have depth to rotate. To me this game stimulates as much if not more emotion than TCU. SMU plays a clean game and wins by 14. Our offense is too much with Bentley back and defense does enough to.allow for separation.

IΓÇÖm down with that.

Smumba2009 wrote:We have to believe .... the last 2 years we lacked depth and had injuries everywhere. We are mostly healthy and have depth to rotate. To me this game stimulates as much if not more emotion than TCU. SMU plays a clean game and wins by 14. Our offense is too much with Bentley back and defense does enough to.allow for separation.

I agree. The return of a healthy Bentley will be ginormous for us.

I still worry about Mordecai forced throws and slow release. Can our secondary handle Tune's experience and accuracy?

Houston 42
Ponies 36

SMU_Alum11 wrote:This will be a good test of how good this team really is. All of the teams we've played so far have losing records. I think I saw our SoS is 117 but can't imagine Houston's being any better.

Tech, Tulane and ECU are the three games I hope are watching against the coogs. Tech losing to TCU would suggest a good sign for us. Tulane was only down 4 points mid through the 4th quarter before Houston got the space they needed plus a garbage time TD at the end. ECU sent them into overtime which one could argue the rain delay was an anomaly.

I think if we can replicate that first half performance against Tulane, this should be a solid win.

First half: 24-10 SMU
Final: 42-31 SMU

Be interesting to hear how SMU scores 18 in the second half. 6 field goals? 2 tds, 2 2 PT conversions and a safety? 3 tds with 3 missed extra points?