Christian Stewart has tossed 22 touchdowns for BYU. (Getty)
The Basics
Who:
BYU (8-4) vs. Memphis (9-3), Miami Beach Bowl
When:
Monday, Dec. 22, 2 p.m. Eastern on ESPN
Where:
Marlins Park, Miami
Line:
Memphis (-1). Line provided by bovada.lv
All-Time Series:
First meeting
Last Year’s Miami Beach Bowl:
Inaugural game
Heavy’s Pick
This matchup gives us one of the top scoring offenses – BYU at 36.2 points per game – against one of the tougher defenses to score on – Memphis at 17.1 ppg. The Tigers are no slouches on the offensive side, either. They put up nearly 35 a contest.
The Cougars have had a strange season. They began 4-0 behind quarterback Taysom Hill, who was lost for the season with a broken leg in the 4th game. In steps Christian Stewart. BYU lost its next 4. Sitting at 4-4, Stewart accounted for 17 TDs (14 passing) and BYU won its final 4.
It’s been pretty straightforward for a team like Memphis – lose to the ranked teams, drop a conference game it probably should’ve won, then win the rest of the games it was supposed to. The Tigers are on a 6-game winning streak, not allowing over 20 points in any game over the stretch.
So how does this one play out? BYU is back to its early-season, high-scoring winning ways. The Memphis D is locked in. The saying goes “defense wins.” Not in this case, though. The Memphis D is locked in because over the past 2 months, it hasn’t faced a scoring offense ranked higher than 94th. BYU turns Miami into Cougar Town.