Well, at least not many seem to like us to beat Cincy this weekend. Some people are pegging this as a low scoring affair, which I also don't quite understand. I'm not really concerned about lack of respect or anything, I just find it odd. Also, of all the Big East teams, I've watched Cincy and L'ville the least this season, so maybe I'm just terribly uninformed. That being said, here's some things that we know:

- Cincy may or may not have the worst defense in the conference, but they're certainly not better than USF, Pitt and WVU. Syracuse offense should have a best day they've had since we played Colgate.

- Consider also that Syracuse beat USF on the road, holding their offense to one measily FG. Cincy's defense got smoked by USF at home giving up a total of 38 points.

- Syracuse is coming off a monster win at WVU, and could be ripe for another let-down. But I have to believe that even though the team is winning, the entire Syracuse offense is hungry for a big game after being held to under 20 pts the last 3 outings.

- Regardless who starts at QB for Cincy, it'll be a tough assignment for the Syracuse defense, but Collaros not starting, or starting and not being 100% really hurts Cincy's chances. Especially with how Syracuse's D has looked at times this season.

- On the flipside, Syracuse starters on both sides of the ball appear to be healthy. Not sure if WVU shut us out in the 2nd half last week if Carter was in the game.

- Syracuse is 3-1 on the season in road games, 2-0 in the Big East road games. Both of those BE wins games were nooners and homecoming game, as will this weeks game. Cincy is also not exactly known for having the most hostile fans.

-  Butch Jones is in his first year at Cincy, Doug Marrone is in year two. At best Butch is leading Cincy to the worst season they've had in recent memory (perhaps even a losing season), while Doug has Syracuse headed for their first winning season since 2001.

Maybe I'm a bit optimistic, but I think Syracuse is in the best possible position we could realistically expect heading into the game Saturday. Maybe Cincy switches into desperation mode like Pitt did on us two weeks ago, and if that happens, so be it. My orange-filled head thinks that in this worst case scenario, the game turns into a shootout, and depending on how bad Cincy's D actually is, we could hang with them. What do you think?