College football Week 9: Treacherous road game will doom No. 6 Utah on Halloween

Why Utah will be spooked into first loss of season Saturday

Utah (7-0, 4-0 in Big 12) plays the Cincinnati Bearcats (5-2, 2-2) Saturday.

Reminder, Utes: That's Bearcats. Not Cougars, as in BYU.

Of all the looking-ahead matchups this weekend that's ripe for an upset, it's this one.

Why?

BYU-Utah's Holy War is Nov. 7. It will be tough not to think about that rivalry showdown if you're the Utes.

They'll have to. Playing at Nippert Stadium is always difficult.

The then-No. 8 Texas Tech Red Raiders found that out the hard way last Saturday when they were run out of town following a 37-24 whooping.

Utah wants to avoid a scene like this Saturday:

"Being able to play 'Nipp at noon' in front of that rowdy crowd, if you're a competitor, you want to play against the best," Bearcats star running back Cole Tabb said before last week's win against Texas Tech.

It's a 3:45 p.m. ET start this Saturday, but close enough.

Even though it seats just 38,088 fans, Nippert Stadium will be rockin'.

College football games on Halloween only amplify the crowd noise.

Those student chants of "overrated!" could rattle Utah early. A quick first-quarter turnover is all Cincinnati would need to get into the Utes' heads and pump up the volume even more.

That kind of atmosphere often leads to more mental mistakes offensively, like pre-snap penalties, and general miscommuncation.

"I think for us, we need to show how much of an environment we have here," Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield told the Cincinnati Enquirer. " I know it's Halloween, but dress up and come out yelling in this game. We're going to need to have that home field advantage because it certainly helped us last week, and we know when we play here it's different for us because of that. Hopefully, our fans will show up and be loud."

The Utes, who have the nation's longest active winning streak at 13, must stop Cincinnati's passing attack to make it 14.

Utah's secondary, which ranks 91st in the country, looked shaky at times in their last two games, tough wins over Colorado and Houston.

Cincinnati quarterback JC French IV had four touchdown passes against Texas, but also had two interceptions in his 30 attempts.

Utah should pressure him and instruct the safeties and corners to be aggressive on pass coverage.

In the something's-gotta-give department, Cincinnati's rushing offense averages the eighth-most yards (234.6 yards per game) in the country.

The Bearcats are powered by Tabb. The Stanford Cardinal transfer had 173 yards and two touchdowns last week against the Red Raiders.

Utah's stout defense, though, gives up the eighth-fewest yards (88.6) per game.

Let's call that a stalemate.

That means Cincinnati must throw.

The Bearcats won't score anywhere close to 37 points as they did against Texas Tech.

Not against a Utah defense that allows only 14.57 a game, ninth best in the nation.

This should be close, but this is the week that Utah finally loses a close one.

The pick: Cincinnati 24, Utah 21