Grading The Cats: Offensive Line, Solid QB Play, And Jordan Young's Breakout, Drive Win Over Houston

Cincinnati had some very encouraging signs from a few key pieces for next season.

CINCINNATI — It's amazing what happens when a football team gets good play from the quarterback position. Cincinnati had that happen for the first time since Week 1 in the 24-14 win over Houston.

Four offensive players graded 74 or better by Pro Football Focus and Emory Jones (77.4 overall, 79.8 passing grade) was one of them along with left tackle John Williams (80.1), wide receiver Braden Smith (79.7), and center Gavin Gerhardt (76.1).

The growth of the offensive line this season has been impressive as Williams, Gerhardt and more continue to improve as newer players to starting roles. Mix in Philip Wilder (74.4), and Cincinnati had five of its seven offensive linemen grade at 63 or better on Saturday.

Wilder has likely earned more snaps over Deondre Buford (49 overall, second-worst offensive player against Houston). The Kentucky transfer has struggled all season. UC still isn't getting good wide receiver play as a whole, but the offensive line was strong enough to win.

Outside of Jones, Brady Lichtenberg (63.2) played all right in his quarterback opportunities.

Moving to defense, "The Godfather" was angry early and often. Dontay Corleone (81.2 overall) led all UC defenders in PFF grading on Saturday followed by a career-best performance from cornerback Jordan Young (80.4).

It felt like the Florida transfer's best outing in the moment and the numbers bore that out. He allowed just four yards in coverage on four targets. That'll be a big boon for 2024 and beyond if he can build on this throughout the next two games.

The rest of the top five grades on defense went to edge defender Daniel Grzesiak (79.3), corernback Kalen Carroll (75.5, career-best), and star Deshawn Pace (70.7). Carroll is another very encouraging performance as the brand-new starter outside played very well against the second-best passing offense in the Big 12.

The bottom five defensive grades went to safety Bryon Threats (56.7), defensive end Malik Vann (50.6), cornerback Rayquan Adkins (49.9), linebacker Jack Dingle (46.3), and defensive end Rob Jackson (45.4).

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