The Cincinnati-Memphis football game will be televised locally on Saturday (2 p.m. kickoff, WXIX-TV), but the Bearcats had better spend some quality time in makeup (i.e. practice) before the red light goes on.

        The Bearcats (2-5) have lost three straight, and five of their last six. Their kicking game is in disarray, their offense is giving away points, and their defense, which played solidly last Saturday in a 23-14 loss at Southern Miss, isn't generating the big-play turnovers often needed to turn around a game.

        “It's a (case of) constantly making mistakes at the wrong time, and we aren't good enough to overcome those right now,” said UC coach Rick Minter. “I was telling the offense, "Hey, if you're going to give away 16 points, by golly you'd better score more than 14.' ”

        Minter didn't spare any facets of the Bearcats' attack in assessing the problems.

        “We've quit scoring in the red zone (inside the 20-yard line), and now it's (becoming) a risk to (kick) a field goal. Everything is kind of getting that '99 look about it, where you're up and down the field and you're botching up all your opportunities and your defense is just hanging on. We can't have that. That's unacceptable.”

        Minter didn't spare himself.

        “We get the ball down to the 8 or 9, flinch and get a penalty that makes it first-and-(long), and from there, it's "What do you do to get the ball in the end zone?' ” he said. “We selected three running plays. Everybody can second-guess those. We've got to make sure we use our entire offense, balance it up, and not get too stubborn or too arrogant either way - give your quarterback and receivers chances (to make plays) if you find out you can't run it.”

        Two weeks ago, UC starting quarterback Gino Guidugli threw an interception for a TD, and his backup, George Murray, did it last week. Good and bad things can happen when one throws the ball, and in the past two games, the bad things have proven critical. Minter said UC will not throw less because of it.

        Guidugli, 19, who as a freshman last year had the second-best TD-to-INT margin (16-to-9, plus-7) in school history (Greg Cook was plus-8 in 1968), is minus-1 (11-to-12) this year.

        He's banged up - bruised throwing hand, sore knee, nicked elbow - but he's expected to play Saturday. Not all of those INTs were Guidugli's fault, and some came late in games when the Bearcats were playing catch-up. But as a team, UC must reduce its critical mistakes and force the opposition to make more if the Bearcats are to return to winning games.

        “Turnovers will be the No. 1 reason you're losing ballgames,” Minter said. “We turned it over five times in our first game (an overtime victory vs. Texas Christian), but the difference is where and when you turn it over and what is your defense's response. We're beginning to turn it over in a way that our defense has no ground to stand on. We've given away what amounts to ... 30 points ... in the last two games (attributable to the UC offense and special teams).”

        The past four years, the Bearcats had an excellent punter in Adam Wulfeck (Beechwood High), but this year, they are struggling with true freshman Chet Ervin (30.3 yards net punting; 107th in the country), who has had one punt blocked and been slow to get off others.

        UC has also been unable to get off some field goals because of bad snaps, including one last week.

        The Bearcats have redshirt freshmen snapping on punts and field goals, and holding for field goals.

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