Week Six of college football has arrived. The halfway point of this season has approached in the blink of an eye. Week six comes with a much-needed bye week for the Cincinnati Bearcats. Losers of three in a row, Cincinnati was skidding hard. A week off with a hard reset is just what the doctor ordered for the Cats.
The Scott Satterfield era started off in a great way—a dominating performance in week one over EKU. Then Cincy went into Pittsburg to get a huge non-conference road win. Well, at least it looked like it at the time. The Panthers haven’t won a game since week one and benched their quarterback Phil Jurkovec this week. A win that looks less and less meaningful for Cincinnati.
The current three-game skid started with a home loss against long-time rival Miami (OH). The Victory Bell trophy went back to Oxford, Ohio for the first time in 16 years. Oklahoma then came to Nippert Stadium for the Big 12 inaugural kick-off. An abysmal offensive performance led to a 20-6 loss. Then a short week road trip to BYU made it the third straight loss. A semi-dominant first half was left in the dust as the Cougars ran UC in the second half to win 35-27.
An exciting start for Cincinnati fans quickly turned into a growing concern for the team this season. It would always be a difficult and testy season considering the obvious circumstances of an entirely new coaching staff and the Power Five conference leap. There’s been good, there’s been bad, and there’s been ugly so far this season. Let’s take a look at some reasons for hope, and some cause for continuing concern:
The Good
Starting off with some positives from this adolescent season, there have certainly been some bright spots in the run game, offensively and defensively. If you were to ask a Cincinnati fan who the best player on the team was going into the year, there’s a good chance they would have said Dontay Corleone or Corey Kiner. These two have been anchoring the strengths of both sides of the ball all season for Cincinnati.
Rushing Offense
Satterfield was clear about his ‘by-committee’ approach to dealing out carries before the season started. He liked the plethora of ball carriers that were already on the team when he took the job. Kiner was an LSU transfer after just one season in Baton Rouge, so it’s clear that he has high-end talent and can produce at a power five level. He’s 32nd in the country with 405 yards on the year so far.
It’s clear that UC wants to establish the run game weekly. It’s seventh in the country for rushing attempts per game with 46. Up from 33 per game a season ago. This uptick in attempts leads to the Bearcats coming in at 9th in the country with 218 yards per game. Kiner has led the way in the run game, but Ryan Montgomery and quarterback Emory Jones have aided quite nicely in it.
Rushing Defense
Dontay “The Godfather” Corleone has anchored the defensive front as expected. He’s a somewhat rare, true zero-technique nose tackle. It’s certain that any given week the opposing center will not be looking forward to the match-up against Corleone. Eric Phillips, Jowon Briggs, and Malik Vann have done a good job here as well. The big fellas up front plug holes and hold the line of scrimmage. Cincinnati comes in at 17th in the nation with 94 rush yards a game allowed. A very significant advantage is produced in the run game here for the Bearcats. Averaging 218 on offense, and giving up just 94 on defense.
The Kicking Game
One more bright spot that should be highlighted and might be going unnoticed this year is the kicking game. Arizona St. transfer Carter Brown has not missed an extra point and made 10 of 12 field goal attempts. He even knocked one through from 54 yards out for a season-long. Something that Cincinnati fans haven’t been too familiar with in recent years, Brown has provided a lot (too much) of the offense for the Cats this year.
The Bad
An easy and obvious way to go here is quarterback play. There’s no sugarcoating it, Jones must be better. That’s probably talked about enough within the Cincinnati community, so let’s talk about another aspect of the team that can improve.
The Secondary
We hesitate to say that the secondary has been bad, it has been the weakness of the defense through five games. The Bearcat defensive backfield has been hit by an injury, though. Starting cornerback Sammy Anderson Jr. got injured in week one and hasn’t played since. Redshirt-Senior Justin Harris has stepped in and faired okay. Harris and Florida transfer Jordan Young have played all significant reps on the outside this season for Cincinnati.
You won’t find many indicting numbers that tear down the secondary. But it does seem as if they’re giving up too many big plays. It could be more so the fact that these come at crucial times in the game. But one supporting stat to this observation is that Cincinnati is ranked 101st in the country in yards per pass attempt allowed with 8.4. It definitely gives up too many homerun plays.
The very first play of the Miami game, a 79-yard touchdown for the Redhawks on a busted Cincinnati coverage. That set the tone and gave Miami immediate hope and momentum that they eventually rode to the upset. After a stellar first-half performance against BYU, UC was about to go into the half with a lead despite an opening drive pick-six from Jones. With 36 seconds on the clock, three big plays and a touchdown put them at a deficit going into the locker room. Again, BYU took the wind right out of Cincinnati’s sails and got the home crowd going. Momentum was officially stolen and BYU came out on top.
The Ugly
Every fan of Cincinnati that has watched each game this season knows it. It’s been clear, frustrating, and a major reason for the three-game losing streak. Red zone efficiency. Cincinnati is 125th out of 133 teams when it comes to red zone scoring. Scoring on 67% of red zone trips according to TeamRankings.com. Even this number is kind of inflated as Brown is tied for second in the country in field goal attempts and field goal makes. It’s not like Cincinnati isn’t getting the opportunities, it’s well above average at 48th ranked with 3.8 scoring attempts a game. It just isn’t converting chances into touchdowns.
This was the story of the game against Miami. Anyone who watched that could easily see it. Then against Oklahoma, UC put up just six points on two field goals. It held the Sooners to just 20 points, but couldn’t convert one red zone chance into a touchdown. After a week off and time to re-evaluate red zone woes, installing and executing new plays/schemes inside the 20 is crucial to the success of the team going forward.
Back in Action
Cincinnati returns to play on Saturday, October 14th when Big 12 conference play continues. The Iowa St. Cyclones come to town after an abominable 30-point loss to Oklahoma in week five. This could be the battle of slumping teams. It’s a vital one for Cincinnati to get back on track and start the second half of the season on a high note.
