The First Half
The Cincinnati Bearcats, despite tough play, fell to the Michigan Wolverines. Despite hanging with the much larger program for most of the game, they fell behind late and the competition ended with a final score of 14-36, a Michigan victory. The game started with UC kicking to Michigan, and the Wolverine offense, led by quarterback Wilton Speight, wasted no time. Immediately after getting the ball, they were driving down the field at a pace that would alarm anyone. They opened with an impressive drive that was capped off with a beautiful 43 yard pass from Speight, to Kekoa Crawford. In just over 3 minutes, the Wolverines were on the board.
UC’s offense, led by Hayden Moore, got off to a slow start. On the opening drive Moore was harassed heavily in the backfield, as he would be most game, and was unable to get any time to make solid throws leading to a short 3 and out. With the defense putting up an impressive stand, the ball was quickly back in the hands of Moore. Moore, again under pressure from the aggressive Michigan defense, proceeds to throw a pick 6 increasing the Wolverines early lead. Cincinnati, upon getting the ball back, again have nothing happening and have to punt it after 3 plays.
However, in a stroke of luck, UC was able to retain possession on a negligent play by Michigan. As the ball is coming down from the punt it hits off a Michigan player who had his back turned. As it hit off the Michigan blocker, it bounced away from the man they had back to receive it right into Cincinnati’s hands. They then turned it on with running back Mike Boone picking up 11 yards on pass, then the next play picking up 16 yards on a screen. The Bearcats almost lost the momentum on a 3rd down with only 5 yards to the end zone. With the goal line play Moore lobs a ball to the back corner of the end zone to Kahil Lewis who under heavy interference drops it. With the obvious flag, UC was back in spectacular position with 1st and goal on the 2 yard line. It took an unsuccessful QB keep and a handoff to Boone before the 3rd attempt to run right up the middle was met with a score. Mike Boone powered his way through the Michigan defense that was heavily piled up in the middle for a touchdown. This was UC’s first time on the board.
The Cincinnati defense gave up a few big plays on the next Michigan drive, but after switching field positions at the start of the 2nd quarter, they were able to pull together a tough goal line stand to force a Michigan field goal. After another short and uneventful drive from UC’s offense, which became a theme in this game, Michigan’s offense was in gear and marching down the field. With a head full of steam, their momentum was lost on a botched handoff that was easily recovered by UC. Again the offense did not capitalize on the defense’s good work. Putting up another 3 and out drive, the defense was forced into the position of stopping the freight train that is Michigan’s offense. Rising up to the task, the defense stepped up and forced a 3 and out by Michigan. Michigan nearly got a close 1st down, but it was overturned with the help of the review booth upstairs.
Cincinnati put together what might have been their best drive of the day while trying to beat the clock before halftime. In the 10 play drive, they went a total of 53 yards. It ended with them in field goal range, but then a delay of game penalty forced what was already going to be a difficult kick, to be an even harder one. With kicker Josh Pasley, who is filling in for Andrew Gantz, missing a 51 yard attempt the teams return to the locker room for halftime.
The Second Half
Upon receiving the ball at the start of the 2nd half, the Bearcats offense attempted to send a message with a quick touchdown. With a long 46 yard QB keep by Moore, the Bearcats were in excellent field goal position. With Lewis running to the sideline, Moore completed the easy pass to Lewis for the score. With both defenses playing tough, the score remained steady at 14-17 until just before the end of the 3rd quarter. On a drive that consisted of two separate 30+ yard passes, the Wolverines were able to find the end zone. This was when the wheels started to come off for Cincinnati.
In the 4th quarter, Michigan scored 12 points despite the offense never making it into the end zone. The Michigan offense was able to storm down the field in an 81 yard drive. The Bearcat defense was able to pull out a clutch stop on the goal line and force a field goal. We then on the next drive, succumbing to sloppy play, are forced into a safety. Our long snapper, trying to avoid the delay of game penalty, snaps the ball to our punter who is not paying attention and it goes sailing over his head. Scrambling to recover it, he is left with no choice but to bat it out the back of the end zone resulting in a safety. With that embarrassing moment our defense attempts to salvage it with an impressive stop. Our offense, who’s seemingly only goal today was to ruin our defenses hard work, then on the first play of the drive throw the second pick 6 of the day. The rest of the game played out with not much action resulting in the final score you saw above of 14-36.
A Moment of Reflection
The offensive needs to step it up. Every good offense starts with the line and our line was seemingly non-existent out there. Giving up 4 sacks and creating no holes for the running game, they were pushed around all day. Most of our other problems on offense stemmed from this lackluster performance by our guys up front. This resulted in our offense only picking up 200 yards total. Hayden Moore did not look very impressive, giving up two pick 6s, but he was rushed and hit by the opposing defense much more than I like to see any QB be hit. Almost every time he attempted to throw the ball he had Michigan defenders in his face.
Our running game was not doing well either. We only gained 68 yards total running the ball. Again, it is difficult to pick up yards on the ground if you have no holes to run through. Our defense, despite the score, played pretty decent. They gave up 414 yards to Michigan, but they had almost no time off the field. There were a few moments they came up with big stops that let UC hang with Michigan almost until the end. They put decent pressure on Wilton Speight, even picking up a sack.
Overall it was a lot of sloppy play. We dropped passes we should have caught, missed assignments on defense that led to big plays, and a bad safety on special teams are all indicative of it. This is all somewhat expected with a new staff and system, but we cannot be making these mistakes, especially not against an opponent like Michigan.
We are still getting over the dark cloud that was the Tuberville era, but I have faith that Fickell will be able to pull it together. This game was a good learning experience for our boys; while doubling as a painful one for the loyal fans.
Charles’ Prediction: Bearcats 21 – Wolverines 50
Actual Score: Bearcats 14 – Wolverines 36
