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The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Cincinnati Edition

What went right, what went wrong, and everything in between Vs the Bearcats. Plus team grades.

By Jerry Steinberg
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

This one was hard to watch.

Watching the game Miami looked bigger, stronger, faster, and better physically.

But mental errors were a big part of this contest.

And so were missed opportunities.

Miami's worst players on both sides of the field were also repeatedly exposed.

Next up FSU!?!?!   A win on the road in Tallahassee seems unlikely after tonight.

Beginning of the end?

The particulars below:

The Good:

  • Sweet trick play by the Hurricanes leads to a Mark Walton TD.  The drive was set up by Rayshawn Jenkins 3rd INT of the season.
  • JJ will be a player in time.   Nice hustle here.
  • The D was a lot better in the second half.
  • Joe Yearby was very good, as usual.
  • And while Brad Kaaya has been better,  he still was pretty okay moving the ball between the 20s.

The Bad:

  • Sunny Odogwu's opening series clipping penalty was the only thing that stopped the Hurricanes. Absolutely have to clean that up big fella..
  • With the D scrambling to line up, this just looks bad for Coach D.
  • You just can't face guard at this level.  At the end of the second Q he got beat in the slot by a good 20 yards.
  • Late in the second Q they had a chance to take complete control of this game but they couldn't muster any points despite starting a drive deep in Cincy's territory.  Not surprisingly, a Bearcat TD drive followed immediately to lead to a 24-20 deficit. Momentum gone!
  • The O line still hasn't found its' stride.  Alex Gall got owned on a 3rd Q 3rd and 1, getting pushed back almost 6 yards in the back field.  One series later they allowed a sack against a 3 man rush.
  • Michael Badley has a big leg, UM relies on it too much.
  • Penalties, penalties, penalties aplenty.



The Ugly:

  • Another Fire Al Golden Banner.  On the road no less.  I just don't see the point. Oh wait, maybe I do?
  • LB is thin to start out with.  Gotta hope this is nothing serious.

  • The holding call that wiped out Elder's PT TD was weak.
  • SMH!

Team Grades:

Offense -

grades

Tyre Brady continues to develop into a solid WR threat.  Standish Dobard was also a lot more involved tonight. Trevor Darling is starting to do some nice things at LT, at least when he wasn't drawing repeated flags. Odogwu looks terrible most of the time. Overall this group seems to miss out on too many big opportunities. The play calling and/or penalties kill momentum too often. They should have scored 50 tonight.

Defense -

grades

On Hosey Williams 1st Q TD it seemed like everyone stopped and watched after Jenkins missed the tackle? Where is the pass rush minus Trent Harris? Tracy Howard can't  get his hands on the ball. Corn Elder continues to make plays but he had a terrible 4th Q lapse though. Raphael Kirby was very active but Crawford had a night to forget (again).

Special Teams -

grades

Jon Semerene needs to stop kicking the ball out of bounds. Terrible punt coverage in the first half led to the second score for the Bearcats.  But Justin Vogel is matching Badgley with his own impressive leg. Another Elder punt return TD called back.....

Coaching -

grades

That's a tough Cincinnati O to slow down, but disorganization pre snap on D and telegraphed blitzes did not help things early on.  Offensive play calling left much to be desired most of the night.  It looked like the 'Canes could/should have run the ball all day against a weak front 7 earlier in the game. And 3rd and 1 shotgun?  I just don't get it. 2 wasted TOs on the same 4th Q drive.. perplexing. Odogwu and Crawford are killing their respective units. I don't get why the staff continues to play players who aren't getting the job done.

A loss here was unacceptable, and it happened.  It took serious underachievement to lose to Cincinnati, and that's exactly what Golden's team did.