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(10-10-2021 09:17 PM)bcat1997 Wrote:  

(10-10-2021 08:07 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(10-10-2021 05:26 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  Early line Cincinnati -20.

So I get that it's at Nippert and that we're really good and UCF is dinged up. I also get the fact that UC looks to win games right now by a substantial margin of victory.

But 20 points against UCF? That's pushing credulity. I'd go for 10-14.

I think this is a good game.

I couldn't fathom the Temple spread with how closely they have played us over the recent years. Guess this is the same.

Despite the fact we won a ton of games from 2018-2020, a lot of those wins were 1-score affairs that had us on the edges of our seats. Expecting AAC games this year to be closer than the spread is just the manifestation of what we've seen in past years. It's hard to retrain your brain to realize the gap between Cincinnati and the rest of the AAC is a lot larger than it ever was before.

I was genuinely nervous about the Temple game, expecting a letdown and potentially some kind of 34-20 eye bleeder of a win. We all remember that 28-7 clunker against USF last year, and barely getting past ECU, USF, and Temple in 2019. But if we can roll 52-3 on a short turnaround coming off arguably the biggest regular-season win in program history, I think blowouts should be the norm going forward. I could see one or two conference games still being in doubt in the 3rd quarter, but I think the rest should be 20+ point wins. Although it's not in Fickell's nature to run up the score, he's not stupid. He knows style points are a necessary evil as long as we're fighting for a playoff spot in the current format. I expect Evan Prater to get a lot of playing time in conference play.

We mostly destroyed the conference last season. Ucf was flukie close... we should have won by more and Tulsa was close. The gap this year has only widened

(10-10-2021 09:17 PM)bcat1997 Wrote:  

(10-10-2021 08:07 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(10-10-2021 05:26 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  Early line Cincinnati -20.

So I get that it's at Nippert and that we're really good and UCF is dinged up. I also get the fact that UC looks to win games right now by a substantial margin of victory.

But 20 points against UCF? That's pushing credulity. I'd go for 10-14.

I think this is a good game.

I couldn't fathom the Temple spread with how closely they have played us over the recent years. Guess this is the same.

I told my wife at the beginning of the game that if I were a betting man, I would have put money on Temple covering the spread.

(10-11-2021 06:08 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  We mostly destroyed the conference last season. Ucf was flukie close... we should have won by more and Tulsa was close. The gap this year has only widened

Agreed. The 'Cats had some unforced errors in Orlando as I recall--a couple of punts that were fumbled maybe?

The difference this season to me is in discipline and swagger. The defense is superb and, so far, hasn't committed penalties to give new life to opponents' drives. In terms of swagger, I think this year's team now has the confidence that they can go on the road to sold out stadia and beat a B10 team and a top ten Notre Dame. The extreme in that dimension is overconfidence but I saw no evidence of that Friday night. And I think our whole team and fanbase knows that UCF is still the best brand we'll face in conference and will now remain a rivalry for many years to come in the P5. I actually feel better about this week's game than Temple as we saw how well this team bounced back from the euphoric triumph in South Bend.

Did anyone watch the UCF vs ECU game? It was two inept offenses going against two mediocre defenses. A crap fest. Cats will roll.

-11 seems low.

(10-11-2021 08:22 AM)BcatMatt13 Wrote:  -11 seems low.

Not to me...we are notoriously flat for noon games at home and UC is one bad Pick 6 away from being a Top 25 team IMO.

I feel like this game will go a lot like the Memphis and SMU games last year. Something like 42-10 or 45-14. UCF might keep it at least mildly interesting for a quarter or two at most, but we'll pull away and the game will never seriously be in doubt. When I look back at the poor performances in the 2nd half and 1st half against Miami and Murray State, I think it was a mixture of us playing fairly vanilla and *slightly* looking ahead to the Indiana and Notre Dame games. Now that we're in conference play, I think the team will have an easier time staying focused and playing complete games.

(10-11-2021 07:50 AM)rtaylor Wrote:  Did anyone watch the UCF vs ECU game? It was two inept offenses going against two mediocre defenses. A crap fest. Cats will roll.

I think I watched the 4th quarter. That was bad on both sides. I couldn't decide which team deserved the W.

I don't get how Ahlers still has a starting job. This is like his 4th year and I don't think he has shown any improvement since his freshman year.

(10-11-2021 02:31 PM)Edgebrookjeff Wrote:  

(10-11-2021 07:50 AM)rtaylor Wrote:  Did anyone watch the UCF vs ECU game? It was two inept offenses going against two mediocre defenses. A crap fest. Cats will roll.

I think I watched the 4th quarter. That was bad on both sides. I couldn't decide which team deserved the W.

I don't get how Ahlers still has a starting job. This is like his 4th year and I don't think he has shown any improvement since his freshman year.

I wonder if he could have developed under a different staff or with better talent around him. Early on, I thought he was going to have a really good career and be an all-conference caliber QB by now. He kind of reminds me of Hayden Moore, where you saw some flashes early and thought he could be a dude, but ended up not really improving over his career.

I'm holding off commenting on ECU. We've had some struggles playing in Greenville. Ahlers put up over 500 yards against us two years ago in a game we were lucky to win against a 4 win ECU team. 4 yrs ago we got throttled by a 3 win ECU team on the road. It's been a difficult place for us to play.

Is this the year where we vanquish all of our past demons? It’s certainly starting out like it…

(10-11-2021 03:21 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  I'm holding off commenting on ECU. We've had some struggles playing in Greenville. Ahlers put up over 500 yards against us two years ago in a game we were lucky to win against a 4 win ECU team. 4 yrs ago we got throttled by a 3 win ECU team on the road. It's been a difficult place for us to play.

Yeah, Ahlers' inconsistency aside, ECU has been very competitive this year. They kept it respectable against a good App State team, nearly knocked off UCF and South Carolina, beat Marshall on the road, and pulled away from Tulane for a comfortable win. The Charleston Southern close call is a head scratcher, but it seems like Mike Houston has them headed in the right direction. I could see them being 5-6 and playing for bowl eligibility, plus we have a huge target on our back, so they'll give us their best shot. Also, it's a Friday night game, so you know the crowd will be juiced at Dowdy. It could be a surprisingly close game -- probably the remaining game I'm most concerned about outside of SMU to be honest.

It appears -11 was wrong. I’m now seeing -21.5

It’s gone up 1.5 since it opened.

I’d say we have Vegas’ attention.

(10-11-2021 04:04 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  

(10-11-2021 03:21 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  I'm holding off commenting on ECU. We've had some struggles playing in Greenville. Ahlers put up over 500 yards against us two years ago in a game we were lucky to win against a 4 win ECU team. 4 yrs ago we got throttled by a 3 win ECU team on the road. It's been a difficult place for us to play.

Yeah, Ahlers' inconsistency aside, ECU has been very competitive this year. They kept it respectable against a good App State team, nearly knocked off UCF and South Carolina, beat Marshall on the road, and pulled away from Tulane for a comfortable win. The Charleston Southern close call is a head scratcher, but it seems like Mike Houston has them headed in the right direction. I could see them being 5-6 and playing for bowl eligibility, plus we have a huge target on our back, so they'll give us their best shot. Also, it's a Friday night game, so you know the crowd will be juiced at Dowdy. It could be a surprisingly close game -- probably the remaining game I'm most concerned about outside of SMU to be honest.

Your points are certainly valid and this is what we're expected to do as fans of the #3 team in the country: worry. I too feel this may be the toughest remaining game. SMU being pass dominant and playing in Nippert in November is one where I think UC takes care of business. But rolling into Greenville, especially undefeated, after the beatdown UC put on the Pirates last year suggests a dogfight.

The good news? This should be the last time the Bearcats EVER have to set foot in Greenville. It's been a dreadful addition to the conference in football and basketball and won't be missed.

(10-11-2021 06:07 PM)OKIcat Wrote:  

(10-11-2021 04:04 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  

(10-11-2021 03:21 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  I'm holding off commenting on ECU. We've had some struggles playing in Greenville. Ahlers put up over 500 yards against us two years ago in a game we were lucky to win against a 4 win ECU team. 4 yrs ago we got throttled by a 3 win ECU team on the road. It's been a difficult place for us to play.

Yeah, Ahlers' inconsistency aside, ECU has been very competitive this year. They kept it respectable against a good App State team, nearly knocked off UCF and South Carolina, beat Marshall on the road, and pulled away from Tulane for a comfortable win. The Charleston Southern close call is a head scratcher, but it seems like Mike Houston has them headed in the right direction. I could see them being 5-6 and playing for bowl eligibility, plus we have a huge target on our back, so they'll give us their best shot. Also, it's a Friday night game, so you know the crowd will be juiced at Dowdy. It could be a surprisingly close game -- probably the remaining game I'm most concerned about outside of SMU to be honest.

Your points are certainly valid and this is what we're expected to do as fans of the #3 team in the country: worry. I too feel this may be the toughest remaining game. SMU being pass dominant and playing in Nippert in November is one where I think UC takes care of business. But rolling into Greenville, especially undefeated, after the beatdown UC put on the Pirates last year suggests a dogfight.

The good news? This should be the last time the Bearcats EVER have to set foot in Greenville. It's been a dreadful addition to the conference in football and basketball and won't be missed.

The Cats roll into Greenville 11-0 and you think there will be some sort of let down? Like ECU has suddenly stockpiled talent from last years beat down? Good lord, they are not good. Using South Carolina as any measuring stick is just crazy. It will be a azz whipping. The disparity in talent is huge.

No team in the AAC can match our play on offense AND defense. No one can match our experience and depth on both sides of the ball. We should win the rest of our games by comfortable to blow-out margins. Anything less is because we beat ourselves but I just haven't seen that from this team thus far. Everyone is dialed in and focused on one goal.

The Bearcats are a really good team!

(10-11-2021 09:36 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  No team in the AAC can match our play on offense AND defense. No one can match our experience and depth on both sides of the ball. We should win the rest of our games by comfortable to blow-out margins. Anything less is because we beat ourselves but I just haven't seen that from this team thus far. Everyone is dialed in and focused on one goal.

in addition to Gabriel's injury, they have had a couple of players jump ship as well i believe, including their starting LB, iirc. i know we hate getting big timed when we are on the wrong end of the adage "this is their SB" but i don't think it's inappropriate for the UCF matchup. Coaching change, injuries, transfer portal defections, the reality is that Malzahn is going to use every trick in the book to motivate his squad since this is likely the biggest game they are going to play all season, and that includes whatever bowl game they end up playing in. i expect them to use trick plays, on-side kicks, fake punts, weird formations, jumping on our logo, sacrificing chickens or other animals, black magic, etc.