The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Yeah, ____ it! I don't give a flyin' ____! I lost my wife to cancer last year and I lost my mom to cancer a few weeks past. Football games don't matter much anymore. That said, has there ever been a bigger game in the Nip than this Saturday? ____ no there hasn't been! Let's give it everything we've got as fans and alumni to support this team!

SAT, 09/23, 12:00pm FOX
16 Oklahoma 3-0 o57.5
Cincinnati 2-1 +14.5

Sooners Friendly Press...

https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/2...game-odds/

One of the best game previews from an opposing team podcast that I've ever listened to. They are very high on UC despite last week...thought last week was very flukie and that UC kind of dominated despite the final score. They do a really good job of breaking down UC and what we do.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/th...0628586800

(09-21-2023 09:15 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

One of the best game previews from an opposing team podcast that I've ever listened to. They are very high on UC despite last week...thought last week was very flukie and that UC kind of dominated despite the final score. They do a really good job of breaking down UC and what we do.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/th...0628586800

Yeah these guys understand football. Very good stuff!

I fully expect a better outcome than that last game.

Oklahoma hasn't played anyone yet. Didn't blow out SMU by any stretch.

Get in Dillon Gabriel's face and keep him in the pocket.

I don’t expect to win but I’ll have fun and cheer my head off anyway.

(09-21-2023 10:33 AM)513Alex Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 09:15 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

One of the best game previews from an opposing team podcast that I've ever listened to. They are very high on UC despite last week...thought last week was very flukie and that UC kind of dominated despite the final score. They do a really good job of breaking down UC and what we do.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/th...0628586800

Yeah these guys understand football. Very good stuff!

i recognize one of the names as a former OK lb, ted lehman, so certainly not surprising that he knows his stuff. That said, just about everyone has identified John Williams and Justin Harris as the weak links on the OL and secondary. The only logical inconsistency i can say is that we can't go single and high and protect harris at the same time. it's why we went two deep and why we played more zone. iirc, even Coach Satt mentioned this in the Pitt post game, that they might have to move from single high to protect Harris. So when they talk about getting back to being aggressive on D with a single high safety, i don't think we can.

(09-21-2023 01:10 PM)eroc Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 10:33 AM)513Alex Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 09:15 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

One of the best game previews from an opposing team podcast that I've ever listened to. They are very high on UC despite last week...thought last week was very flukie and that UC kind of dominated despite the final score. They do a really good job of breaking down UC and what we do.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/th...0628586800

Yeah these guys understand football. Very good stuff!

i recognize one of the names as a former OK lb, ted lehman, so certainly not surprising that he knows his stuff. That said, just about everyone has identified John Williams and Justin Harris as the weak links on the OL and secondary. The only logical inconsistency i can say is that we can't go single and high and protect harris at the same time. it's why we went two deep and why we played more zone. iirc, even Coach Satt mentioned this in the Pitt post game, that they might have to move from single high to protect Harris. So when they talk about getting back to being aggressive on D with a single high safety, i don't think we can.

That's kind of their point...going single high would imply we are being aggressive and sending 5 at the QB (something that has shown to rattle Gabriel his entire QB). There is a way to send more at the QB while providing a safety for Harris, but I don't see many, if any, college teams running a high-low or under/over man bracket on a receiver, mainly because it can be used to take two defenders out of a play if it's done too often. It puts a TON of stress on the safety to be able to identify routes early and get back into the play if the receiver runs underneath routes, and as such, can cause complete breakdowns if a receiver runs delayed second cuts (stretched slant corner route, zip routes to wheel, etc). Essentially, you have to bet that your rush will get home before that route is fully developed...something that happens far more often in the NFL, which is why single receiver bracketing is more common there.

They (and you) are right in saying it's going to be EXTREMELY hard for us to scheme to cover our asses completely, and our staff is going to have to be ok with try to not bleed out from death by a thousand cuts (playing an over zone) or to risk getting your throat cut lunging for the knife (blitzing and hoping Harris can be sticky enough to buy your rush time). Unfortunately, I think our DC overcorrected after that first play and never made an adjustment to the base coverage scheme for the remainder of the game on top of the lack of an adjustment when it came to having our unassigned defenders in man spy vs. rush and that's what inevitably cost us the game defensively. I think we've already litigated the reason for the loss offensively.

(09-21-2023 02:39 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 01:10 PM)eroc Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 10:33 AM)513Alex Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 09:15 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

One of the best game previews from an opposing team podcast that I've ever listened to. They are very high on UC despite last week...thought last week was very flukie and that UC kind of dominated despite the final score. They do a really good job of breaking down UC and what we do.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/th...0628586800

Yeah these guys understand football. Very good stuff!

i recognize one of the names as a former OK lb, ted lehman, so certainly not surprising that he knows his stuff. That said, just about everyone has identified John Williams and Justin Harris as the weak links on the OL and secondary. The only logical inconsistency i can say is that we can't go single and high and protect harris at the same time. it's why we went two deep and why we played more zone. iirc, even Coach Satt mentioned this in the Pitt post game, that they might have to move from single high to protect Harris. So when they talk about getting back to being aggressive on D with a single high safety, i don't think we can.

That's kind of their point...going single high would imply we are being aggressive and sending 5 at the QB (something that has shown to rattle Gabriel his entire QB). There is a way to send more at the QB while providing a safety for Harris, but I don't see many, if any, college teams running a high-low or under/over man bracket on a receiver, mainly because it can be used to take two defenders out of a play if it's done too often. It puts a TON of stress on the safety to be able to identify routes early and get back into the play if the receiver runs underneath routes, and as such, can cause complete breakdowns if a receiver runs delayed second cuts (stretched slant corner route, zip routes to wheel, etc). Essentially, you have to bet that your rush will get home before that route is fully developed...something that happens far more often in the NFL, which is why single receiver bracketing is more common there.

They (and you) are right in saying it's going to be EXTREMELY hard for us to scheme to cover our asses completely, and our staff is going to have to be ok with try to not bleed out from death by a thousand cuts (playing an over zone) or to risk getting your throat cut lunging for the knife (blitzing and hoping Harris can be sticky enough to buy your rush time). Unfortunately, I think our DC overcorrected after that first play and never made an adjustment to the base coverage scheme for the remainder of the game on top of the lack of an adjustment when it came to having our unassigned defenders in man spy vs. rush and that's what inevitably cost us the game defensively. I think we've already litigated the reason for the loss offensively.

Go for the knife. Everyone is picking us to lose and it can't get any worse than losing to miami (anomaly or not). Blitz him often. Blitz him from different angles. He needs to be seeing ghosts out there. He's also small so if we can maintain our pass rush integrity and obstruct his passing lanes, we can make it more challenging. That said, he's a more capable runner than Gabbert so there's certainly risk but i'd rather that then sitting back in a zone and letting him pick us apart. He's annoying but he sling it.

ED: From the podcast the hosts made it sound like we could get home with four, especially matched up on the interior OL. Let's send five+, delayed pressure, simulated pressure. Do it all. Let's get a signature scalp one time.

(09-21-2023 04:33 PM)eroc Wrote:  ED: From the podcast the hosts made it sound like we could get home with four, especially matched up on the interior OL. Let's send five+, delayed pressure, simulated pressure. Do it all. Let's get a signature scalp one time.

Yea they don't seem confident in their interior line. We could be a bad matchup for them at least in that one facet.

(09-21-2023 05:50 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(09-21-2023 04:33 PM)eroc Wrote:  ED: From the podcast the hosts made it sound like we could get home with four, especially matched up on the interior OL. Let's send five+, delayed pressure, simulated pressure. Do it all. Let's get a signature scalp one time.

Yea they don't seem confident in their interior line. We could be a bad matchup for them at least in that one facet.

As long as we stop with all of the slants we're running in the line. I called that out in the EKU thread, unfortunately it came back to bite us in the Miami game because our LBs were dropping instead of filling the gaps like they were at Pitt.

(09-21-2023 12:05 PM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  I fully expect a better outcome than that last game.

Oklahoma hasn't played anyone yet. Didn't blow out SMU by any stretch.

Get in Dillon Gabriel's face and keep him in the pocket.

That's when he throws picks. Hopefully we get a couple on Saturday.

This game has me totally perplexed in terms of predicting any certain outcome. Though it might have had no bearing on tomorrow's results, last weekend was frustrating to witness and deflating regarding the upcoming conference schedule. It didn't give me much cause for optimism. And yet we've watched UC teams underperform one week and then come out on fire the next against a superior opponent.

I'm not really expecting that tomorrow and I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised. I just think UC has holes to fill on both sides of the ball and Oklahoma has talent and depth that just a few elite football schools can match. Here's hoping the "Nip at Noon" can exceed our expectations and give the national TV audience a great showing.

I think Oklahoma is an interesting matchup. Both Miami and Pittsburgh basically chucked low percentage passes hoping to hit on enough of them and draw PIs. Gabriel isn't a chuck it down the field into coverage QB. He'll chuck it when he gets the chance and he's accurate, but he is always looking for the easiest throw. You don't complete 80+ percent of your passes by doing otherwise. Miami and Pitt had no desire to go through progressions and test the middle of the field. They chucked it almost by necessity (and playing to the one spot they thought they may have an advantage against our defense). They didn't mind the low completions provided they made enough big plays.

Will Gabriel attack us the same way? Will we hold up differently and have more opportunities to make some plays if he doesn't

DVR is set to record...