**** that. We stopped KU on the first drive before the wheels fell off and exploded. I hope they a 75 yard bomb on the first play of the game and just get it out of the way.
***Cincinnati Game Week Discussion Thread***
- Thread starter theshadow
- Start date
Cincy +8 or whatever it is feels like free money. This team has been exposed on film and gives me no reason to think things will turn around any time soon.
Cincy is yet another likely win if we don't have some sort of magical development with our front 6 defenders. We don't put up 50 points a game offensively, we must force stops on D. That's the only way we win. Most of the drive extending plays for opposing offenses feel like they come on crucial down where we fail to generate meaningful pressure. Most D1 QBs will find a throw given 6-8 seconds of play time to do so.
With who? Don't get me wrong, Higgins is a decent down field threat but he's not Randy Moss. Or even Hakeem when Hakeem was locked in and at his peak.
Like, Higgins makes contested catches. Which is awesome. But part of that, if you look at it from the defensive point of view, is that that they are contested catches. Those are not catches that ANY receiver, even Randy Moss or whomever you want to claim is the greatest downfield threat in NFL history ... is going to make contested catches all the time.
Noel can obviously run deeper routes but his strength is more on the seems and catch and run then a true out and out I'm going to rear back and bomb it long.
Not to mention, deeper routes take more time, which put added stress on the OL against teams that are bringing pressure.
Our strength, as it has larger been under CMC - is the intermediate passing game. We don't have a guy who takes the top off of defenses. Higgins wins the 50-50 ball really well, Noel is electric after the catch but neither of them are pure deep down field threats. We don't have that guy or if we do, he's not a huge part of the offense
Having zero expectations going into this game. Which after the last few weeks is nice in a way; my anxiety level is much lower!!
Rocco does not have time to let the receivers get that far. The OL cannot pass protect.
I'm not sure what to say to people who think we don't put downfield pressure on a team. This team has had more big plays than any ISU team I can remember. Ranked 12th in 20+ yard pass plays and 17th in 40+ yard pass plays. Those weren't all yac yards either. Plenty of bombs have been hit by this team. I'd say hitting downfield pass plays is one of the strengths of this offense, although it has been missing lately.
this should be a win, but if Cincy can get their QB any time at all (get him rolled out), they could easily win especially if our offense goes into shutdown mode.
I will say this and really believe the following comment.
If we lose this weekend:
we are going to start a season 7-0 and for the past month the favorite as the Conference champs, and 4 seed in the playoffs.
to most likely finishing 7-5 (5 game losing streak) finish 7-10th in the Big 12 and going to whatever super crappy bowl game there is for our league.
So this game IMO is a pretty big fork in the road for the season. Just sayin...
I will say this and really believe the following comment.
If we lose this weekend:
we are going to start a season 7-0 and for the past month the favorite as the Conference champs, and 4 seed in the playoffs.
to most likely finishing 7-5 (5 game losing streak) finish 7-10th in the Big 12 and going to whatever super crappy bowl game there is for our league.
So this game IMO is a pretty big fork in the road for the season. Just sayin...
I don't disagree, but does Cincy have the talent to execute? Serious question. I feel like Cincinnati is less talented than KU, UCF, or TTU? I also feel like the defense is playing the way they are partially due to 3 stringers at LB who have little to no depth. They are wiped out.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
That depth is getting overlooked by some. We're basically 2 snaps from me seeing playing time, and 3 snaps from finding out how bad an idea that is.
He probably will run all over us because we didn’t plan on him running. It seems like the team we are playing is well prepared for us, but we are never prepared for them.
Agree 100%. Sorley is pretty mobile- more strong than fast. The Mountaineers put steady pressure on him to force an INT & 2 fumbles which led to 2 defensive TD's.
Cincy is no Kansas in terms of their athletes at the skill positions. And we only lost by 9, at a neutral site. Give me the cyclones to win this one.
Man I WISH it was 'only' 6 seconds.
I think they're a better matchup but ISU is hanging by a string with injuries and confidence.
