Enjoying Cincinnati’s perfect season (so far),
The wins come so matter-of-factly, everyone but head coach Luke Fickell and his team could be excused for taking them for granted. The Cincinnati Bearcats plowed under a good Memphis team 49-20 last weekend, so easily we had to be reminded the Tigers entered the game ranked just outside the Top 25.
The previous Saturday, same thing. SMU was ranked 16th and playing at home. The Bearcats laid them out, too, with the sort of relentless efficiency we’ve come to expect from Fickell-coached teams.
It’s the defense that makes it all look so ... comfortable. Coordinator Marcus Freeman’s crew is so good, it allows you to suppose that, no matter what, UC will score whatever it needs to get the D the W. That the offense tore up Memphis’ remarkably generous defense – it was allowing 440 passing yards per game and a mindblowing 13 yards per catch – was icing on quarterback Desmond Ridder’s confidence. The Bearcats’ quarterback threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more.
But the UC defense is what allows UC fans the twin comforts of satisfaction and optimism.
“We’re all greedy,” said linebacker Darrien Beavers. “We don’t want the offense to get a yard. We wanna have zero points on the board. Maybe that’s not realistic, but that’s our mindset.”
Memphis finished with 321 total yards. Most were inconsequential. Ninety-two came on one play, a swing pass from Brady White to Tahj Washington in the first quarter, on a busted Bearcats coverage. In the first half, when the outcome was still a mystery, Memphis managed one play for 92 yards, and 26 others for 63 yards.
The game swung in the first eight minutes of the second half. Memphis started the half by driving to the Cincinnati 10-yard line. Down just 21-10, the Tigers decided to go for it on 4thand-2 and White threw incomplete into the end zone. The Bearcats took over and rolled 90 yards in seven plays. Ridder scored on a 9-yard scramble.
At 28-10, Freeman’s defense didn’t have to worry much about anything but locating White and making him unhappy. Which they did. An 18point, second-half lead is meat on the bone for a defense as hungry as this one. Said Beavers, “Even if you don’t do your job technically, you have somebody that will be there and help you out. It’s fun knowing everyone’s gonna do their job.”
By the time Jerome Ford ran 48 yards for a score on a simple dive play, UC led 49-10 with 1:30 left and the day’s mission was accomplished. Not only thump Memphis, but thump ’em bad.
It has to do with making the playoff.
The weird calculus afforded by pandemic disruptions plays into UC’s favor. The Pac-12 hasn’t played a game, the Big 10 is precariously dodging COVID-19 bullets, the Big 12 is reeling because Texas and Oklahoma have each lost more than once. Clemson barely beat Boston College last weekend, because QB Trevor Lawrence has the virus and no one knows when he’ll play again.
That leaves Alabama, possibly Ohio State and a whole lot of questions. And a slightly open door for the likes of the University of Cincinnati. At their current pace, the Bearcats could make life seriously miserable for the playoff selection committee, several weeks down the road.
Consecutive 11-win seasons have given Team Luke some national cred. A No. 6 ranking only furthers that. Every week’s an audition for the Bearcats, every game is a chance for the blue bloods to find imperfection in the UC resume. They’re looking for reasons not to let a Soup of Five team into their country club.
The Soup of Five – yeah, soup, not group – a bunch of Pretty Good Teams floating in the Power Five sea of dominance – are like the dog beneath the dinner table, seeking crumbs. Never mind that UC and UCF are perennially ranked and others (Houston, Memphis) are often a win or two away from ruining some Power 5 team’s season.
The Soup starts every year in an impossible hole, then spends the rest of the season climbing out. At the very least, the Bearcats are this year’s argument for an expanded playoff. Maybe the best argument ever.
“You’ve got to continue to focus on the things we need to do,” Fickell told his players. “A lot of things gotta continue to fall into place. Whatever that means, I don’t know.”
He asked them “not (to) lose sight of what it is we need to do. Let everybody else worry about those external things.”
The committee’s first rankings will be released Nov. 24. For now if you’re Cincinnati, there’s nothing to do but enjoy the ride.