Five Things Learned: Cincinnati Bearcats at Miami RedHawks

It’s now a season of discontent for the Miami RedHawks as they were shutout 21-0 by the Cincinnati Bearcats a week after being unable to stop the run against the Marshall Thundering Herd. With a road game at Minnesota on the horizon, Miami has a small chance of righting the ship in time for MAC play.

The defense played well

One silver lining for this game is that the defense for the RedHawks played well enough to win for most of the game. Two of the UC scores were set up by having great field position, and the first touchdown was set up by a busted play from the defense. The vaunted Bearcat rushing attack was held to 3.7 yards per carry so Miami had opportunities to win this game.

The offense did not

However, 59 rushing yards and 3.4 yards per pass attempt won’t get it done against good college football teams. One could question the playcalling (throwing 41 passes in a torrential downpour) or execution (Gus Ragland locking on to WRs, which eventually led to an interception), but Miami was supposed to be better than getting shutout in a rivalry game at “home” at the end of the day.

Kicking game didn’t help

UC also dominated special teams as it seemingly always forced Miami to drive the length of the field to score. This made life for a struggling offense in the rain difficult, but not completely insurmountable.

Adapting to your surroundings

It seemed UC made the adjustment to the game conditions as it ran the ball 51 times in the monsoon for small but consistent gains, while Miami only ran the ball 19 times. You have to be able to adapt in order to put the team in the best position to win games, and Cincinnati made the necessary adjustment.

Losing it all

Despite the tough loss, the team needs to stay together as the road doesn’t get any easier. Miami has back-to-back road games against Minnesota and Bowling Green and if it lets the UC loss linger, the season can go sideways before it even gets to the meat of its schedule.