Cincinnati 38 Indiana 24

[Walter]

 

[John Anthony]

41 minutes ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Not really. Was Ohio State 4th the year they won it?

Was than an anomaly?  2014 was a long time ago.

[gchs_uk9]

1 hour ago, John Anthony said:

Was than an anomaly?  2014 was a long time ago.

I think it was an anomaly. Definitely rare that the fourth seed is competitive. That said, I hate the way the deck is already stacked against teams like Cincinnati but when they play a good team and beat them then the story becomes how the “good team” wasn’t really good and therefore the team like Cincinnati therefore isn’t good either. 

[futurecoach]

1 hour ago, gchs_uk9 said:

I think it was an anomaly. Definitely rare that the fourth seed is competitive. That said, I hate the way the deck is already stacked against teams like Cincinnati but when they play a good team and beat them then the story becomes how the “good team” wasn’t really good and therefore the team like Cincinnati therefore isn’t good either. 

 

4 hours ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Here’s the problem:

Any Group of 5 team that beats someone like Indiana has to wow. However if they do, then people say “yeah, but Indiana isn’t that good.” If they don’t wow, people say “you couldn’t even beat Indiana bad how can you beat Team ABC?” It’s a never ending movable goal post that allows us to put Notre Dame and/or Oklahoma in the playoff where they lose by the same margin as would Cincinnati. 

In regards to the 4 seed or even 3 seed in reference to Notre Dame. While Notre Dame hasn’t fared well in the semi finals in the playoffs. People seem to forget that in those semi finals they have legit lost to the best team in the country in those semi finals in both 2019 and 2021. In fact Notre Dame technically gave closer games in the semi finals than Bama gave Clemson in 2019 title game and closer in 2021 than what OSU gave Bama in the title game.  So while talking about Notre Dames playoff losses, it wasn’t like they didn’t deserve to be there. They simply lost  to the best team in the country in both cases, and those teams they lost to also beat down their opponents in the title game. 
 

With that said I have always been in favor of the expanded playoffs, so that other teams at least also get their shot to see what they can do. Even though as you mentioned it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference with the end result. 
 

The Notre Dame vs. UC game should be a very fun game to watch. 

[Tigerpride94]

Congrats to Desmond Ridder for beating the Hoosiers!

[Voice of Reason]

Very good and important win for UC. But ... IMO, UC needs to step it up to beat Notre Dame. 

[Walter]

11 hours ago, Tigerpride94 said:

Congrats to Desmond Ridder for beating the Hoosiers!

 

[Walter]

8 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Very good and important win for UC. But ... IMO, UC needs to step it up to beat Notre Dame. 

UC will have to play better moving forward (avoid the slow start), but nothing about ND has been impressive through their first 3 games and screams UC is in trouble if they don't start fast in 2 weeks. 

Indiana is better than any team ND has played so far and UC outscored them 38-10 over the final 34 minutes of the game.

The one constant with UC during the Fick era has been a really good defense. That alone is going to keep them in any game, regardless of the offensive struggles. 

The slow start yesterday had a lot to do with the line being without starting LG  Vinny McConnell and RS freshman John Williams struggling at LT.

Ron Crook put in grad transfer James Tunstall for Williams midway through the 2nd quarter and that's when the offense started to move the ball.

[Voice of Reason]

18 minutes ago, Walter said:

UC will have to play better moving forward (avoid the slow start), but nothing about ND has been impressive through their first 3 games and screams UC is in trouble if they don't start fast in 2 weeks. 

Indiana is better than any team ND has played so far and UC outscored them 38-10 over the final 34 minutes of the game.

The one constant with UC during the Fick era has been a really good defense. That alone is going to keep them in any game, regardless of the offensive struggles. 

The slow start yesterday had a lot to do with the line being without starting LG  Vinny McConnell and RS freshman John Williams struggling at LT.

Ron Crook put in grad transfer James Tunstall for Williams midway through the 2nd quarter and that's when the offense started to move the ball.

I am not sure what that 38-10 number means. Every game has ebbs and flows. And the last 7 points of that 38 was a last second add on. Watching the game it was a battle down to the last minutes when Penix made that terrible pass for an interception. UC's defense showed holes that need to be fixed. The offensive line, especially the left tackle struggled at times. I agree that Notre Dame has suffered their own struggles, but UC was not impressive in their win. They need to not only win but make an impression against ND. They need some momentum in the rankings to get into the playoff.

[sportsfan41]

20 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

If that’s the 8th best team in the country… 

I agree with your take while watching the game live.  Bottom line, they won on the road against a team that will likely upset one or two this year.  Good win for UC, despite looking like trash early. 

[9068]

21 hours ago, John Anthony said:

It doesn’t matter Alabama is repeating.

I thought the Tide looked pretty "gettable" in the second half against Florida. I think this is shaping up as an interesting year. Between Covid, the transfer portal, and NIL the college game is evolving rapidly.

[Walter]

3 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

They need to not only win but make an impression against ND. They need some momentum in the rankings to get into the playoff.

I could care less how they look while doing it and the "style points."

At the end of the day, a double digit road win over a preseason top 15-20 team is good enough for me. Only thing that matters is getting the W.

Win by 1 or win by 21, it still shows up as a W at the end of the season. You have to win all of your games to even have a shot at the playoff when you're in UC's current position, so margin of victory in weeks 3 and 5 is irrelevant, IMO. 

Plenty of other top teams have struggled against worse teams than Indiana. Oklahoma struggled against Nebraska AND Tulane. Clemson looked terrible against Georgia Tech. Ohio State was in a 7 point game until the final 3 minutes against Tulsa. 

[Voice of Reason]

29 minutes ago, Walter said:

I could care less how they look while doing it and the "style points."

At the end of the day, a double digit road win over a preseason top 15-20 team is good enough for me. Only thing that matters is getting the W.

Win by 1 or win by 21, it still shows up as a W at the end of the season. You have to win all of your games to even have a shot at the playoff when you're in UC's current position, so margin of victory in weeks 3 and 5 is irrelevant, IMO. 

Plenty of other top teams have struggled against worse teams than Indiana. Oklahoma struggled against Nebraska AND Tulane. Clemson looked terrible against Georgia Tech. Ohio State was in a 7 point game until the final 3 minutes against Tulsa. 

All true. Unfortunately and unfairly UC is fighting a PR battle in the rankings.

[TheDeuce]

48 minutes ago, Walter said:

I could care less how they look while doing it and the "style points.”

If you care about UC making the playoffs, you have no choice but to care about style points. 

[allsport71]

The kicker might cost them a game if the score is close, I can’t believe they couldn’t find someone in Cincinnati or even Northern Ky to kick, unfortunately, unlike the pros, you just can’t invite kickers in for try outs, there has to be someone better.