Ir1sh

That fourth down call with the way the defense has been playing was huge. The Breds believe they can hang with these guys now.

The NCC defense came to play tonight!

Via 247 Sports, Milton Wright has committed to Purdue. He chose the Boilermakers over UK and Louisville, and had offers from Alabama, Ohio State, and other big-time programs. Congrats, young man. Gonna be fun to watch Milton Wright and Rondale Moore on the field, terrorizing B1G defenses together*. Milton Wright Commits to Purdue *Unless Brohm gets called home to Louisville... then a commitment flip would be an option.

Newcath is up 44-0 with 4 minutes left in the first half.

After the refs remembered how offsetting penalties work on a Beechwood punt from the end zone, the Breds block the re-punt straight into the air, and the big man who blocked it taps the toes on the end line for an NCC touchdown. Beechwood recovers the ensuing onside kick. 33-21 Beechwood with 5:38 to play.

Bring Brohm back home to UofL.

Weird considering CovCath played away for the semi-finals last year. Doesn't make sense it's not based on record at the very least.

Saudi has a pretty terrible record of women's rights and general human rights. A country no Western country should do business with until they join the 21st century, or at the very least 20th.

*Mayer*

They played 4th round down in Bowling Green area last year, so I would think so.

Who was the guy in the sparkly jacket on Highlands sideline?

Do you all think the CovCath radio team is offline during the delay? It is showing they are offline. Do you need a login for that Mixlr site?

2nd place Pittsburgh is closer in points to 9th place than they are to Cincy. That’s crazy.

Any player stats from the game?

It's a good early-season barometer for both teams, and a useful home-and-home that has given each team a chance to get acclimated to the travel experience, which you want if you plan on playing for a championship. Belfry got their travel experience last year, now NCC gets theirs.

It is a concern, absolutely, but it's also week 2. My point was that the Breds scored a bunch of points without their best offensive weapon, so they at least have some good things clicking that they can build on offensively, and they know now that they need to do a better job of protecting themselves defensively against mobile QB's that can move and chuck it deep. I wasn't taking anything away from Cooper. Just speaking to the team I'm familiar with based on the game results.

I'm an optimist, but my first thought is, "yes, I'd be much happier with a win, even if it was ugly." There are some alarm bells with this performance after the way they played last week, but I think there are going to be some peaks and valleys as the team adjusts to life under their new coach. I think a lot of NCC's problems last year were due to the offense being far too vanilla, and the team lacking discipline. The discipline is improving (though needs to continue to get better), and they put up 34 points without their best player on offense. There are things to be corrected, but also good things to take away and build on, which is usually the case with NCC's early season schedules. People more familiar with the team can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is true. I think Kelly was hurt early in the third quarter, just before they went up 28-0.

Is Kelly worth 8+ points between offense and defense? I’d have to think so, considering he is their best offensive weapon and a future DI linebacker. Impressive for the Breds to put up 38 without Kelly, and impressive for Cooper to bounce back with a big win over NCC.

Scott did some good things, particularly getting to the edge with the run game, and getting some guys open on deep passes that they just couldn’t connect. If they can iron out the timing on the passes and build on their run game, they will be just fine.

Wow!

NCC looks good, particularly that run defense. Also like to see the creativity with offensive play calling that’s been lacking the past few seasons. They were mixing the run and pass very well, rather than the traditional run-run-pass. Kremer throws an excellent deep ball, particularly to the deep corners. With Cain looking good at WR in addition to the guys they already had there, the Breds offense is going to be tough to stop if the OL does its job. Hezekiah Miller also offers some nice big-play versatility (just protect the ball!) Very impressed with the Breds in game 1 under Coach Lickert.

Louisville/O'Connor had that Cincy offense figured out early in the year. It will be interesting to see how things go when Cincy visits Slugger Field in September. Cincy's goal differential is off the charts now that they've got their optimal lineup settled. If they can get the MLS guys involved with minimal effect on team chemistry, hard to see even Louisville keeping them off the scoreboard.

Cincinnati's defense has been much improved over the last 7 matches. Their goal differential is beginning to creep up. Pittsburgh has been very impressive lately. Taking Lilly and some of his better guys from Rochester and adding them to Pittsburgh's existing team was handled very well, and they are turning into a legit force as the season has progressed and they've ironed things out. Louisville is closer to that second group than they are the top 3 right now, so it will be interesting to see if they get a boost at some point as they figure out the player-coach situation, and if they get healthier/stay healthy. Things are going to heat up over the last month and a half of the season with Cincy currently at the top of the table. Cincy and Pittsburgh will square off twice, and they'll have a regular season finale at Nashville as well. They also have to play at Louisville, and Louisville has been their kryptonite... stealing a win at Slugger field would go a long way to making me feel more confident that Cincy can win the title, though wins at Pittsburgh and Nashville would be nice confidence boosters heading into the playoffs in their own right.

Added Army to his list of offers.

The colors will almost surely stay the same. "Orange and Blue" is too ingrained in the club's identity now. May 29th is now "Orange and Blue Day" in the city of Cincinnati, and the color scheme was chosen in the first place because it's a combination that no other team in MLS uses.