Cincinnati vs. Western Carolina Winners And Losers

The Cincinnati Bearcats are 2-0 for just the second time under head coach Scott Satterfield, following a dominant 62-10 win over the Catamounts. 

Time for winners and losers from the easy win.

Winner: Rushing attack 

418 yards on the ground will never escape a list like this. Of course, it is just Western Carolina, but that doesn’t mean that five Bearcats notching at least 50 yards is any less impressive. Leading the pack was Gi’Bran Payne who finished with 102 yards and 8.5 yards per carry and 2 touchdowns. Cincinnati finished the day with a whopping seven rushing touchdowns spread between six players. 

Loser: Slow defensive start

Saturday night was almost always going to finish with a Bearcats win, the question was by how much. So while it was nice to see the offense started on fire with four first-half touchdowns. Cincinnati’s defense dropping an early 10 points bringing the game to 14-10 at one point. That being said of course, following the Catamounts’ 33-yard field goal, Nate Woody and his defense turned up the heat. 

Winner: JC French IV

French finished with a near flawless 245 yards across a stellar 87.5% completion rate for 10.2 yards per completion, combine that with two passing touchdowns and 52 yards rushing and you couldn’t ask for more. While there will be tougher tasks ahead, French has done everything you could have asked in his opening two games. 

Loser: Penalties

If there was ever a time to commit lots of penalties, it comes against an FCS side, but then again, there really is no such thing as a good time to commit 11 penalties for 105 yards. Hopefully this is something that will be ironed out against Miami (OH) next week before Big 12 play kicks off, because if the Bearcats replicate this in conference play, then they could be punished a lot more. 

Final thoughts

Not much went wrong in Cincinnati’s big win and their performance on the ground is something to marvel at. With one more out-of-conference game before Kansas State comes to town, there is still plenty of opportunities to get themselves in the right shape.