Battle For Ohio

Amen!

And here I thought last weekend was huge in Cincinnati, this weekend was even bigger in the sports scene.  Xavier basketball opened their season with an easy win to get Chris Mack’s feet wet.  UC football battled one of the toughest running opponents they will see all year and survived to tell the tale.  And the Bengals went into Heinz Field and ripped the heart out of the Steelers.  Simply put, what an amazing weekend in Cincinnati sports.   When was the last time it felt this good to live in a real life sports town?  The mid 70′s?  So what were some of the highlights from the weekend?  Lets see if we can cover some here.

Xavier Basketball:

The Good:

• Good first game for Chris Mack.  It is important to get your career started off feeling good and a solid win over Youngstown State was just what the doctor ordered.

• Xavier shot the ball well from the field, shooting 51%, shot great from the arc shooting 41%, and a very respectable 81% from the foul line.  A good shooting night is always good on the first game, a great confidence builder because lets face it – they scheduled Youngstown State for a reason.

• Dante Jackson and Jason Love seem to be doing a great job of providing different styles of leadership that are meshing well for this team.  Love is a silent get it done type.  Jackson is more firy and an emotional guy.

• Mark Lyons is so fun to watch.

The Bad:

• Jamel McLean’s seeming disappearance.  7 points, 7 rebounds.  I thought this guy was going to be a double/double threat all year.  He is going to have to step up and showcase that athleticism more if this team is going to have success against Dayton.

• Jordan Crawford.  He turns the ball over too much and I am worried about the prima donna attitude.  He had 1 assist and 4 turnovers.  He has to get that under control with as much as he is going to be handling the ball.  And I don’t like that he has led the team in scoring in each of their games that I have seen.  I am worried about him trying to take over games and I don’t think he is quite ready yet.  The turn overs alone speak to that.

"Kenny ANGRY! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!" Be scared people.

The Ugly:

• They went into cruise control in the second half.  They only outscored Youngstown State by two in the second half.  I would like to see more focus in the future and maybe keep the foot on the gas, huh?

• Kenny Frease angry.  Can’t you see him just snapping and going on a rampage?  Like some sort of monster.  He reminds me a little of Frankenstein’s monster.  Mark my words, there is going to be a hard foul one day and Kenny is going to lose it.  They will have to clear the Cintas Center and bring in a team of specialists armed with high-powered tranquilizer guns.

UC Football:

The Good:

• They beat yet another ranked opponent in #25 West Virgina.  Of course this still wasn’t enough to get ahead of TCU in the BCS.  UC stays at 5 despite the toughest battle they had to face all year.  You know the good ‘ol BCS, if you don’t win by 50 then you might as well have lost.

• They were able to use both Quarterbacks effectively.  Zach being 100% healthy and quicker on his feet got the bulk of the duties from 20 to 20.  Inside the red zone they would turn to Pike, being that he is 6’6″ and can see the whole field.  It worked pretty well since Pike went 2-4 with two touchdowns.

Contraversial, yes, but count it!

• Isaiah Pead had a coming out party.  He went for 181 yards on just 18 carries.  For those of you keeping score at home that is a whopping 9.7 average.  He had a 52 yarder as well as a touchdown.  This freshmen’s future is bright.  But as bright as it might be, our friend Heather could not stop making fun of his name.  It is kind of funny.

• Were able to outlast one of the best running attacks they are going to see all year.  UC didn’t give up 100 yards to a single running back.  That is good considering West Virgina had the personnel to do it.  Even more impressive considering that the West Virgina game plan was to run the ball early and often.

The Bad:

• Zach Collaros showed some signs of humanity.  He threw an interception and no touchdowns.  Of course in all fairness they did tend to let Tony Pike quarterback when they got in the red zone.  But the interception was a bad throw in  a tight spot that he didn’t need to make.

• Mardy Gilyard was all but silent with the exception of a couple nice kick returns, especially one of them.  But West Virgina did a great job of taking him out of the game.  While playing receiver he only caught two balls for 22 yards.

The Ugly:

• The run defense.  They might not have given up 100 yards to one player, but they gave up 50 or more to three different players.  As a matter of fact West Virgina had more rushing attempts than UC, more rushing first downs, and more rushing touchdowns.  This area still need to be heavily looked at before the Pittsburgh game and definitely before any bowl game they get invited to.  My concern is that there is no fix for this season.

The Bengals:

The Good:

• Defense.  Four field goals.  That is all the Bengals defense allowed the Steelers.  The defense played their guts out.  Worthlessburger threw for less than 250 yards, NO touchdowns, and an interception.  Rashard Mendenhall, who had been running wild was held to under 100 yards and again, no touchdowns.  And finally there was not a single receiver that had over 100 yards.  Oh yeah, that was without Antwan Odom, Roy Williams, and Keith Rivers, and Leon Hall was in and out after getting banged up early in the game.

• Protection.  Only two sacks given up to one of the best pass rushes in the game.  Harrison and Woodley were held to the teams lone sacks.  Benson got hurt, but the line was good enough to push the Steelers around enough to net about 61 rushing yards.

• Polamalu out in first quarter.  Anytime a game changer like Polamalu has to leave the game early you have to breathe a little easier.  Especially early in the game where it looked like it was going to be a day where Palmer felt like he had to force passes.  You can’t force a pass past Polamalu.

The man is on fire! 5 sacks since filling in for Antwan Odom.

• Fanene.  How huge has this guy been?  Jonathan has really stepped up since Odom went down.  He had two crucial sacks yesterday and now has 5 sacks on the season.  He also got in Ben’s face and swatted a ball down at the line.  The guy has been a terror and quite the surprise.

• Morgan Trent.  I remember thinking in the beginning of the year I was VERY concerned about the depth at corner back.  The last two weeks Morgan has proven to be a very adequate nickle corner.  He is 6’1″, so he has a little size to him, and he was even sited filling in for Leon Hall on a couple plays.

• Brian Leonard.  And to think, this guy was on the bubble to make the team.  I LOVE this guy.  There is no one on this team that will fight for yards more than Brian.  I don’t think he is the most gifted athletically, but what he doesn’t have he more than makes up for with determination.  He loves to put his head down and drive ahead.  He might be one of my favorite Bengal players.

The Bad:

• Bob Bratkowski.  Why o’ why did he keep calling Lavarneus Coles number when it was pretty clear that Randall Gay was all over him, no sexual pun intended.  I mean Gay looked like Prime Time out there against Coles.  And why with Benson out did you run the ball on third and long at the end of the game?  Do you not trust Carson Palmer to win that game for you?  I am just really tired of Bob holding this offense back.  I know that he should get credit for calling a good game against Chicago, but every other game he has played down to his opponent.  Just step on the damn gas and run them out of the building.  Wasn’t it nice beating Chicago by more than a touchdown?  Wasn’t it a lot less stressful?  Wasn’t it nice for a week not to hear how the whole city wants you fired?

• Darrin Simmons.  This has been a long time coming, but Darrin’s time here might soon be over.  The special teams have been undisciplined and just not very good in years.  The run back off the kickoff aside, since you can’t really coach that.  Two block in the back penalties, one holding call.  Kick off and punt return coverage has been bad all year too.

• Chris Crocker’s tackling.  I saw him whiff on what could have been two tackles for a loss.  But instead of hitting, driving and putting the receiver or running back on the ground he left his feet and tried the “flying shoulder pad of death.”  it is only death for the person that misses the tackle, however.

• Ndukwe’s penalty.  Wow, was that awful?  46 yard pass interference and it was so blatant that I could see it and I wasn’t even in the room at the time.

• Shaynes 51 yard miss.  Where to start?  We franchised you again why?  We are paying you like a top 5 kicker because why?  The Black Knight can miss a 51 yarder, a college free agent can miss a 51 yarder and cost us a lot less.  You were a bigger waste of a franchise tag than Justin Smith.  At least Justin would show up and give 100% every game.  I am not letting this go until you do something, anything significant Shayne.  You have been warned.

Bengals team doctor after a succesful operation completing the transformation of Shayne Graham to a pussy (cat).

• Benson in noticeable pain.  The sideline reporter said that Benson’s return was doubtful, and my heart sank.  Then suddenly he was on the field and everything was right in my world.  Then they handed him the ball and he hobbled to the outside as quick as he could and ducked out-of-bounds.  It looked bad.  I am concerned, but Marvin Lewis sounded hopeful after the game.  But my neighbor, Mo, and I talked about how many times we have heard of little injuries becoming big injuries in the incapable hands of Bengal’s team doctors?  Uh-oh.  And I don’t want to hear any talk about the miraculous recovery of Carson Palmer, he never uses the Bengals doctors.  Smartest thing he has ever done.

The Ugly:

• Marcus Purify was seen on the field.  Time to go ahead and declare Jerome Simpson a bust?  When Chris Henry went down we were all told that it was a battle between Purify and Simpson to suit up in his absence.  I saw Purify on the field Sunday, not Jerome.  A college free agent made it on the field before the second round draft pick Simpson.  Waste.

• Missed XP.  Can’t leave points on the field against the Steelers in their house.  Fortunately this didn’t come back to haunt the Bengals, but those long snap exchanges have to get better.  We solved the snapper problem, now we apparently have to find someone to hold the ball.  I am willing to let this ONE slide, but it has been a long couple years of this crap, get it together.

What an amazingly awesome weekend if you are a Cincinnati sports fan.  UC beat a tough ranked opponent, Xavier kicks off the Chris Mack era the right way and the Bengals have swept the Steelers and the Ravens and controled their own destiny.  This is the most focused and the best equipped Bengals team I have ever had the pleasure of watching, not that there was much competition.

Keep it up Cincinnati, lets put this city back on the map and make people start to notice the ROAR coming from south-west Ohio!