East Carolina 11/2 7:00 CBSSN

[Cliftonite]

Just, wow, saved the season there, exciting game, ECU brought it, Johnson must've had close to 300 yards receiving.. Something's wrong with this defensive scheming, Fickell has to figure that out fast.

[London 'Cat]

The 'Cats were lucky to win that game. UC only allowed 12 points in the second half, and scored 18 points in the fourth quarter alone. They have got to find a way to make the defense better. Box score here:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-fo...102_CINCY@ECU/

[longtimefan]

Incredible. Take the win and move on. The defense needs fixing. Everybody is going to be looking at the tape of Houston and ECU to attack this defense. Time to make adjustments.

[edawg400]

Who cares that was awesome....reminded me of ten years ago...dogs are hiding I was yelling so much....GO CATS

[Chewbacca2099]

Fickell took a big sigh of relief after that FG was good... I was hoping this wasn't a case of USC dreaming distractions but the sigh at the end makes me think it wasn't... They thought this was a gimme and didn't prepeare

[longtimefan]

I'm so happy for Crosa, he's struggled this year but was clutch tonight. Perfect kick to win it.

[edawg400]

Google home told me the score before crosa kicked it on tv....somehow made it even better knowing it was going in

[UC4me]

What the heck was THAT? Coming off a bye, and that is what we come up with? Yikes. We did find a way to win. That pick 6 was just about the best thing I have seen all year. We also put a bunch of points on the board though it sure didn't seem like it. 10 penalties in the first half. It seemed like 6 came on one drive. I think only 2 in the second. I don't understand how we can still be so sloppy. Lots to figure out. Thankfully, we should be able to work out additional kinks against UCONN.

[Lobot]

That was well, Something. Not sure why Marcus Freeman didn't put the safeties back after the leaving the corners on an island and having them get beat over and over again. After watching that I'm really not sure we can beat Memphis. Their receivers will toast us all night if we play like this again.

Coby Bryant, who has been pretty good until last night, had what I think was 5 PI calls against him. Some of them were ticky tack calls but you can't put your hands on the guy after 5 yards. He failed entirely to adjust to way the game was being called. Some of that blame goes on the staff for not talking to him about it. That said, I'd rather he have 5 PI calls than get beat deep over and over which was probably the other choice he had. CJ Johnson had his number all night.

Longtimefan is right. Houston gave everyone a roadmap on how to beat our defense.

On the bright the defense also saved our bacon so many thanks to Ahmad Gardner. In both of our close games against ECU and UCF, Gardner has had a pick 6. Hope he got a game ball for last night.

[Bearcat Chris]

It was ugly, that is for sure, but that is football. Just last week, Tulsa should have beaten Memphis, and would have if their kicker had not missed a 29 yard FG at the end of the game.

ECU's QB came within 22 yards of Hayden Moore's AAC record for most passing yards in a single game (record is 556, against Memphis in 2015... and we lost!). UConn should not be a problem. Memphis looked very good against SMU last night. If we were playing them here, I'd feel much better. USF might be harder than we thought, too.

B.C.

[Lobot]

Here's the box score. Johnson for ECU had 283 yards receiving with opening score being a 75 yarder over Cam Jefferies.

Ridder was only good for a 50% completion pct and almost half of his passing yards came on the long pass to Deguara. He was much more successful with his feet and like a lot people have mentioned, He was high and late almost all night.

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...meId=401117896

[coach]

I've said it a million times, but last night is why you have to take games one at a time. Coming off a bye week we came out flat particularly on defense, and it nearly costs us. That said give the EC qb credit. He played the game of his life, and for the first time i believe this year we did not sack the qb once. I noticed twice last night(as earlier in the year), that Ridder is holding his throwing wrist in what looks to be quite a bit of pain. I don't know what it is, but i don't think he's 100%. It will likely become more noticeable now that the weather has turned cold. He was really bad throwing the ball, particularly in the first half. That said, when you rush for over 300 yds and drop 46 points, it's not time to hang the heads. Road games are never easy for the most part. My guess is the defense will rebound big time next week, but it will be interesting to see after that how they regroup.It starts up front with them as the pressure has been great this year.. They've been very, very good, so for now i see this as an exception. Ahlers is only a sophmore so we'll see him again down the road. He reminds me of a mini Jared Lorenzen. Kid can throw it ,and is quick at making decisions which typically are great traits for a qb. The one problem with throwing the ball 50+ times and relying on a lot of outs is eventually the defense knows it's coming and Gardner once again made them pay. Kid runs like a wr in the open field. EC borrowed some of the same offensive strategies that UCF did earlier in the year to success and failure. I think if you talked to Freeman today he would tell you he may have gotten a little to fancy in his defensive plan last night. They had an awful lot of defensive backfield movement and blitzing going on it seemed, and often the guys got hung up, and we were exposed in coverage. That last td throw in to the corner of the end zone we brought the safety right up the middle, and he never got within 10 yds of the qb. That qb gets rid of the ball in a hurry, and last night his delivery was right on. He's not always been that accurate. On to Uconn!, 7-1 and no losses going into November in the conference is stellar.

One other thing with the new kicker, he's fine if they block for him. Folks i've heard complain about his low trajectory et. al, but two of those blocks i saw in person (and on replay) and we had guys on the line of scrimmage right in the center of the line and just let guys go right by them. The last one Ferguson was lined up at guard and he let a guy go right by him who blocked it. Give the kid some decent blocking and he's going to make kicks. I don't think he's missed an xpoint all year.

[swilsonsp4]

In the radio pregame show, Tony Pike commented that the field has a large crown, meaning that the QB is throwing downhill towards the outside. If he's not familiar with it, he can overthrow a lot of passes. I don't know if that was Ridder's problem last night, but it seems plausible. No excuses, though.

On another point, when the opponent is that dismal at running the ball, just run it and show passes just for effect. We went away from the run in the bad third quarter, but picked it back up in the fourth.

[Greg7173]

Incredible win but time to move forward. Ridder needs his confidence back. More short throws to slot and tight ends will do that as well as make the running game a bit easier to execute. Freeman needs to go back to the drawing board and shore up our back end pass defense. Our pass rush got close several times last night but Ahler's release was just too quick. Hopefully we won't see anyone like that in the near future.

[CincyBearcats2]

In my honest opinion that was the best possible outcome for UC last night. Just shows the team that you gotta show up every single game. A blowout win where we rested the starters the entire second half and let the backups play doesn't help us. We had to fight through adversity for a full 60 minutes. Iron sharpens Iron.