When thinking about this game I knew it was going to make its way onto this countdown in some way shape or form but I was struggling to find the perfect word to explain UC's win over the Scarlet Knights. Beatdown? Demolition? Annihilation? Nah, none of those depict the true performance of the Bearcats. So I settled on 'abuse' mainly because it was so one-sided and no matter what Cincinnati did, Rutgers had absolutely no answers. On the Banks might not like to hear it but it's true. On 15 total drives not including the kneel downs at the end of the game, Cincinnati scored touchdowns on 10 of them and punted only 4 times. This was the culmination of an entire year of frustration for the Bearcats football team. We knew this offense was explosive and the droughts against West Virginia and Syracuse were an aberration. Overall though the Cincinnati season was a major disappointment, especially after the win against Louisville a month earlier and considering how underestimated the lack of depth and major obstacle a transition year between coaching staffs could be.
This was still a major highlight of the 2010 season as we saw how Kelly-like explosive Butch Jones' offense could be. Let's break it down.
You can see some of the highlights to this game here:
Cincinnati Bearcats 2010-11 All-Sports Video Montage (via CincinnatiBearcats)
I'll admit that I didn't watch this game until later as I was on a bus to Detroit but my phone was going crazy with scoring updates. When I finally watched the game the following Monday I could see why. This definitely wasn't a game for fans who like stout defenses especially on the Cincinnati side. The Bearcats were as efficient as we have ever seen them as two-thirds of their drives ended up in touchdowns. It's amazing what you can do in a spread offense when you don't get bogged down by the goal line and have explosive players that can get huge chunks of yardage at a time.
Isaiah Pead's legs were like jelly after the game. He carried the ball 31 times for 213 yards and caught a passing touchdown. Overall bested his performance against Miami (OH) earlier in the season. You read that correctly. Pead had a better game against a BCS AQ program than he did against a MAC school. Kid is insane. But he wasn't the only Bearcat putting on a show that night. Zach Collaros was on fire throwing for 366 yards at almost a 10 yard/play click and 4 touchdowns. He also ran another one in for a score. He got tons of help from help from Pead and his receivers Binns and Woods (who each had about 100 yards receiving) but Collaros showed he is the still great quarterback we saw during the UConn game in 2009 and Louisville earlier in 2010.
When the dust settled, Cincinnati had scored 10 touchdowns, compiled 661 yards of total offense, 31 first downs, and the game ended up being the highest scoring game in Big East football history. The icing on the cake is that Cincinnati can now say that they are 1 - 0 when scoring 9 or more touchdowns. Why wasn't this ranked higher? Well it was basically the Toilet Bowl of the Big East as both teams were fighting for the 7th slot in the conference and the game didn't mean anything. But it gave Cincinnati fans a taste of how efficient and explosive Butch Jones' offense could be if run properly. The team is much more familiar with his schemes so look for more games like these out of the Bearcats offense in 2011.
[#8 DJ Woods' touchdown vs. Oklahoma]