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"Our margin of error is very small. It doesn't matter if we are playing Delaware State, Fordham, Louisville, Toledo, it does not matter. We just can't show up, we are not good enough to just show up and beat anybody. We have to follow the plan to win, the formula to win."
-Butch Jones
It is a long time after the Toledo game to be making a post about it. But, being in retail, getting a Saturday off usually comes at the cost of a Sunday full of work. So right now is the first time I have had a moment to talk about the game. There has been a rush to judgement, understandably, to wrap this loss up and tie it around the neck of Munchie Legaux. Its easy, but it isn't exactly accurate.
Munchie played badly. But, that is a game that UC should have won, and its a game where UC lost, on the margins. Two non offensive TD's and five field goals did the business for the Rockets. The moment after UC took its first, and only, lead of the game Tony Miliano tempted fate one too many times kicking to Bernard Reedy, and Reedy took it 91 yards to the house to give the Rockets the lead for good. It was the first kickoff return for a TD that the Bearcats had given up in 61 games.
This was a classic margins game, because UC statistically dominated the Rockets. The Bearcats gained 123 more yards, averaged 6.6 yards per play to the Rockets 5.3. And on, and on. But UC lost because the Rockets had those two, huge non offensive TD's, and they made the difference in the game.
Munchie played badly against the Rockets, but I don't but into the argument that the reason the Bearcats is all on Munchie. If UC doesn't have a major gaff on kick off coverage, or better yet doesn't tempt fate by kicking to the most red hot return man in the country, UC wins.
There are quite a few issues with this UC team at the moment, but they fly completely under the radar, because all anyone has eyes for is the quarterback. That comes with the territory, but its deeply unfair to characterize the performance of the Bearcats on Saturday night as perfect, except for the play of Munchie. UC lost that game because they lost on the margins, which is where UC has been winning under Butch Jones.
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