Q&A With an Opponents Blogger: Cincinnati

Finally done with that bye week and we are back to talking about a football game this Saturday. It’s Beat Cincinnati week and I have the great pleasure to sit down and discuss tomorrows match-up with Scott King of BearcatsBlog.com. Grab your favorite Buckeye coffee mug,sit back and enjoy our interaction to help possibly enlighten our awesome readers.

MotSaG: Why is there such resentment, hate, or disregard for Ohio State in Cincinnati?

BB: From what I’ve gathered, it’s all because people don’t like Ohio State fans. That’s really it. I asked people why they didn’t like Ohio State over twitter and a lot of it is that the fan base is smug, think they run Ohio and Ohio State fans are jerks. I don’t necessarily agree since I didn’t have that problem when I lived in Cincinnati, nor do I have it on twitter.

There is a bitterness that Ohio State won’t play Cincinnati. That’s a bitterness I share when it comes to basketball. I’m one of the people who doesn’t know why OSU, Xavier, Dayton and Cincinnati don’t play each other every year in some kind of round robin. For the teams to only have only played twice since the 60s is a joke. Especially with the success each of them have had since the 90s. I don’t get it.

Football is different because you only get 4 games a year. OSU won’t travel for more than 1 I’m assuming, so that hurts trips to Cincinnati. UC doesn’t want to only travel to Columbus. I understand why that one is trickier.

When I was growing up, Ohio State was the only program in Ohio that was on TV every week. This is the 90s and early 2000s. Cincinnati was never on TV. You could do to UC football games for free pretty much. Before 1997, Cincinnati hadn’t gone to a bowl game in something like 50 years. This generation of Cincinnati fans is like the first in decades that has become a fan with Cincinnati being a successful program. I think this generation doesn’t understand why Ohio State gets so much coverage and talk and fans in Cincinnati. There are people in Ohio who root for Michigan to beat Ohio State. I grew up hating Michigan. Desmond Howard, hate. Charles Woodson, hate. Lloyd Carr, hate. To be fair, I did hate John Cooper as well.

There is definitely some little brother vibe going on there. It’s not like Louisville, who gets a chance to kick Kentucky’s ass every year and get a piece of the pie. Cincinnati gets no cracks at Ohio State in any sport. When they have, it hasn’t really gone well. As successful as Cincinnati has been, they are still in the massive shadow of Ohio State.

TLDR: Little brother feelings, don’t like Ohio State fans.

MotSaG: The media has bashed Urban for his supposed lack of discipline and Tommy Tuberville shows this last week that he brings the SEC style of discipline to UC is that a fair assessment?

BB: I’m assuming you mean this by his not suspending a few players? I don’t think the players who weren’t suspended should have been. The player with the more serious charges was suspended and the ones with the lesser things got to play. Hosey Williams barely played at all against Miami anyway.

MotSaG: How many sacks do you think linebacker Jeff Luc will have Saturday?

BB: I’ll say 1. If you asked about tackles, I would go around 15. Jeff Luc has been a tackling robot the first two weeks with 12 tackles in the opener and 18 last week. Luc has 1.5 sacks on the season. I think the Bearcat with the best chance to have a big sack game, that sounds gross, is Silverberry Mouhon.

Fact, not bringing up Silverberry Mouhon will get you fired as a Cincinnati blogger.

MotSaG: Did the Bearcats overlook Miami of Ohio last week almost causing them to lose?

BB: Yes to an extent, although there are some major problems which helped Miami stay in the game. Major problems like Cincinnati coming out flat to start the second half two weeks in a row. Major problems like the secondary giving up over 20 yards a completion to the RedHawks. The offense had a couple of drops on potential big plays as well. It was a bunch of small things that turned into big things. Cincinnati has seemed like they have let up after getting double digit leads on opponents. Cincinnati also kept some important players, like starting center DeyShawn Bond and starting corner Adrian Witty, on the bench with injuries. Overlooking was a small problem, execution was a bigger one.

MotSaG: OT Eric Lefeld vs Joey Bosa who will win this battle?

BB: This should be a hell of a battle. I’m interested to see how Lefeld matches up. Lefeld was beat last week for a sack, the only sack Cincinnati gave up last week. He might need some help with Bosa, who is awesome and very disruptive. I’ll say Lefeld because I think he’ll have help and a game plan. But that is not to say that Bosa won’t make a play or two.

MotSaG: What are the Bearcats strengths the Buckeyes need to be concerned about?

BB: The strength has been throwing the football. Gunner Kiel has looked great this season. Cincinnati has depth on top of depth at receiver. Cincinnati has run the ball 30 times a game in the first two games. Kiel has thrown 76 passes. That doesn’t take account of Munchie Legaux’s 5 attempts. Cincinnati is going to throw the ball. They have a major league home run threat in Mekale McKay, 12 receptions, 215 yards, 3 TDs. They have a possession receiver who doesn’t drop anything in Shaq Washington. They have a red zone threat in Chris Moore, 13 career TDs. They have a guy who is just fast in Johnny Holton. 12 Bearcats have caught passes this season. Gunner has options and he uses them.

The Bearcats were able to get 5.5 sacks from the defensive line against Miami. Jeff Luc, as mentioned, and Nick Temple are very solid linebackers. But mainly the strength has been Kiel and his receivers, especially McKay.

MotSaG: Many are saying this is going to be the best WR corp the Buckeyes will see this year how do you think they will handle the pressure of man press coverage and physical play something that has been a knock on them?

BB: I’m really intrigued about how Mekale McKay will produce. He had a tendency last season to be hit and miss. He would put up great numbers and then just kind vanish. He had 6 total catches in the games Cincinnati lost in 2013. Of course, he had 2 TDs and a 57 yard reception for half of those. He’s a tough player to figure out.

I think the Bearcats can handle it relatively well. They are going to throw out enough receivers that someone should. When you look at the numbers from the Louisville and North Carolina games, Chris Moore stood out. Moore has only 3 receptions this season but we’ve seen him play a much bigger role in the offense. Washington was able to get catches and yards on almost everyone. The ones that you worry about are the Max Morrison’s and Johnny Holton’s and Nate Cole’s and Ralph David Abernathy’s of the world. The role players who have made contributions at home. Will that travel? Who knows?

Probably not the best answer, but it was the honest one.

MotSaG: What is more popular in Cincinnati, the Bearcats, Kentucky Wildcats, or Dayton Flyers?

BB: That’s the proper order I would say. Kentucky has a huge following and even Louisville has some fans in Cincinnati. But the Bearcats are the team in town, especially when they are doing well like they have been. Kentucky basketball is a regional monster, and part of that region is Cincinnati for sure. Ask Cincinnati fans about how they feel about Kentucky when basketball season rolls around. It’s like Ohio State hate turns into Kentucky hate. Why? Just because of the fans. And Kentucky fans are worse than Ohio State fans by a million. Hands down, no contest.

MotSaG: How do Cincinnati fans think they would be able to Black Out the Shoe when the Buckeyes overrun just about every stadium they travel to and there might not be any team in the country that travels that well?

BB: It’s noble to try, right? Cincinnati will have their contingent of fans and they can do the best they can to make noise in a sea of red. 5,000 or whatever out of 109,000 is not very many though. Whatever can rally the fan base is all that matters in a case like this. At least it’ll be easy to tell who is cheering on who.

MotSaG: Predictions for the game?

BB: Ohio State wins kind of comfortably. This could be close for a quarter but I think the Buckeyes have too much talent for the Bearcats to handle. If Kiel isn’t on point, it could be a long day for the Bearcats. His arm could keep it close. The defense would have to show something they haven’t shown so far.

I like Ohio State by a couple of touchdowns. The spread is like OSU -16 and I think that’s about right.

I am very thankful for Scott taken the time out to help me out this week and be a part of MotSaG’s Cincinnati week. You can follow Scott on the twitters @BearcatsBlog.

Couple of things I would like to follow up on from our Q&A. When I questioned about lack of discipline from Tuberville is that two different players had outstanding warrants for minor drug charges and there was no suspensions. Tracy Sprinkle was arrested and had alleged drug charges that were later dismissed after testing done that cleared him but he was removed from the team just saying. Hosey Williams disorderly conduct while intoxicated no big deal not saying he should have received much from that honestly.

I am nervously optimistic for this game, part of me wants to say that yes this should be a big win for the Buckeyes but I want to stay contained and refrained after getting burned by that VT game. I’m still not sure about the offensive line, if they are able to fix their issues during the bye and Barrett hits his hot routes on the blitzes then my prediction is going to be way off and I will be very happy about that. My prediction for this game is going to be conservative and as I said on our podcast Tuesday I’m going with 27-24 Ohio State.

Remember have any questions for our next opponent you want to ask hit me up at AskMotSaG@gmail.com

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