Well everything went according to plan for the Bearcats in Week 1 with the Cats running away from Austin Peay 55-20. Week 2 however, will provide a much bigger challenge as the No. 22 Army Black Knights come to Nippert Stadium. Let’s get to know the Black Knights a little better.
Army comes into the game at 2-0, but it is hard to infer a lot from those two games as the opponents were Middle Tennessee St. who they beat 42-0 and Louisiana-Monroe who they beat 37-7. Not to take away from Army though, as this is a Top 25 football team for a reason. They are solid on defense, they are disciplined, commit few penalties, and everyone knows how frustrating the triple-option offense makes them.
To begin to think about what UC will face Saturday you must first remember the triple option is unlike any other style of play you’ll face in a given year, for example through two games Army’s accumulated only 57 yards of passing, so the wide receiver position isn’t even something necessary to game plan against.
To run the triple-option you need a competent quarterback who can make plays with his legs and quick decisions with his mind and for the Black Knights that man is junior Christian Anderson. Anderson leads the offensive attack and so far has put up, 149 yards, three touchdowns, 74.5 yards per game with an average of 4.8 yards per carry, the yards and yards per game are team highs. This doesn’t mean Anderson is the only capable runner, after all Army has nine different guys who are currently averaging at least 23 rushing yards a game.
If you can manage to get the ball out of Anderson’s hands then it is likely going to one of three places, sophomore Jakobi Buchanan, freshman Tyrell Robinson and senior Sandon McCoy. All three are dangerous and all three average 48 or more yards rushing a game. Buchanan currently has the rushing lead between them with 139 yards to go along with two touchdowns. Robinson is averaging 10.0 yards a carry with a 120 yard total, but no scores. McCoy has just shy of 100 yards on the season, 97, but he leads the team in touchdowns with four.
It is safe to say Marcus Freeman and that UC defense will have quite the challenge on Saturday, but it is a very talented and experienced group on that side of the ball for the Cats and in 2018 when Freeman coached against Navy also running the triple-option, it was a 42-0 shutout. Let’s hope that recent success continues through this weekend and the Bearcats are able to get off the field early and not allow Army to grind the defense down late in the game.
As for the defense, again it’s hard to determine this early just how good Army’s defense is with the level of competition they faced through two weeks. Army opponents are currently averaging 3.5 points per game and averaging 192.0 total yards in the first two games. They have three interceptions, four sacks and three fumbles recovered. This very solid and opportunistic defense is lead by defensive back Cedrick Cunningham, Jr. who has 13 tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss and one sack. Linebacker Jon Rhattigan has 12 tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, a fumble recovery and an interception.
I believe they will hold UC under their current 55 point average, but Desmond Ridder & company should still be able to move the ball and they will bring to the game their own three-headed monster running the ball and the offensive line should have a pretty nice size advantage against the defensive line of Army.
All in all it’s just a great feeling to have a Top 25 matchup back at Nippert in a year where we didn’t think we would have any football. It will be a nice showcase for the team as the game is at 3:30 on ESPN this week and I expect the Bearcats to get the win in a tough game 34-21.
