Bearcats Torpedo Navy For Eighth Win Of The Season

The Cincinnati Bearcats used the land to attack the Navy Midshipmen to earn its eighth win of the season.  The Bearcats limited a Navy offense that rushed for 569 yards in a 42-32 Navy win last season.

The young Bearcats turned the tables on the Midshipmen with a ground oriented 42-0 win over a 2-7 Navy squad.  Cincinnati defeated the Navy for the first time after three losses.  It was the first time that Navy has been shut out since 2012 when San Jose State beat them in a 12-0 contest.

"We needed to get something going," Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "We needed something we were 2-6. I can't remember the last time we got shutout."

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UC learned from the beating they took last year.

"What we went through last year, we learned from it. Last year’s game against them was an eye-opener. There weren’t a lot of big runs and big cutbacks," Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell said.

Cincinnati scored three rushing touchdowns and one through the air to take a 28-0 lead.  Michael Warren II and Desmond Ridder combined for 131 rushing yards in the first half.  Hayden Moore completed an 11-yard pass to Josiah Deguara with 32 seconds left in the first half to extend the lead into the break.  Charles McClelland contributed 27 yards in the half.

The Bearcats' triumphant return came after two road overtime games, a loss to Temple and a win over Southern Methodist.

"It was electric," Fickell said. "That had some motivation to the way we played, the way we started. We got out front and you can play a little different defensively."

"We got our butts whooped, starting with me," Niumatalolo said.  "We got out coached.  Rick's done a pretty good job with their program but the butt whooping started with me. The credit goes to them they played well."

"Schematically, they changed,  They're a 4-3 team. They came out with an eight man front but they executed.  They played physical.  Temple lines up like that.  Rutgers we see that a lot but they are a really good, well coached football team."

Defensive tackle Cortez Broughton noted that Fickell ran the scout team to prepare them for Navy as well as changing up the defensive set.

 "You’ve got four linebackers just giving it everything they’ve got, Broughton said. "The drills we did in practice – I thought somebody wa going to get hurt. We needed that to take it to the next level."

"What did they have last year, 567 rushing yards?  He definitely put it in our heads this week," wide reciever Rashad Madaris said.

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Ridder completed nine of 12 passes for an even 100 yards before Moore took the helm.

Navy kept up a ground assault, picking up 56 yards.  Navy quarterback, Zach Abey was sacked three times in the half and didn't get one of his three attempts off.  It resulted in 18 yards of loss for the Midshipmen.

The Bearcats used an air assault on its first possession of the second half.  Ridder returned to complete three passes in five attempt to cover 76 yards.  Cincinnati's fifth touchdown was the result of a 55-yard connection to Rashad Madaris.

Ridder piped Moore aboard after that drive, finishing with 178 yards passing and 66 yards rushing.  Warren II rested the second half as McClelland took off for a 40-yard touchdown run that made him the Bearcats leader with 85 yards on the ground.

Abey completed his first pass in the second half with 5:00 minutes left in the third quarter, a 32-yard play to Malcolm Perry.  He finished 3-for-4 for 47 yards.  Abey was the leading Navy rusher with 74 yards in 28 attempts.  Abey suffered five sacks for a total of 37 yards, that are deducted from his rushing totals.

"We just got outplayed in all aspects," Abey said.  "They out toughed us.  They had a good scheme we couldn't recover from.  Our answers didn't match their answers. Getting shutout was embarrassing.  They adjusted to our adjustments."

DT Cortez Broughton



(Fickell ran the scout team, they felt prepared, how much did that matter) A lot. So when we went against Navy, it was second-nature.



(different scheme with four LBs)



WR Rashad Medaris



(on his long TD catch) He definitely threaded the needle on that.



(how much last year’s game vs Navy was referenced)


(AAC race) We understand that UFC is No. 1 in the conference. We’ve got to win every game to compete for the conference championship.