If you haven’t seen the news, Vidal Hazelton has a torn ACL and is out for the season. This is a huge blow to the team, and to Vidal’s draft chances. I feel bad for Vidal, mainly because I don’t think he should have been returning kicks to begin with, and he wasn’t very good at it. I would have rather seen a Darrin Williams or Reuben Johnson or someone else back there returning kicks. That’s easy to say in hindsight, but I said it Saturday night so there. I don’t really want to do a recap of this game, but I will anyway for you, the reader. The picture is courtesy of my friends at the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Butch Jones era started off incredibly rough. Vidal Hazelton had the opening kick hit him in the pads and by the time he picked up the ball, he was tackled at the 8. To make that worse, UC was hit with a delay of game penalty. Yeah, a delay of game on the first snap of the season. The first Bearcats drive featured a couple of passes from Zach Collaros to Vidal Hazelton, a 21 yard screen to Isaiah Pead to get the ball to midfield, and a punt. The punt was from the Fresno 43 into the end zone, so the Bulldogs started at the 20. They went backwards, when after a couple of incompletions, Derek Wolfe registered the first sack of the season. The second UC drive featured a problem that hounded the team all night, Zach having no time and running for his life. The defense was impressive again on the second drive, where Maalik Bomar made a tackle for a 5 yard loss, and Wolfe brought down a scrambling Ryan Colburn on third and long.
The third Cincinnati drive actually featured Pead running the ball twice. He got 12 yards from those carries. For some reason, the speedy Pead was only used to run up the middle, something that drove me crazy since he’s someone you can get going to the outside. This drive also featured a busted play action where Zach ran for his life before throwing the greatest 3 yard pass ever to Hazelton. The Bearcats punted though.
The Bearcats D decided to get in the turnover game. After Walter Stewart and Chris Hero Williams busted up a wildcat formation run to push Fresno into third and long, Pat Lambert picked off a Colburn pass. UC took over at the FS 35 and wasted no time scoring. They pulled some trickery on a reverse to DJ Woods, which featured a great block by Collaros for 12 yards. The other 23 went in the air to Woods for the first score of the season. UC 7-0.
Jake Rogers blasted a touchback, and Reuben Johnson made a couple of tackles, one on a run, another on a reception, to keep the Bulldog offense in check again. Cincinnati took over at their own 24 for this drive, and got moving quickly, as DJ took a screen 26 yards on second down. The Bearcats stalled and faced a 3rd-7, which Collaros connected to Hazelton for 24 yards. That put the ball on the Fresno 25. Facing another 3rd down, Collaros hit DJ with a pass to the 9. Two runs from Zach, 4 yards and 5 yards, gave Cincinnati a double digit lead. UC 14-0.
Another touchback meant Fresno started at the 20, but they moved to the 30 with a Robbie Rouse run for their first 1st down of the game. They didn’t get another one, as Wolfe foiled a Rouse draw on third down. UC got 5 yards on their first down play, but a low snap by Jason Kelce pushed things back 10 yards. On 3rd-15, CJ Cobb was beaten, forcing Collaros to throw one deep for Hazelton. Vidal made a great catch, but was a foot out of bounds, and UC punted again. JK Schaffer decided to get involved, and helped make the first two tackles of the Fresno drive. He had help from Wolfe and Johnson. Cam Cheatham ended the Fresno drive with a nice tackle in the flat on Rouse.
I think the game changed on the possession. After a meaningless first down play, Collaros was pressured into an incompletion on second down. On 3rd, the snap was once again wild, going 20 yards backwards to the UC 5. That was thankfully nullified on a timeout. What happened next wasn’t so lucky, as Chris Carter busted up a screen attempt and sacked Zach for a 20 yard loss. The punt was returned to the UC 45. Colburn hit Saunders for 14 yards, ran for 7, and after a 4 yard Rouse run, threw a score. Walter Stewart thought he had safety help over the top, but, it looked like Richardson, went to the middle of the field. Robbie Rouse ran free and it was easy for the senior QB to hit him. UC 14-7.
DJ Woods did his best Mardy Gilyard impersonation to try to get the offense going. He took the kick back to the 41, when paired with an offsides, UC had the ball at the 46. Carter blew up another screen pass, leading to a 2 yard loss. UC got the ball into Fresno territory with a pass to Armon Binns. An interference call gave UC a fresh set of downs, but the line self destructed. A holding penalty moved them back 10 yards, and after an incompletion, Chris Carter made a big play. He was being blocked by Isaiah Pead, yeah the running back, blew him up, got to Collaros, stripped him, and allowed Fresno to recover at the UC 42.
Fresno went right to work. A 2nd down completion to Vince Pascoe got the ball to the 16. The UC secondary again failed, and again it was a linebacker giving away coverage to who it looked like was Richardson, and leaving a Bulldog wide open. This time, it was Jamel Halmer hauling in the open 16 yard touchdown. 14-14. In a sign fitting of the second half, Collaros was sacked before the clock ran out.
UC was outgaining Fresno at one point 194-33. The half ended 174-120. Zach Collaros was 15-24, 156 yards, 2 TDs (1 rushing), 1 fumble, 3 sacks. DJ Woods had 5-63-1, Vidal Hazelton 4-42. Isaiah Pead had 55 total yards, 31 receiving. For the Fresno State Bulldogs, Ryan Colburn was 9-15, 98-2 TDs-1 INT. Jamel Hamler caught 3-30-1, and Robbie Rouse had 2-20-1, with 11 rushing yards.
The second half started with another touchback. Fresno wasn’t worried, and moved the ball to the UC 36 in five plays, the biggest a 19 yard pass to Hamler. Cincinnati forced Fresno into a 4th-2 situation. The Bulldogs responded with a playaction bootleg pass to Tapa Taumoepeau for 8 yards. They were done messing around, and on the next play Colburn laced one to Devon Wylie for 6. The point after gave Fresno St their first lead of the season. FS 21-14.
Cincinnati responded with a little drive. Starting at the 26, Cincinnati got a 2 yard run from Pead. Binns dropped a sure pass, but made up with it on the next play, getting 11 yards. Facing a 3rd-15, Collaros stayed cool and calm and put a 16 yard pass in the hands of Hazelton to move the sticks. A couple of Pead runs went nowhere. Facing another 3rd and long, Collaros put one on Woods, but DJ couldn’t hang on. It turned out to be a big play. UC punted Fresno back to the 11. A fumbled snap, and a fumble by Dan Giordano put the ball at the 3. Reuben Johnson made a tackle that forced a punt, and UC took over at the Fresno 45.
The last pass Vidal Hazelton caught as a Bearcat went for 5 yards to start the drive. A couple of Pead runs moved the chains. A second down hold after a 3 yard run pushed UC back to the 40, and the Bearcats could only get back to the 31. That set up Jake Rogers from 48, but he missed wide right.
Coburn hit Tapa for 9 yards, and Rouse went wildcat for the first down to end the third quarter. The first play of the 4th quarter saw the UC secondary get torched again. Chris Williams was burned, and DeJuan Gossett told me the safety, I think Frey in this case, wasn’t deep enough, and that lead to a bomb to Rashad Evans for 59 yards and 7 more for the Bulldogs. This was the end of the scoring. Duh. FS 28-14.
The kickoff was taken by Vidal Hazelton, but as you know from up top, it didn’t go well, as he tore his ACL on the return. Collaros and Pead ran for 12 yards before things unraveled. Zach scrambled around, should have thrown it away, and was sacked by Travis Brown. The next play, Evan Davis was overpowered by Harrell again, leading to another sack. On third down, the genius who thought up plays where fucking Isaiah Pead is blocking Chris Fucking Carter drew another up, and it resulted with Carter putting Collaros down and really extinguishing all hopes for a comeback.
Fresno went 3 and out, but put UC back to the 9. Collaros ran for 14 yards on two carries, but was soon on his back again. Samuel Griffin and Sean Hooey were toasted by the Fresno ends, allowing Harrell to get another sack. Zach hit Binns for 11 yards, but on 3rd-7, Harrell beat Alex Hoffman for a sack and forced fumble that Hoffman recovered. The UC defense held again, with Johnson and Walter Stewart making tackles for no gain and a 3 yard loss respectively. The last UC drive ended with Collaros hitting Binns for 5 and after an incompletion, hitting Woods for 9. Then there were 3 incompletions and desperation 6 yard run by Zach. Fresno did nothing with the ball, and that’s how we ended up with the score. Final Fresno State 28 Cincinnati 14.
I’ll highlight some of the key stats. UC had 234 yards to Fresno’s 296. Neither team ran well, 15 for UC, 49 for FS. Both teams had just 5 penalties for 34 and 35 yards. Zach Collaros was 24-41-219-2 TDs (1 rush), 2 fumbles (1 lost) 9832 sacks. Pead had just 10 carries for 36 yards, and 28 yards receiving. DJ caught 6-72-1, Hazelton 6-63, Binns 7-55, and Ben Guidugli 1-1. Ryan Colburn was pretty awesome. He went 18-24, 247, 4 TDs, 1 INT. He completed 75% of his passes for nearly 14 yards a pass, that sucks. Rouse had 20-40 on the ground, and 20-1 TD in the air. Rashad Evans was the leading receiver, 4-71-1, Hamler 5-53-1, and Wylie 2-35-1.
Here are three positives, and three negatives.
- The run defense was pretty solid. The corners came up and made quite a few nice sticks in the backfield. Bomar and Stewart were all over the place. They both got taken advantage of on TDs, but you can’t win everything.
- When he had time, Zach Collaros looked pretty good. He was mixing it up to all three big targets. I would have liked to see Ben get more than one catch, but oh well. He’s going to now. I would say he had at least 5-7 throw aways that ruin the completion percentage.
- DJ Woods played quite well. DJ had the nice kick return, the nice reverse, and a couple of big catches. He had a couple of drops that hurt. So did Binns.
Negatives
- The offensive line was a huge concern, and for good god damn reason. I’m disappointed that the staff didn’t change something when Fresno’s ends were in the backfield the whole second half, and the last part of the first. Chris Carter and Harrell were fixtures in the UC backfield. UC tried to run up the middle, but they didn’t block much better. The line was atrocious. No more of this please.
- The secondary was the big defensive concern. They were roasted, toasted and burnt to a crisp 3 times Saturday night. You could tell the experience just isn’t there. Hopefully these are fixable things. I really, really, really hope so.
- The run game. Darrin Williams had 1 carry. Pead 10. Woods 2. Collaros had 10 carries. 23 carries is not going to cut it. Zach had 49 yards to lead the team, but you saw Pead’s number. This is partly line, partly coaching and small part runners. The line has to be better or things are going to get worse. I know the Big East struggled, but West Virginia and Pitt have rushers would will eat Collaros alive.
Game one of the Butch Jones era sucked. Luckily, UC gets to get the first win of the Butch Jones era on Saturday. Look for lots of good stuff this well. Ok, lots of stuff this week.
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