First let me say that I really hate that Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza was injured. He was playing a good game and no one should ever take pleasure out of seeing another player hurt. That said, Mardy Gilyard is full of crap! The Bearcats receiver, who had a record breaking day with 365 all-purpose yards, said that Oklahoma defenders intentionally hurt Grutza.
“I watched it all happen. It was really hard to watch our quarterback go down and get hurt,” Gilyard said.
There was nothing malicious to that play. Grutza fought hard to stay on his feet and Sooner defenders fought hard to bring him down. The unfortunate result was a very grotesque injury.
The next thing is my general disappointment in Cincinnati. Bearcats’ head coach Brian Kelly said all week that they were excited to come in to Norman because he wanted to see how they measured up on of the elite programs in the country. Cincinnati has a veteran led experienced defense and they tried to intimidate Oklahoma on both sides of the ball.
The problem is that the Bearcats didn’t deliver. They brought a gimmick offense to Norman that failed to produce in the second half. When you say that you feel that you have a championship caliber team you shouldn’t try to get by on trick plays. The Bearcats tried a Statue of Liberty play, a wide receiver reverse pass and a fake punt from their own 22 and they all failed. Yet Cincinnati players were constantly in the face of Oklahoma players talking trash and were guilty more than once of delivering some cheap shots after the whistle. All the while the Sooners were clearly faster, stronger and just better than Cincinnati.
The game wasn’t as close as what the final score would suggest. Mardy Gilyard wasn’t the only person to have a career day. Sam Bradford had a career best 395 passing yards and added five touchdowns. Ryan Broyles set a school record for an OU receiver making their debut with 141 receiving yards.
In the end Cincinnati was able to feast on Oklahoma’s horrible kickoff coverage and was able to take advantage of two turnovers that led to Bearcat touchdowns. I guess what I’m saying is that it could have been worse for the Bearcats.
I’ll be back later with final thoughts after I’ve had a chance to process a few things but here are a few of my initial thoughts after Oklahoma’s 52-26 crushing of Cincinnati. Position grades will also follow in the next post.
