Following UC football 35-27 defeat to BYU on Friday night, the Bearcats are still looking for their first Big 12 victory.
Near the end of the first half, Cincinnati’s defense allowed the floodgates to open with big play after huge play and a ton of poorly timed errors across all three units. Kedon Slovis led a passing game with six explosive plays to propel the victory (13-of-24 passing, 224 yards, two touchdowns).
Chamon Metayer had his best game as a Bearcat on Saturday (three catches, 59 yards, two touchdowns), but it wasn’t enough.
Cincinnati fell to 0-3 all-time versus BYU on Saturday as they continued to squander red zone opportunities. For the first time since 2017, the team has now dropped three straight games.
Up until Slovis led a three-play, 82-yard drive late in the first half that was helped by a penalty and three passes of 20 yards or more, BYU’s total offense was just over 30 yards.
On Friday, the veteran transfer opened up Cincinnati’s underwhelming cornerback group for a bevy of big plays. The majority of them went to Chase Roberts, who worked all over the formation to destroy Cincinnati with six catches for 131 yards and a touchdown.
UC failed to hold up long enough for the blitz to succeed (no sacks, five QB hits), recording two important pass interference. Add in Braden Smith’s botched punt and Emory Jones’ pick-six (23-of-37 for 256 passing yards, three touchdowns, one interception), and BYU’s offense didn’t need to be superhuman to win. They had little over 25 minutes of ball possession, but they made the most of it, particularly in the second half.
