Big East Report Card Week 10: Offense and More Offense for the Bearcats

What a night for Big East football! With the ABC cameras rolling and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit singing praises for Cincinnati, the Bearcats and UConn put on an unbelievable offensive display for the nation to enjoy.

Here are the grades from a short Big East schedule last week.

Cincinnati (9-0, 5-0): 47, Connecticut (4-5, 1-4): 45

Would you believe 1,173 yards of total offense for these two football teams? Amazing. Cincinnati put up 711 yards and barely held off the Huskies, who added 462. Perhaps UConn's offense found that the Bearcats might have an Achilles' heel—their defense.

ABC color commentator Herbstreit, former Buckeye, made the point that Cincinnati has an offense to match Florida, Alabama, or Texas, but is not in the same ballpark with those teams on defense.

This game showed that UConn has tremendous heart. The Huskies were down all night but put up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, outscored Cincinnati 21-10, and nearly pulled this one off. Did anyone think it would be that close?

This was an incredibly entertaining game. Zach Collaros continues to amaze us with his ability to run the Bearcat offense, and we wonder if Tony Pike will see the field again this season. Collaros went 29-of-37 for 480 yards in the air, 144 to Mardy Gilyard.

Jacob Ramsey, Collaros, and Isaiah Pead put up good ground numbers (231) to add some balance.

Jordan Todman was a monster for the Huskies. He rushed for a career-high 162 yards (26 carries) and scored four times.

Yes, an amazing game and great show in Saturday night prime time for the Big East.

Grades

Cincinnati: A

UConn: A

Pittsburgh (8-1, 5-0): 37, Syracuse (3-6, 0-4): 10

This one went about as expected. No one was giving Syracuse much of a chance, and form held true.

Pitt is on a collision course to battle Cincinnati for the Big East title, and this was a typical Pitt win. Bill Stull was solid. He's been very solid the past month and keeps getting better. He passed for 225 yards (16-of-23), and his favorite target was his big tight end Dorin Dickerson (144 yards, 7 catches).

Dion Lewis led the Pitt ground attack with 110 yards and a touchdown.

All wasn't grim for Syracuse. Delone Carter racked up 143 yards on 17 carries and was the bright spot for the Orange.

Grades

Pittsburgh: A

Syracuse: C

West Virginia (7-2, 3-1): 17, Louisville (3-6, 0-4): 9

You can bet the Mountaineer fans weren't real happy when their team held a 7-6 halftime lead. This simply wasn't a great effort by West Virginia.

Noel Devine was out at the half after rushing for 66 yards. He's nursing a dinged-up ankle.

Darius Ashley is the guy who stepped it up for the Cardinals. Playing in place of Victor Anderson, he ran through the Mountaineer defense for 164 yards, and that has to concern coach Bill Stewart.

Jarrett Brown didn't have a great night either. He threw for only 94 yards (9-of-17).

Overall, this wasn't real pretty for West Virginia.

Grades

West Virginia: C-

Louisville: C

There you have it. We'll see you Thursday morning before the USF-Rutgers game for some entrees and appetizers.