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Army Strips Bearcats to halt 19-game Losing Streak, 48-29 

West Point, NY - Cincinnati's Bearcats(2-4,1-2) intercepted an Army pass to start the game and  waded 75 yards through the Army defense on its first series and the rout was on!  But it was the hapless Army team CFF saw pummeled at UConn only two weeks ago that continued the onslaught with an interception, three fumble recoveries and a balanced offensive attack to destroy the Bearcats in a surprising 48-29 upset over the visitors to end college football's longest, current losing streak at 19 games. CFF saw an inspired Army team (1-4,1-3)  put on a great show in front of its homecoming crowd of 31,144.  After the 40-3 debacle witnessed at Connecticut, Coach Bobby Ross has something brewing on the Hudson as the Black Knights squandered a win in the last :41 against a good  TCU team one week, and then did a little pummeling of their own against Cincy this week.  It was the first game in a long time for CFF where the student body rushed the field, tore down the goal posts and left the field with long, yellow souvenirs in hands.  The tailgating conditions were ideal, too!  More on that later.  No new teams were added here, but West Point is a place one has to go to see a game every once in a while, especially when the Black Knights are competitive.  Those days may be coming! And we look forward to it based on rumors that some more teams we need to achieve The Goal will be coming to play on the banks of the Hudson!

     After UC QB Gino Guidugli threw his 5-yard TD pass to TE Brian Celek to take an early 7-0 lead, the Army struck back quickly.  RB Carlton Jones burst out on a 59-yard jaunt to the Cincy 30.  On the next play QB Zac Dahman's pass was broken up, but twice deflected off the UC defender's legs where TE Jared Ulekowski picked the ball clean at the one-yard line (ESPN had it as their #2 Top Ten play of the day).  FB Tielor Robinson took it over from one yard away for the first of his five TDs on this day to tie the score at 7-7 with PK Austin Miller's conversion!  CFF felt that a key to this game would be Army's capability to hold Cincinnati on its second series.  Not only did the Black Knights hold, but CB Ray Stith came up with an interception to put his offense back in business at the UC 39.  The Black Knights wasted little time as Robinson took it in again from 2.  The PAT was blocked and the score remained 13-7.  Stith came up with another turnover on the next UC series as he recovered a fumble at the Bearcat 38.

     Robinson started the second period with a 29 yard run to get the ball to the Bearcat 2, and on the next play caught a 2-yard TD pass from Dahman to extend the lead to 19-7.  A two-point try was stuffed.  Next time Army had the ball, Jones, who had 180 yards on 20 carries, ran for 57 yards to the Bearcat 4.  He did the honors as he took it over this time to put Army in control, 26-7, with the extra point.  As guest game analyst Rich Williams and Mike McGovern observed, it seemed like Army had scored too quickly.  Cincinnati was not ready to lie down to the 0-4 Cadets, and they didn't.  Guidugli capped an 80-yard drive with a 24-yard TD pass to WR Hannibal Thomas to get within 12 points.  One UC series later, Guidugli took his team 55 yards as he closed the score to 26-21 with a 7-yard TD toss to TE Doug Jones.  The Army defense seemed to fall back into bad habits like we'd seen at UConn and during the first series of this game.  However, the Army offense was still going strong.  The Cadets put together an 80-yard drive of their own as Tielor Robinson finished it off again with a 12-yard TD jaunt.  Another two-point attempt after a UC penalty on a missed extra point went for naught once again.  Army led 32-21 with 3:08 remaining in the half, but the Bearcats responded with another 80-yard drive.  With :55 left, Guidugli connected for his fourth TD pass on the day again to TE Celex, and then zipped in a two-point conversion to WR George Murray to close the gap by three points, 32-29, to finish the first half scoring.  We changed seats in the spirited but not totally filled Michie Stadium during the half time festivities when the US Army Band honored former POWs from previous wars.

     Army opened the scoring in Q3, as a swing pass was taken by Carlton Jones 60 yards to set up at the UC 29. Army must have seen something during the first half because the swing pass would be an effective play all during the second half.  PK Austin Miller nailed a 40-yard FG despite some shaky PAT kicking.  Army led 35-29, but could the defense rally to stop Guidugli (350 passing yards) and company during the second half?  They came up with a solution - ball stripping!  UC moved the ball to the Army 31 on fake punt play, but on the next play, Guidugli's arm was stripped of the ball as he attempted to pass and DT Trey Landry recovered for Army at the 23.  Army punted after that from its own 49 and put the Bearcats on their own 8-yard line.  This time Landry stripped the ball from the UC RB and knocked it into the end zone where DB Jonathan Lewis recovered for the Army TD to put Army ahead 41-29 as the Cadets failed on another two point attempt.  Cincy was still playing to win as Guidugli converted a QB sneak on fourth and one from his own 29 for a first down.  He next connected with his top receiver Hannibal Thomas who caught a pass and was on his way into the end zone until Cadet Safety Caleb Thomas punched the ball out of his arm from behind and Army recovered at their own 10!

     Army did not respond with a score, but it led 41-29 going into the final period.  UC would drive to the Army 9, but on a fourth and eight, Guidugli's pass was batted away.  After a two-yard loss, Army went to the swing pass to the right side and Mr. Robinson got great blocking from his neighborhood downfield as he rumbled 93 yards for his, Army's and the game's final TD of the day.  The Corps of Cadets was ecstatic to say the least and the extra point finalized the score at 48-29.  Two more times, UC moved to the Army ten again before Guidugli's final passes fell to the ground in the end zone to give the ball back to Army.  The cannons finally sounded and the goal post nearest the Corps went down quickly and was disassembled and marched around the stadium by ecstatic cadets.  The same would happen soon at the other end.  As the Army Alma mater played, several cadets came running back into the stadium without the long trophies as we're sure they were confiscated for future Army football triumphs! The Cadets were happy and CFF was happy to be there to see the 19-game winning streak come to an end.  Many of these West Pointers had never seen their team ever win a football game!  For them it was a celebration long awaited!  We saw a totally different team than we did two weeks ago.  Bobby Ross's persistence may be starting to pay off.  The Cadets travel to South Florida and to beatable East Carolina the following week before playing rival Air Force at home.  UC has five tough C-USA games in a row coming up.  They may have won their only two games of he season already. CFF now looks forward to future Army games when they supposedly will host some teams to be added to The Goal!  With the looks of things today, it could mean that we'll see some more exciting games up along the Hudson.

Extra Points:  Though parking at West Point is always a crapshoot because you never know where they'll make you park there, a previous experience allowed us to come up with a great tailgate location.  We, as General Public, went through the Main Gate and were directed past the first convenient, main parking lot and down to the South Docks where we had parked two years ago where we were asked to move our car due to the heavy downpour which caused the Hudson River to rise.  There was no deluge this year so no threat, but at the South Docks we pulled into the West Point Train Station under a roof to cover the cars.  We easily backed in and had plenty of space to set up tables, chairs, coolers an grills.  Buses to the stadium were right on the other side of the tracks to pick up passengers from the cruise lines out of Manhattan and Weehawken.  The RR Station was clean, seldom used and had bathrooms.  We couldn't have picked a better spot to tailgate.  Though overcast, you can see the mansions on the other side of the Hudson and watch boat traffic up and down the river.  GGA Rich Williams and his wife Laurie brought the grill and meats.  We enjoyed the gill both before and after the game. 

Army has the thickest game day program in the NCAA.  Do you know why?  On top of the traditional national and local advertisers for soft drinks, fast foods, hotels and consumer electronics, how many college teams have sponsors marketing "advanced thermal weapon sighting" (DRS Technologies), or advertisers like Drash, "the Total Shelter System Solution for complete command centers".  Oshkosh Trucks and General Dynamics aren't exactly household names, but if you need a Stryker Mobile Gun System, you'll know where you can get one from.  On top of these, just about every consumer market group who sells to the PX's and the government in general runs an ad in the program.  Makes for interesting and a different college football program.

The new stadium expansion is nice, but we learned never again to enter from the southeast gate if you're sitting on the west side of the stadium.  The Army team, cadets, bands and others all enter the field from down there now and gates are put up to block off access to get to the other side.  Though we saw the team run on the field from there, we'd have preferred being in our seats to watch all the pre-game festivities.  Improvements have been made to the concession areas since we were there in the past.  You can actually buy drinks with lids and straws now which we couldn't in the past.  That was a pain especially if you brought kids.  Service overall seemed to improve as well.

Cincinnati has a poor track record in the annals of CFF history.  The Bearcats are now 0-3 and have been outscored 150-53 in three lopsided games against Penn State, Syracuse and now Army over the years.

CFF saw HC Bobby Ross tear into his team after the second UConn score after six plays from scrimmage two weeks ago.  On this day, we saw him chew out  a DB who had injured his hand and was slow getting of the field to avoid and injury time out during one of the final Cincinnati drives.  Based on the game results, the old coach's loud messages must be getting through.

In the Program, there are articles about the great Army teams of the 40s.  These teams had to be great!  First of all they got the best athletes in the country during war time which made a lot of sense when just about everyone in that age bracket was serving in the military.  Army played not only colleges but major military bases who had teams made up of player from other colleges.  What we didn't know though until seeing their records posted, outside of a few game played at major venues such as Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York, they rarely played an away game.  Granted there were probably war restrictions and training requirements that kept them close by, but that's quite an advantage we're sure few schools have ever had in the modern era of college football.  In 1944, Notre Dame and Duke were played at the stadiums previously mentioned in NYC close by and Navy was beaten at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, but only "at Pennsylvania" indicates that they only traveled to play the Quakers at Franklin Field in Philly.  The other five games were played at West Point. In '45, ND and Michigan were played in Yankee Stadium, Duke in the Polo Grounds, Navy in Philly, Penn at FF again, and everyone else at West Point.  Aside from traveling to Michigan in '46, the schedule regarding the neutral sites and home field advantage were still the same.  As good as these teams were, it takes little luster off of them now knowing they generally played with a home field advantage for these three years going 27-0-1.  Fourteen games were at West Point, four at Yankee Stadium, three at the Polo Grounds, three at neutral sites versus Navy, three at Franklin Field and only one game on another campus (Michigan).  What team wouldn't resist a schedule like that if it had the chance!  SEC teams get close to that by scheduling all non-conference games at home, but they haven't figured a wa to keep the away conference games from counting!

Our other Guest game analyst, Mike, is a partner at a bar down in Newark called McGovern's.  If you're ever down there for a Newark Bears game or at the PAC, you're in his neighborhood.  Stop in!