Cincinnati opened the season with a comfortable 34-15 win over Boston College on Saturday afternoon, and the postgame reaction made one thing clear: the Bearcats liked the balance they showed in all three phases.
The victory also extended Cincinnati’s run to 25 straight home-opening wins at Nippert Stadium, with Nate Woody’s new defense setting the tone throughout the afternoon.
Scott Satterfield pointed to the full-team effort when he assessed the game afterward.
"Complementary win in all three phases: offense, defensive, kicking," Satterfield said. "Thinking about kicking, Stephen (Rusnak) knocked down two long field goals.
A career long 54-yarder. (Max) Fletcher with the big fourth down converse on the fake punt, huge defense, creating two turnovers there in the second half, that's huge.
And offense running the football, like we did, obviously leaning on the guys up front, the offensive line. A lot of backs ran hard."
The Bearcats did not need a big day through the air from French, because the ground game did enough damage to make the outcome look secure and cover the 7.5-point spread in most betting markets.
Satterfield also singled out Gi’Bran Payne, who gave Cincinnati a strong rushing performance.
"Payne with 7.7 yards per carry over 100 yards was awesome," Satterfield continued. "And I thought JC played great.
I thought he made great decisions in the run game. Very efficient throwing the football.
There were sometimes we were trying to take a couple shots, and they got the coverage back there, and he's throwing it underneath, which is awesome to see."
Payne, meanwhile, said the focus is already on what comes next.
"Not be complacent with the win," Payne said about what's next. "Go back and look at everything and find the the bad things in this one."
Cincinnati’s next game comes against Western Carolina during Nipp @ Nite next week. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
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