Takeaways: What we learned from Cincinnati Bearcats' win against Navy Midshipmen

The question entering Saturday was: How would the University of Cincinnati football team respond following last week's loss at Central Florida?

The answer: Well enough.

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Cincinnati held off Navy's American Athletic Conference-leading triple-option rushing attack enough to get back in the win column with a 20-10 victory over the Midshipmen in front of 38,461 fans at Nippert Stadium.

"That's what had me a little bit on ease this week," Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said. "Not that they wouldn't respond or not that they weren't going to go out there and scratch and claw and fight. They had a great week. But the uniqueness of what it is that they had to face offensively with the limited possessions and defensively with the unique ... triple-option stuff. That's what kind of got me. That's what had me lying awake a little bit."

With the win, the Bearcats (7-2, 4-1 American Athletic Conference) pushed their program-record home winning streak to 31 games. They also continued their march toward a third straight AAC championship.

Cincinnati will look to ride that momentum past East Carolina (6-3, 3-2) on Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.

It will mark the return of "Nipp at Night."

"It'll be awesome," Fickell said. "We've got a quick turnaround for a team that is playing really, really well. I think they'll have 13 days off before they play us. ... But it is what it is, right? We'll go back to work. We're excited about the opportunity."

What we learned from Saturday's win:

Cincinnati did enough against Navy's No. 1 rushing attack

The Bearcats allowed 176 rushing yards on 53 carries Saturday. On paper, that looks bad. Maybe in some respects it actually is. But it was enough for Cincinnati to sink the Midshipmen and stay afloat in the race to another AAC crown.

"When we prepare for them, we've got a lot of respect for them," said Bearcats freshman defensive tackle Dontay Corleone, who finished with a game-high 11 tackles. "We prepare as hard as we can. We try to stay disciplined."

Navy, which took the field without starting quarterback Tai Lavatai (season-ending knee injury), entered the day averaging 250.8 yards per game, the most in the conference. The Midshipmen obviously didn't come close to that against the Bearcats defense.

Outside of a draining 16-play, 75-yard, fourth-quarter drive that ate up 8:57 of game clock, Navy (3-6, 3-4) struggled to find a dominant offensive rhythm.

Corleone and the rest of the Cincinnati defense got a boost from Jabari Taylor. The 6-foot-1, 280-pound graduate defensive lineman returned to the starting lineup after missing last week's game at UCF with a hamstring injury.

"It was huge," Corleone said of having Taylor back. "We just needed his leadership in general."

Cincinnati's struggles in running game continue

Lorenz Metz got his first start of the season. He lined up at right guard (with senior Jeremy Cooper injured). The 6-foot-9, 330-pound senior started eight games at that position last season en route to earning first-team All-AAC honors.

"He's healthy," Fickell said. "I think maybe it was a week ago or so he came in and was asking about can I get another opportunity," Fickell said. "He had been nursing and really battling this ankle (injury) and a lot of things and it's been difficult for him. So we had the opportunity this week to get him in there a little bit. ... I'm happy and proud of him. He had a little look on his face in there and I told him I was going to punch him. Really I wouldn't because he's 330 pounds. He said, ‘I got a lot to clean up.’ I'm like, ‘I'm just so happy that you're out there and playing.’ So that could be a big deal for us too.”

The move proved to have little impact on Cincinnati's run game.

After managing just 35 yards on the ground last week, the Bearcats had 49 rushing yards in the first half. Senior running back Charles McClelland accounted for 41 of those. They ended with just 55 yards on 20 carries.

"They do a great job of chalking things up and really making it difficult to run the football," Fickell said of Navy's AAC-leading run defense. "They make it difficult with their ability to all-out pressure you and challenge you, and (Ben Bryant) answered the bell with everything today."

Ben Bryant played well

Cincinnati's offense stalled on its first two drives and settled for a pair of field goals by kicker Ryan Coe. The bad news then was it looked as though it was going to be another slow, rough outing for senior quarterback Ben Bryant and the offense. The good news then was Navy entered 0-5 when the opposing team scores on its opening drive.

On Cincinnati's next possession, Bryant led the Bearcats on a 12-play, 87-yard scoring drive. Bryant completed 25 of his 35 passes Saturday for 299 yards and two touchdowns.

"He made some really huge throws," Fickell said. "He held onto that ball and then let things become open, then the fourth down touchdown to Tyler Scott was a gutsy throw. I'm not sure I would tell him to do that by any means, but he saw what he saw and made a heck of a play on that. He's done a really, really good job and in a difficult situation, meaning you're not going to get as many opportunities at it and they are going to really challenge you by trying to run the football.”

Tyler Scott is back

Cincinnati junior standout wide receiver Tyler Scott missed most of the South Florida game (Oct. 8) and watched all of the SMU game (Oct. 22) from the sideline while sporting a walking boot around his injured ankle.

After looking anything but 100% last week against UCF, Scott looked more like his usual, explosive self against Navy. He had seven catches for 95 yards in the first half, including a 38-yard touchdown.

Scott found himself in favorable coverage on the outside on the play and Bryant couldn't resist. Bryant looked Scott's way seven times before getting the snap. Bryant said he and Scott had to improvise on fourth-and-1.

"They had started to bring some guys down for some pressure," Bryant said. "I was looking at them initially. Once I snapped it, I was looking at the entire defense and I knew where Tyler was."

Bryant got the ball out to Scott and the 5-foot-11, 185-pound speedster did the rest.

Scott finished the day with 10 catches (tied a career high) for 139 yards and two scores. Scott's other touchdown was a 27-yarder from Bryant.

"I think that's the thing that Tyler has grown so much in, is his ability to not just be the ‘take the top off guy,’ which we all know that he can do," Fickell said. "He’s running those intermediate routes. He's running the comebacks and the out routes and making plays on it, just like the touchdown one. He’s recognizing the coverage and settling down and Ben throwing it back. His ability to continue to grow to not just be a track-speed guy gives us a lot of options. It’s going to make him play this game for a long time.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati football: Tyler Scott, Bearcats sink Navy Midshipmen