No question but Cincy was a uniquely terrible opponent for us post Louisville. Easy to overlook but dangerous.
I looked at the stats of the game you reference and Cincy had 4 tos versus 0 for WVU. That'll do it. Cincy had played V Tech tough and should have beaten Louisville earlier in the year. Dantonio was building something there clearly.
After WV, Cincy was often RU's #2 problem
I knew Cincy was good and not great then, and I also knew RU wasn't a powerhouse in 06.
RU won a good chunk of its games by chin hairs.
However I knew when RU was sleepwalking after good wins
RU beat #2 USF in 2007 and the next week RU comes out feeling bad (in their first black-out unis) and get clock-cleaned
In 2009 RU beats another good USF team and next week SU smashes RU 31-13. RU had completely failed to realize how bad Marone wanted to beat RU for recruiting reasons. Marone had that team spittin nails.
In 2011 RU put the rare good win down over a good Cincy team (with Munchie) and the next week RU went to UConn totally expecting a win and a partial BE title. UConn smashed RU 40-22 (12 RU points in garbage time).
I'm pretty solid on opinion GS teams fall apart after good wins vs Good teams (60 point wins vs Wagner dont count).
You cant sleepwalk playing football. In baseball you can coast through an at-bat but do it in football and you get clocked. Must get off the bus stoked.
Players like Thompson didn't need to dial-up - always ready. No surprise he had the great leaping sack vs Cincy