Bearcats Survive at Nippert

                My tailgate group began arriving at the lot around 11:00.  Despite the rain we set up four tents, a couple fires and a couple TVs to tailgate all afternoon in preparation for the big game.  Temple had won four in a row against the Bearcats.  True 2 of those games had been against the Tuberville Bearcats and one against year 1 Fickell, but Temple had been the second best AAC program in the East over that span, consistently finding themselves in the conference championship race.  Despite the Bearcats being 11 point favorites most Bearcat fans understood this would be a battle.  On the line, the AAC East championship and the opportunity to play for a conference championship in two weeks.  In the end the defense came up huge, the special teams made more enormous plays and the running game did just enough for the Bearcats to survive. 

                The first quarter was a mess.  Temple moved down the field early, but the UC defense held them on 4^th down to get the offense the ball.  Both teams then traded three and outs (each offense going 3 and out twice) before UC went on a 16 play 53 yard drive culminating in a field goal early in the second quarter.  On the drive the offense only completed 1 pass (a seven yard pass to Mdodj on first down).  Every other positive play was a run.  Crosa capped of the drive with a 36 yard FG to put the Bearcats on the board. 

                It looked like 3-0 would be the score going into the half.  Both offenses struggled immensely throughout the second quarter.  Neither team put together a drive longer than 27 yards.  With 2:02 left in the half Temple punted the ball back to UC.  UC caught the punt for a modest return.  However, when they came back out UC had been given the ball on the Temple 6.  Temple’s punter had caught the snap with his knee down, so UC took over from that spot.  The Bearcat offense went backward from there and had to settle for a 37 yard field goal to take a 6-0 lead into the locker room.  The drive all but ended on first down when UC called a rollout for Ridder.  The rollout enabled Ridder to make a couple reads and if he didn’t like what he saw he could just throw the ball out of the endzone without getting grounding.  Instead Ridder took a 14 yard sack, putting UC in a near impossible situation.  It was maybe the most frustrating play of the many frustrating plays Ridder made throughout the night. 

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                Like the 2019 Bearcats against Temple, the 2009 Bearcats went into a home game against West Virginia with a chance to clinch an opportunity to play for an outright conference championship.  West Virginia was the biggest game on the home schedule.  They’d been the class of the Big East and a top ten type program in their recent history.  The Bearcats forced a three and out to start the game then Colloros marched the Bearcats down the field with a couple of passes and a series of Pead runs.  When the Bearcats reached the redzone, Tony Pike took the field for the first time since USF.  On the first play he found Binns across the middle in the endzone and the Bearcats took a 7-0 lead.  The UC defense continued to play well in the first quarter, but a fumble by Adrien Robinson on an 18 yard reception set up a short field and WVU capitalized tying the game at 7.

                West Virginia would take the lead a couple drives later.  After Jake Rogers missed a 34 yard field goal, West Virginia went 80 yards in eight plays to give them a 14-7 lead.  The Bearcats rarely trailed in 2009 and they wouldn’t trail for long.  Mardy Gilyard took the kickoff 48 yards into WVU territory (Huge Mardy Gilyard kick returns would be a thing the last three weeks of the season) and the Bearcats quickly scored the tying touchdown on a 2 yard Pead run.  The teams would go into the half tied at 14.

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                The Bearcats opened the second half against Temple with their biggest drive of the day.  It was the kind of physical, imposing drive this team has seemingly come through with all season.  They completed zero passes on the drive (only throwing it once) and instead ran 8 times for 65 yards culminating in a 13 yard Michael Warren touchdown run.  After a Grosa extra point the Bearcats lead 13-0.  It would remain 13-0 for the rest of the third quarter.

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                Similarly, the 2009 Bearcats came out of the half and marched down the field for a touchdown.  They started the drive with a heavy dose of Isaiah Pead.  Collaros then completed three straight passes getting UC to the WVU 6.  Once again Brian Kelly brought Tony Pike back into the game and Pike delivered on third and goal, throwing a strike to D.J. Woods for a touchdown to put the Bearcats back up 21-14.  It would remain 21-14 for the rest of the quarter.

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                Just when it seemed like the Bearcat defense was going to shut Temple down the entire game, Temple fought back into it.  Temple opened the fourth quarter with a 10 play, 73 yard touchdown drive, cutting the lead to 13-6.  Temple lined up for the PAT to cut the lead to 6 and then the Bearcat special teams came up with the defining play of the game.  The Bearcats blocked the PAT then Coby Bryant looked around and decided to pick up the ball and try to take it back.  From the endzone it didn’t look open and then suddenly as he burst left it did.  A cavalcade of blockers ran alongside him as Bryant sprinted toward the endzone and two points.  Instead of a touchdown beating UC, Temple would need two scores to win the game. 

                The Bearcats got the ball back with a chance to run some clock and put Temple away.  It did not happen.  Warren ran twice getting UC in third and 3, but Ridder took another sack on third down and UC punted the ball back to Temple.  Temple got the ball back and for the second straight time marched down the field putting the ball in the endzone and cutting the Bearcat lead to two.  A field goal would now beat them.  With the game on the line, the offense mostly did its job, moving the ball 42 yards in 10 plays (mostly on the ground, though UC managed a key third down conversion through the air), running off 4:18 of clock and setting Crosa up for a 40 yard field goal.  However, Crosa missed the field goal and the UC lead remained 2.

                Temple got the ball back with a chance to win the game with a field goal of their own.  That’s when the Bearcat defense, again came up with the key play it needed.  After converting a 4^th and one, UC pressured Anthony Russo into a throw he didn’t want to make and Derek Forest was there to run under it, catch it and seal the victory.  It wasn’t pretty.  The passing game continues to have severe issues, but ultimately, this team made enough plays to beat a good Temple team, remain unbeaten the AAC and lock up their spot in the AAC Championship game. 

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                For as much as people dogged on the Bearcat defense in 2009 they often came up with plays when the offense was struggling.  After the TD drive to open the second half the Bearcat offense struggled.  However, the Bearcat defense continued to keep WVU out of the endzone.  With 6 minutes left in the game and the Bearcats up 7, UC forced a turnover on downs getting the ball back to the offense.  The offense moved 55 yards in 7 plays before Rogers kicked a Field Goal to go up 24-14 with 3:15 to go.  Though West Virginia would add a touchdown, the Bearcat defense forced them to take up most the clock to do so.  By the time WVU found the endzone there was only 39 seconds left.  The Bearcats recovered the onside kick, took a knee and put themselves one win away from a conference championship. 

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                The Bearcats have to beat Memphis to win the conference.  If they win at the Liberty Bowl this week they’ll host the AAC Championship in two weeks.  If they lose, they’ll be back at the Liberty Bowl again needing to beat Memphis to win the conference.  A win next week and they’ll likely be hosting Navy for the conference championship.  However, should Navy lose to Houston the Bearcats would be playing Memphis again, though this time at Nippert.  Bottom line is the Bearcats are likely to need better production from Ridder to have any hope of beating Memphis.  Memphis has been the most consistent team in the conference all season.  Their offense is explosive and will almost certainly find the endzone a few times.  Despite their flaws, the Bearcats are exactly where we all hoped they would be with 2 weeks to play.  It’s been a hell of a season.  Let’s hope they can win two more.   

Lightning Round – The “lightweight” conference games.

I haven’t had time to write the last few weeks and the games were all “should win” type games, so I thought I’d just cover these similar stretches in the 2019 and 2009 season with brief thoughts on each game.  Both stretches of the schedule focused on conference matchups against the bottom of the conference where the Bearcats were heavy favorites.  Both featured some tests (this year more than in 2009) and in both stretches the Bearcats made it out unscathed for the stretch run.  This will also allow me to play with the schedule so that the game at Pitt coincides with a potential conference championship game in the AAC. So here we go, lightning round as to how the 2009 and 2019 Bearcats took care of business against the bottom of the conference and put themselves in position to win the conference and make a major bowl game.

2019 Tulsa at Cincinnati

                It was a beautiful day for Bearcat football one which I celebrated by bringing my 1.5 year old daughter down for her first tailgate.  The day started at the Zoo then we picked up some Adriaticos and tailgated behind Martinos.  My wife and daughter stayed for a bit than went home while I stayed for a great tailgate and a hard fought win.

                Though the Bearcats were in control for most the game, it never felt like they played close to their best.  This will be a theme in this stretch of football.  The Bearcats lead throughout, but it was a one score game for most of the second half.  Ultimately, the defense forced a critical turnover (they forced 5 on the day) and put the game away with a quick touchdown on the next play, moving the Bearcats to 6-1 on the season and 3-0 in the AAC.

2009 Louisville at Cincinnati

                Louisville had owned the rivalry for several years prior to 2008, when UC won at Louisville on their way to their first Big East Championship.  In 2009, the Bearcats had little trouble in dispatching the Cardinals at Nippert.  Zach Collaros made his first career start throwing for 263 yards (on 15 of 17 for 14.9 yards a clip) and running for 52 more.  Isaiah Pead only ran 6 times, but had 88 yards and 2 touchdowns.  By the end of the game both Chazz Anderson and Brendon Kay saw action as the Bearcats won 41 to 10. 

2019 Bearcats at ECU

                ECU had been a disaster all season and everyone expected this to be a complete blowout.  Though the ECU defense proved as inept as expected, the ECU offense found itself and a sure victory suddenly looked like a defeat.  Instead of making the trip to ECU, like I’d probably have done in 2009, I traveled to Washington DC to meet my new nephew and visit my sister.  ECU and Cincinnati traded scores in the first quarter (ending with UC up 21 to 14), then ECU ran off 17 straight in the second quarter to take a 31 to 21 lead into the locker room.  It’s easy to blame the defense when a team moves the ball and scores like ECU did that night, but it shouldn’t be lost that Ahlers and his receivers were unbelievable all night.  Ahlers delivered strike after strike on time and on target, often with pressure in his face.  The ECU receivers seemed to catch everything around them.  It was an unexpected performance from them.

                However, ECU struggled to stop the UC running game and by the time we reached the middle of the 4^th quarter UC had cut the lead to 5.   ECU again drove into Cincinnati territory when for the second time this season Ahmad Gardner made an enormous, game swinging type play, jumping the Ahlers pass and taking it to the house.  You felt like the Bearcats had to have a defensive score to win the way ECU was playing and that is what happened.  ECU would tie it on a late field goal but Crosa would hit one of his own as time expired and the Bearcats completed a miraculous escape from East Carolina.

2009 Cincinnati at Syracuse

                The game was set to be played at noon on a Saturday, so after my friend got off work we hopped in his car and drove overnight to Syracuse.  We pulled into the hotel parking lot at about 5:00 a.m. and slept for a couple hours in the car before heading to Campus to tailgate.  It was a wet, chilly day.  The lot was a bit muddy, but we found some Bearcat fans, grilled some sausage and cheese sandwiches and had some fun.  Given the weather outside, the Carrier Dome wasn’t a bad place to watch a football game.  The Bearcats paced themselves scoring a TD every quarter.  Collaros threw for four TDs on the game and only 6 incomplete passes.  It was another game where the Bearcats never trailed and behind another solid defensive effort UC left with a firmly controlling 28-7 win.

2019 UConn at Cincinnati

                UConn is terrible.  I mean really terrible.  I mean, horribly, incredibly, historically terrible. 

2009 UConn at Cincinnati

                Talk about two entirely different UConn programs. About the only thing that UConn team and the 2019 UConn team had in common was Randy Edsall.  UConn wasn’t great by any means in 2009, but they weren’t bad either.  They won at Baylor.  They lost by 2 to number 19 UNC.  They won a double OT game at Notre Dame.  UConn came to Cincinnati having lost two close games in the conference.  Cincinnati would be their last loss of the season and the game would be one of the most memorable of 2009.  The game was in prime time on ABC and Zach Collaros had maybe the greatest game I’ve ever seen a Bearcat quarterback play. 

                Collaros threw for 480 yards and ran for 75 more, for 3 total tds.  The UC offense marched up and down the field all night.  However, this was the game where the Bearcat defense, which had been solid for most of the year, began to really fall apart.   The Bearcats ran out to a 30 to 10 lead, then after a UConn Td, extended the lead back out to 37 to 17.  UConn returned a punt for a TD, then after a UC field goal they had a quick TD drive to cut the lead to 8.  UC had a rare punt and UConn scored again with 5:03 left to cut it to 2.  They failed on the two point conversion. 

                UC got the ball back up 2 with 5 minutes left.  Collaros again marched UC right down the field completing 4 straight passes.  UC was stopped after 3 runs and had forth and 1 from the UConn 14.  Instead of kicking, Kelly left the offense on the field.  Pead beat everyone for a 14 yard touchdown to put the Bearcats up 9 with just under 2 minutes to play.  UConn would score another TD with 13 seconds left, but UC recovered the onside kick and escaped Nippert with the win. 

2019 Cincinnati at USF

                It was ugly.  God was it ugly, but UC escaped USF with another last second win on a Crosa field goal.  Based on SP+ factors UC had about a 20% chance of winning that game, going by how it was played.  However, the USF kicker seemed to want UC to pull it out.  The first half was an utter disaster salvaged by the defense not allowing TDs and USF missing field goals.  The second half UC ran the ball mostly well and doing just enough on offense to tie the game.  With the game tied late, USF again missed a field goal. UC picked up two huge third downs on the final drive before Crosa kicked another game winning field goal at the gun. 

Where we stand

                The Bearcats head to their final home game with a chance to clinch the American Conference East Division.  They’ll have to do so against a Temple team that has beaten the Bearcats four straight years, including a brutal loss last season where UC blew a second half lead.  What scares me right now is the staff does not seem to have any confidence in the passing game (and Ridder hasn’t really given them a reason to have confidence).  Last season UC lost the Temple game largely because Temple loaded up against the run in the second half and dared Ridder to beat them through the air.  The staff all but abandoned any semblance of trying to pass and UC couldn’t put it away on the ground.  UC nearly lost to USF in a similar way…abandoning any hope of moving the ball through the air.  They don’t need to be a great passing team, but they need to find a way to attack down field and loosen up really good Temple defense.