Saturday
marked 14 years in a row the Bearcats have beaten the Miami Redhawks. Most of those games haven’t even been close. Miami had a stretch of games during
Tuberville and the one year following Tuberville where they had their
opportunities, but as the Fickell era of UC football gets rolling it has become
increasingly clear Miami missed their window.
The Bearcats are likely to continue beating down the Redhawks for years
to come. Despite the slow start,
ultimately, this year was no different.
The Bearcats took care of business and now get a week off before maybe
the key 3 game stretch of the season.
#
The
biggest nonconference test of the season for the 2009 Bearcats also came at
OSU. Week three in 2009 the Bearcats
made their way out to Corvallis, Oregon to take on the Oregon State
Beavers. The Beavers were coming off a
9-4 season (7-2 in the PAC 12). This
Beaver team would go all the way up to number 13 in the rankings by
December. It was a real test for the
Bearcats, one the Bearcat passed again with flying colors. This was the one game I was not able to
attend in 2009, but I can remember exactly where I was. I was house/dog sitting a house and partying
with friends.
I spent
the day drinking beers and ziplining into the pond with a few others who came
to enjoy the weekend with me. Honestly,
if I wasn’t going to be at the game it was a perfect way to spend the lead up
to the game. The Bearcats started slow,
not scoring in the first quarter.
However, the defense held Oregon State to two field goals and the
Bearcats were only down 6-0 after 1. Much
as it did against Rutgers, the offense took off in the second quarter. The Bearcats had touchdown drives on 9 plays,
80 yards, 9 plays 77 yards and 3 plays 60 yards, to take a 21-8 lead into the
half.
#
Likewise,
it was a slow start for the Bearcats against the Redhawks. If it felt like the Bearcats were going
backwards for a while, it’s because they were.
The Bearcats’ first drive went for negative 13 yards and after a Miami
touchdown their second drive went for -6 yards.
It’s no surprise Bearcat fans were a little anxious when Miami kicked a
field goal to take a 10-0 lead. However,
after that Miami drive the defense and offense both seemed to get it together
and the UC talent took over. They held
Miami scoreless the rest of the half. UC
responded to the 10-0 deficit with a long touchdown drive of their own. The teams traded punts for a while after, but
the Bearcats put the ball in the endzone to end the half. The key play on that drive was Fickell opting
to go for it on 4th and 6 from the Miami forty. Ridder completed an 11 yard pass to Medaris
and capped off the drive with another Michael Warren TD run. All in all 14-10 didn’t feel great, but it
could have been a lot worse.
#
After a
blistering second quarter the 2009 Bearcats didn’t play a particularly clean
second half against Oregon State. The
Beavers started the half with a quick touchdown drive and the Bearcat offense
did very little in response. They had a
3 and out followed by an interception then another 3 an out. Their 3 third quarter drives totaled 48
yards. Oregon State kicked a field goal
early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 3 (21-18). As they had in the second quarter the Bearcat
offense responded. They immediately
marched down the field for a touchdown drive stretching the lead back out to 10
with about 8 minutes left in the game.
The defense forced an interception and the offense moved the ball again
before missing a field goal that would have put the Bearcats up 13. By that time there was only 1:30 left in the game
and everything was still well in hand.
The Bearcats escaped a good Oregon State team with a 10 point win in a
game they mostly controlled despite playing two fairly poor quarters. Oregon State was a PAC 10 contender and the Bearcats
had proven to be clearly the better team.
The
second half of the battle for the Victory Bell was the dominant performance
Cincinnati fans have grown to expect in that game. The Bearcats started with a touchdown drive
and never really looked back. The
defense suffocated Miami for the entire second half. The Bearcats forced a 3 and out on 3 of Miami’s
6 second half drives. The other drives
included a 4 play drive ending with a turnover on downs, a 5 play drive with
one first down and then one drive where Miami moved the ball a little bit
before kicking an irrelevant field goal.
The defensive dominance allowed the offense to find itself with a couple
big plays. Ridder connected with Geddis
for a 51 yard TD, then Warren broke off a 73 yard touchdown run on the next UC
drive. It was 35 to 13 by the time the
game entered the fourth quarter. There was
no doubt UC would be keeping the bell in Cincinnati.
The
second half performance can’t overshadow the clear issues that need to get
corrected. The offensive line has really
struggled at times. Those first few
drives UC had no room to do anything.
Miami pushed the line around more than they should have been able to,
forcing Warren to break tackles or make people miss in the backfield and
putting Ridder under some pressure.
Additionally, Ridder continued to struggle finding receivers when his
primary target is taken away. Right
before the half there was a key play where Deguara broke wide open, Ridder had
time, but didn’t see him and dumped off to Warren. Those kind of plays happen too often. When his first read is there, Ridder can be
very accurate. He threw some great
passes today, particularly the Geddis TD pass and the Deguara TD. 3 weeks in and it is still hard to know what
to expect from this team going forward.
They soundly beat an inferior Miami team, but once again showed the
issues that could hold them back.
#
So the
Bearcats head into a bye week with the record everyone expected. They won both games at Nippert and won them
both rather convincingly and lost to an elite Ohio State team. They showed plenty of concerns but enough
positives to remain optimistic about the season to come. The three weeks following the bye will likely
define their season. Their final
nonconference game is a road test at a solid Marshall team, picked by many to
win CUSA. Ridder and the offense
struggled on the road last season and though it is unfair to hold OSU against
them too much, it didn’t do anything to alleviate that concern. The defense should be able to largely limit
Marshall. If the offense does its part
they should get out of Huntington with a win, but it will be a real test.
That
test is followed by the biggest game of the year. The Bearcats almost certainly can’t win the
conference without a home win over UCF.
Giving UCF the tiebreaker in the division likely will wrap up the
division and even if it doesn’t (maybe a 3 way tie with Temple is conceivably
still in play) it makes it essential for UC to win at Houston and at Memphis
(in addition to holding serve home against Temple). If UC is to be an AAC contender, they must
win against UCF. And UCF could be as
good as ever. Real tests, real opportunities. The Bearcats took care of business against
Miami and retained the Victory Bell for the fourteenth straight season. The season will be defined by weeks to
come.
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