The Cincinnati Bearcats traveled to the famed Ohio Stadium aka The Horseshoe to face The Ohio State Buckeyes on a nice Saturday afternoon. The last time these two teams met in 2014, the staffs were different, Fickell was still at OSU, Urban Meyer was the head coach, and the Buckeyes won the matchup 50-28. The Buckeyes came into this game ranked No. 5 in the nation while the Bearcats are slightly outside the Top 25. Would this be the year Bearcats slay the giant?
In the first quarter Ohio State struck first with a 7-yard touchdown run by quarterback Justin Fields. The drive was made possible by pinning Cincinnati at its own 1-yard line. Cincinnati was able to stop a nice Ohio State drive when linebacker Perry Young stopped Fields on a 4th and 1. After a nice drive that landed in Ohio State territory Sam Crosa’s 31-yard field goal was blocked by Chase Young and recovered by Damon Arnette, Jr. early in the second quarter. Ohio State capped off an 87-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown by J.K. Dobbins to put Ohio State up 14-0. After a quick three and out, Dobbins scored on a 60-yard run to put Ohio State up 21-0 in the middle of the second quarter. Fields carved up the Bearcats defense finishing with a 9-yard touchdown to Garrett Wilson to push the lead to 28-0.
The first half was dominated by Ohio State, they outgained Cincinnati 356 to 108 yards, penalty yards didn’t help as Cincinnati penalized Ohio State 40 to 25. Dobbins finished the first half with 141 rushing yards and two touchdowns and Fields went 14-of-16 for 186 yards passing and a touchdown as well as 29 yards and a touchdown. For Cincinnati, wide receiver Alec Pierce had three catches for 47 yards, but besides that it wasn’t much to talk about in the first half.
Fields started scoring in the third quarter with a 4-yard run to push the lead to 35-0, it was a drive that saw some good runs by Master Teague. In the next drive Desmond Ridder hit Alec Pierce with a 47 pass to get Cincinnati in the red zone, but was picked by Tuf Borland in the red zone with a pass attended for Pierce.
Fields hit J.K. Hill for a 5-yard touchdown to push the lead to 42-0 early in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati had a chance to score late, but running back Tavion Thomas was stripped by the goal line and Ohio State recovered.
Ohio State outgained Cincinnati 508 to 273 in total yards. Cincinnati only went 3-of-14 on third down compared to Ohio State’s 7-of-11 on third down which didn’t help the road teams cause. This was pure domination by Ohio State, but now Cincinnati is 1-1 and they will look forward to taking care of business against Miami of Ohio next week at Nippert Stadium.
Note: Kyriq McDonald suffered a seizure in the second quarter.
