It was a beautiful day for some Saturday afternoon football as the 15th ranked Cincinnati Bearcats took on the South Florida Bulls. The Bearcats starting American Athletic Conference play were looking to get off to a good start.
The Bearcats got a huge pick by cornerback Coby Bryant and then one by cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner that set the offense up real well in back to back drives. The offense was not able to capitalize as both defenses came to play early. After the first two drives stalled out with a Ridder interception and a Doaks fumble. They were able to hit pay dirt on their third drive as Gerrid Doaks took the handoff and cut it outside for a 10-yard score. The Bearcats led early 7-0 with 4:28 to go in the first. USF came down and returned a kick, but the defense forced a three and out and the Bulls missed a 35 yard field goal. The defense carried the load early, going into the second quarter with a 7-0 lead. Coby Bryant’s (second of the game) was huge as the Bearcats were driving looking for points, but Ridder threw his second interception of the half and left the offense looking for answers. The running game got going into the half as they drove down the field and were able to find pay dirt with 39 seconds to go in the half. Tight end Josh Whyle the LaSalle Lancer product was able to hook up with Desmond Ridder for the 13-yard score, which pushed the lead to 14-0 at the halftime. The defense was dominant in the first half keeping USF under 100 (99 yards total) scrimmage yards.
The Bearcats received the second-half kickoff and a great return set them up at their own 40. After Cole Smith missed a 37 yard field goal and the score remained 14-0. The defense came up with a big 4th down stop and then the offense went to a heavy run offense to drive down the field. Ridder then faked a handoff and lobbed it up to Bruno Labelle as the Bearcats scored again and made it a 21-0 game in the third with 4:01 to go. USF was able to drive down the field and finally get on the board after a 2 yard TD run by Johnny Ford pushing the score to 21-7. When USF finally though they were gaining momentum on the pursuing kickoff Tre Tucker took the kick 97 yards for the score, pushing the score to 28-7. The defense was the talk in the first half of the 4th quarter as Arquon Bush picked off Jordan McCloud and then on the next possession Ridder got picked off by Brock Nichols. The Bearcats would force their fifth turnover of the game as Darrian Beavers came up with the interception after Ridder’s interception. After pinning USF deep in their territory, a big sack by Ty Van Fossen had them pinned at their own 1 which forced a punt. The Bearcats would receive the ball on the USF 41 yard line and look to build on there lead or run the clock out.
Cincinnati beat USF by a final score of 28-7. The big difference was the defense and the number of turnovers they were able to force. Garnder, Bush, Beavers and Bryant x2 all picked up interceptions to help the Bearcats defense pick up five turnovers. The running game was back as Doaks finished 22 attempts for 102 yards and a touchdown. The Bearcats will be on the road in two weeks against Tulsa as they look to continue their perfect season.
