The No. 7 Cincinnati Bearcats traveled down to Orlando, Florida to face AAC foe UCF Knights in a season defining game. Last season, the Bearcats knocked off the Knights at Nippert Stadium, but could they beat the Knights who have one of the best offenses in college football on their home field? Did the Bearcats make a claim on the conference?
It started off rough for Cincinnati as UCF jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead off of a 3 yard touchdown rush by Greg McCrae. Cincinnati answered with a 47 yard field goal by Cole Smith. The defense stopped UCF, but Ryan Montgomery muffed a punt that UCF recovered and in turn scored on 6 yard pass from Dillon Gabriel to Marlon Williams to put UCF up 14-3 in the first quarter. Cincinnati went into the second quarter down 14-3, but Desmond Ridder hit Josh Whyle for a 29 yard touchdown to get the score to 14-10. After another stop Smith hit a 26 yard field to get Cincinnati within one at 14-13. Cincinnati’s defense held tough against and gave the offense a shot to get the lead before the half and Ridder helped the cause out by scoring from 3 yards out to get the lead 19-14. UCF got a field goal by Daniel Obarski to get the score to 19-17 before half, but that drive was aided by a terrible pass inference call on Coby Bryant.
In the second half Cincinnati came out with a dominate drive that took 8:31, but only resulted in a 22 yard field go by Smith. That score put Cincinnati up 22-17. The following drive Gabriel hit Williams a 19 yard touchdown followed by a two point conversion that could’ve been easily intercepted by Cincinnati. With that series it put Cincinnati down 25-22 in the third quarter. With their back against the wall Cincinnati got their only turnover of the game by Darrick Forrest, it was followed by a 1 yard touchdown run by Ridder to put Cincinnati up 29-25. After that drive the defense held tight again and Ridder hit Leonard Taylor for a 7 yard touchdown to give Cincinnati distance pushing the score to 36-25. UCF scored again when Gabriel hit Jaylon Robinson for a 10 yard score. Now the game was at 36-33, but Cincinnati kept making plays and could’ve scored again as Gerrid Doaks took a dive at the 1 yard line to make UCF blow their last timeout. Cincinnati almost had disaster as a bad snap almost got away from them on fourth and goal, but with a second left on the clock Cincinnati made the play and secured a 36-33 victory.
They out-gained UCF 482-359. Ridder went 21-of-32 passing for 338 yards and two touchdowns as well as 14 rushes for 57 yards and two touchdowns. Doaks had 97 yards rushing and 36 yards receiving. Tight ends Whyle and Taylor had monster games. Whyle had five catches for 81 yards and a touchdown and Taylor had six catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.
Without Elijah Ponder, Curtis Brooks and Malik Vann stepped up in a big way. Brooks had five tackles and 1.5 sacks. Darrian Beavers led the way with 12 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
Cincinnati is now 8-0 and 6-0 in the AAC after the win and will face Temple next week.
