On a nice summer feeling day in Bloomington, Indiana, the No. 8 Cincinnati Bearcats faced the Indiana Hoosiers in front of packed Memorial Stadium. Indiana is the first true test for the highly touted Bearcats. Would the road team be able to pass its first real test?
Note: UC is the fourth non-conference opponent to draw more than 50,000 at Memorial Stadium, the other three are UK (1973 and 1988), USC (1981) and Cal (1969).
Lorenz Metz started at right guard for the injured Vinny McConnell. UC gets the ball first as Indiana won the toss and deferred to the second half. Indiana forced a three and out, with the big play being a false start by right tackle Dylan O’Quinn. A hot series by Myjai Sanders with a tackle and a quarterback hurry, forced Indiana to a three and out. Left tackle John Williams had a huge false start that through the Bearcats offense off track in the second series that ended in a three and out as well. Pressure by Cam Jones caused Ridder to throw off his back foot which was behind Leonard Taylor, he tipped it and linebacker Marcelino McCrary-Ball to get a huge interception. Indiana strikes first with a 16 yard touchdown from Michael Penix to Peyton Hendershot. Driving to their the UC 9, the defense stood tall to force a turnover on downs on fourth and one on a Penix quarterback sneak. UC couldn’t take advantage of it as they had to punt after five plays. After Indiana was driving the ball in the red zone, converting on third down plays, Bryan Cook picked off a pass attended for Hendershot in the end zone, Cook got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but the interception stood. Ridder hit Alec Pierce with a big 21 yard pass on third down, but after a false start by Lorenz Metz, the next play John Williams was beat by Micah McFadden and he strip sacked Ridder, Williams tried to pick the ball up and fumble which McFadden recovered. Penix hit Stephen Carr for a 5 yard touchdown to push the lead to 14-0 with 5:10 left in the second half. On third down McFadden got a targeting penalty that got him kicked out of the game and gave UC new life. Jerome Ford scored from six yards out to give Cincinnati some life. After a great quarterback hurry from Myjai Sanders, Arquon Bush had a huge interception with about 27 seconds left to give Cincinnati the ball around mid field. Next play Ridder found Pierce for a 28 yard completion, the drive stalled, but Cole Smith knocked down a 32 yard field goal cut the Indiana lead to 4, 14-10.
The first half was marred by penalties seven penalties for 40 yards all false starts and encroachments, two more were declined. Cincinnati didn’t get a first down until the second quarter and have been awful on third down going 1-of-7. The turnover battle is tied at two a piece as Ridder has a fumble and an interception, while Penix has two interceptions.
