Cincinnati forced a three and out on the first drive and it was followed by a great punt return by Ryan Montgomery he took it 27 yards, the offense was rolling and an unnecessary roughness penalty by Lenny Taylor stalled the drive. Smith kicked a 50 yard field goal that hit the left upright, it had the distance, but the miss gave Indiana the ball at the 32 yard line. The defense stood up to force a punt and after Indiana forced a field goal, but an illegal defense of formation gave the Bearcats the with one yard to go so they went for it and Ford ran it for a couple yards up the middle. Ford ended up scoring from 3 yards out to give the Bearcats their first lead of the day at 17-14. The next drive Penix hit Matthews for a huge 44 yard pass as he beat Bush. Matthews finished the drive with a 14 yard rushing touchdown to give Indiana the lead back at 21-17. Next play Tre Tucker breaks a 99 yard kick return for touchdown to give the Bearcats energy and the lead, but Smith missed the extra point to only keep them up 2 points, 23-21. Penix led a drive to put Indiana up 24-23 after Charles Campbell knocked down a 49 yard field goal with 41 second left in the third quarter.
While the Bearcats were driving a big roughing the passer penalty by Thomas Allen gave Cincinnati a free 15 yards. It led to 19 yard touchdown pass from Ridder to Pierce to give the road team a 30-24 lead with 12:13 left in the fourth quarter. Penix hit Hendershot on fourth and one to keep the drive alive. Cook made a touchdown saving tackle on Davion Erwi-Pointdexter on a 37 yard run. Later that drive Beavers caused a fumbled inside the five yard line that protected the lead. Cincinnati went on to punt, but after controlling Indiana deep in their own territory Deshawn Pace made a game sealing interception taking the ball to the 5 yard line. Ridder ended up keeping it for a 7 yard touchdown, Ridder hit Taylor for the 2-point conversion to push the lead up to 38-24.
This game was about the defense as they had three interceptions and one fumble recovery, Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner helped contain his side of the field and Ty Fryfogle only had one catch for 13 yards. Myjai Sanders had two tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries, both of his hurries resulted in interceptions. Beavers had nine tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble and fumble recovering. Pace had a team leading 10 tackles, 1.0 tackles for loss and one interception.
Pierce was the star of the day going for five catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. Ford had a tough 20 carries for 66 yards and two touchdowns. Ridder fought off a slow start to finish 20-of-36 passing for 210 yards, a touchdown and an interception as well 10 carries for 45 yards and a touchdown.
Cincinnati is now 3-0 with a bye week coming up. After the bye they will hit the road to South Bend to face Notre Dame.
