The Bearcats rolled in the first half and dominated on the national stage. Would they be able to continue that momentum in the second half?
Both defenses came out on fire as they both forced punts on the teams opening drives. The Bearcats were driving on their second drive before a Charles McClelland fumble gave UCF the ball back. The Bearcats defense would step up the next drive as with UCF driving the field Coby Bryant jumped in front of the out route and took it to the house 74 yards later. The Cincinnati Bearcats would extend their lead 42-7 late in the third quarter due to the pick-six and the little momentum UCF had was ripped away from them. The UCF Knights would get a huge targeting call against Bearcats safety Jacob Dingle late in the quarter to put them in prime position to score and that’s exactly what they would do. Isaiah Bowser would run it in 4 yards to cut the lead 42-14 heading into the 4th quarter.
The Bearcats defense brought a lot of pressure in the 4th quarter and forced a lot of contested throws. The Bearcats forced UCF to punt but the favor was returned and Cincinnati was forced to put on the following drive. On the punt though Mason Fletcher had UCF’s return man in circles and he muffed the punt and Ty Van Fossen out of nowhere scooped it up and had Cincinnati inside the red zone and prime position to score. Cincinnati would do just that as Ethan Wright joined the touchdown party and extended the Bearcats lead 49-14. The Bearcats would run the clock out for the rest of quarter, but before the game ends Evan Prater took a read option 6 yards and extended the Cincinnati lead 56-14. UCF would score with less then a minute to go in the game and The Bearcats would walk out of Nippert with a 56-21 win against their conference rival UCF.
Stats at the end of the game:
Ridder: 13-of-23 passing for 140 yards and one touchdown, four carries for 14 yards
Ford: 20 carries for 189 yards and four touchdowns
Taylor: four catches for 47 yards
The Bearcats are now 6-0 (2-0) and will be heading on the road to play Navy at Memorial Stadium at 12 pm. The Bearcats will look to go 7-0 and continue the historic season everyone is anticipating.
For the first time in school history, the #Bearcats score over 50 points in back-to-back games after defeating the Knights 56 to 21 this afternoon at Nippert Stadium.
— Cincinnati Football (@GoBearcatsFB) October 16, 2021
Take a look back at the game's biggest plays, presented by @StacyHeatingAir. pic.twitter.com/ldj9VWasn7
