Final Huddle: Cincinnati Survives Homecoming Scare Against Tulsa

The Bearcats now sport a 25-game home winning streak.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Updated:
Nov 8, 2021 8:59 AM EST

The Cincinnati Bearcats gave fans their money's worth on Saturday in a 28-20 Homecoming victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. UC came into the game as 22.5-point favorites but struggled to put away a third-straight conference opponent.

Cincinnati's Jabari Taylor and the rest of the Blackcats defense lived up to the billing and were the biggest reason why Cincinnati's 25-game winning streak at Nippert Stadium stayed intact.

“Well, that was a wild one,” Bearcats coach Luke Fickell said after the game. “It's about winning against a team that is a much better football team than their record shows.”

Here's the Final Huddle from a wild weekend in Clifton.

Goal Line Stand Props Up Undefeated Season

Luke Fickell's defense had all the pressure in the world mounting on them in the game's closing moments. Midway through the fourth quarter, Tulsa cut the lead to one score after quarterback Davis Brin hit JuanCarlos Santana on a deep touchdown pass.

Eight minutes (and two goal-line stands) later, the Bearcats had survived, but they didn't make it easy. Cincinnati's offense before the kneel down gained just eight yards on 10 fourth-quarter plays, yet, the defense made up for their follies.

Everything changed after the initial goal-line stand leaving Desmond Ridder and Cincinnati backed up inside their 2-yard line.

That's when disaster struck.

Ridder got caught in the QB sneak pile and lost the football to Tulsa's defense — setting up Golden Hurricane with a fresh set of downs inside the 10-yard line. “The snap slid right through my hands,” Ridder said. “No excuses. Shout out to the defense for saving my butt there.”

Unfortunately for Tulsa, Their quarterback chose to slide on one of the game's final plays and left UC with one more fourth-down stop to make. They answered the bell with the Taylor-forced fumble in the end zone to seal it.

"No matter what, you have to find ways [to win]," Fickell said. "We just find a way to make plays. [Tulsa] found a way to get the ball back, some way, and we make four more plays. We have to come out of this saying, 'This is a fighting group,' and they really are. It might not be flashy, it might not be perfect. That's what we pride ourselves on in the locker room."

Riding Ridder To Victory

Saturday was another milestone day for the winningest active quarterback in college football. Ridder threw for 274 yards, two touchdowns, while adding 43 yards and one touchdown on the ground.

It was a veteran performance in all aspects (fumble aside) and much needed after running back Jerome Ford went down in the second quarter.

He became the fifth quarterback in FBS history to win 40 games in his career. He also became the only active FBS quarterback with 8,000 career passing yards and 2,000 career rushing yards.

Ridder came out locked in from the halftime break, hitting his two favorite weapons for a pair of scores. Those two touchdown passes to Alec Pierce and Michael Young Jr. brought him within one of the UC career record.

“Coming out at half, we knew we needed to push the ball more and get over the top,” Ridder said in his postgame press conference.

He'd surely like to have those two turnovers back, but the Bearcats held on despite a rare -1 turnover differential.

Smacked In The Mouth

Tulsa, by all accounts, should have won this football game or at least sent it to overtime.

They outgained Cincinnati 457-380 on the day and were a brute force in the running game. Tulsa recognized UC's consistent weakness this season and spammed that chink in the armor.

Tulsa walloped UC on the ground 57 times for 297 yards — good for 5.2 yards per carry. The Bearcats allowed 165 yards per game coming into the Homecoming bout. That ranked 77th on the season and was a factor in the Golden Hurricane' gameplan.

Cincinnati's secondary came into the game allowing the lowest completion percentage in the country to opposing quarterbacks and that kept them from ever trailing in this game.

Brin averaged just 5.9 yards per throw. A tick above UC's second-ranked season average (5.3 YPA). Georgia is the only secondary ranked higher in that metric. Although, Cincinnati won't sniff that spot right behind No. 1 UGA in the CFP rankings if they don't start clogging up the trenches.

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