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By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI - For three quarters, it appeared as if the University of Cincinnati Bearcats were on the verge of one of the biggest upsets in school history.
UC led No. 6 Houston, 16-12, a few seconds into the fourth quarter. Nippert Stadium was rocking with the excitement emanating from a crowd of 40,015 and ESPN was beaming it to the nation. All was right with the world.
But it didn't take long for it to fall apart. Aided by three interceptions, the Cougars ripped off 28 points in eight minutes and blew past UC, 40-16, turning a once-promising upset bid into a sobering blowout in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
"I thought we were able to get enough momentum to possibly have an opportunity at the end to win the game," said UC coach Tommy Tuberville. "And then it exploded. It was just bad decisions out of the quarterbacks."
UC (2-1 overall, 0-1 in the AAC) is 0-20 all-time against teams ranked No. 6 or higher. Houston improved to 3-0, 1-0.
In the end, the Bearcats were done in not just by the turnovers but by Houston senior quarterback Greg Ward Jr., whose combination of running and passing was too much for UC to control for four quarters. The UC defense had its moments, forcing three turnovers of its own to keep the Bearcats in the game despite a statistical mismatch, but were able to subdue Ward for only so long.
Ward completed 24 of 36 passes for 326 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. He also ran for 73 yards and two touchdowns and was deadly on third down situations. Perhaps his most impressive play came on the Cougars' first drive after UC had taken the lead on quarterback Hayden Moore's 4-yard touchdown pass to Nate Cole.
On third-and-11 from the UC 12, Ward dropped back to pass. Unable to locate an open receiver, he scampered 12 yards for the touchdown that gave the Cougars the lead for good at 19-16.
"We had great pass coverage and then he'd just pull it down and run," Tuberville said. "That's a pretty good offense to have. That's hard to defend."
The Bearcats were still within striking distance at that point, but Moore, who was 21-for-37 for 275 yards and two touchdowns, threw the first of of his two interceptions when Houston's Howard Wilson picked him off at the Houston 40. Eleven plays later, Ward ran for three yards and a touchdown to make it 26-16.
On UC's next possession, Moore was intercepted again, this time by Steven Taylor, who returned it 74 yards for a touchdown to make it 33-16. When redshirt freshman Ross Trail replaced Moore for UC's next possession, he, too, was intercepted, with Wilson grabbing the ball at the UC 28 and returning it for a touchdown.
Just like that, it was 40-16, fans were streaming out of Nippert, and the jubilation the Bearcats experienced early in the fourth quarter was a distant memory.
"I thought at halftime we really had an opportunity," Tuberville said, "especially when we stopped them and made them punt and our offense got a little bit of steam. We just didn't have enough offense tonight to help our defense out."
The Bearcats gained 307 total yards to 506 for Houston. The most obvious problem was the inability to run the ball against the Houston defense, which limited UC to 30 rushing yards on 25 carries, resulting in a time of possession differential of 38:08 for Houston to 21:52 for the Bearcats.
"You can't beat any good team if you can't run the football," Tuberville said. "You've got to be able to run it some. They put all the pressure on the quarterback and the receivers and they dictated the game to us with their offense. We had some turnovers that kept us in the game. I thought our defensive guys played with a lot of heart. They were out there for like 40 minutes and our offense had the ball 20 minutes. That's pretty lopsided."
UC played Houston to a 10-10 draw in the first half, when Andrew Gantz kicked a 37-yard field goal with four seconds left after Grant Coleman picked up a Houston fumble and returned it 53 yards to the Houston 34.
"We knew we played better than them at halftime," said Houston coach Tom Herman, "but the score didn't show it. The fourth quarter exemplified a veteran team that's played in big games."
The Cougars took a 7-0 lead with eight minutes left in the first quarter on Ward's 39-yard touchdown pass to Chance Allen, but UC answered with a 61-yard TD pass from Moore to Devin Gray. Houston later added a 32-yard field goal by Ty Cummings.
UC, which did not make any of its players available to talk to reporters after the game, will try to pick up the pieces next week against Miami (Ohio) in the annual Battle for the Victory Bell at Nippert Stadium, knowing that they were leading the sixth-ranked team in the country after three quarters, but also knowing how quickly the chance to make national news got away from them.
"It was just a hard night," Tuberville said. "I'm disappointed. We practiced hard, we prepared well. Our guys were ready to play. We laid it on the line. We just didn't have enough to beat a very good football team."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January, 2015.