TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – To say that the University of Cincinnati Bearcats silenced a crowd of 111,383 rabid Michigan fans at the Big House on Saturday would be a stretch. But there's no question that most of those rabid fans were subdued early in the second half. Maybe even a little worried.
Midway through the third quarter, their eighth-ranked Wolverines were leading the Bearcats by only three points. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Yes, this was a team from Ohio, but it wasn't the hated Ohio State Buckeyes they were struggling against. This was a UC team that had problems only nine days earlier dispatching lowly Austin Peay at home.
In the end, order was restored and Michigan (2-0) walked off the field with a 36-14 victory. But the Bearcats certainly were not overmatched and while a loss is a loss, there was a lot for them to draw encouragement from. The trick for first-year head coach Luke Fickell in the immediate aftermath was to reach that happy medium between being disappointed with the loss and being optimistic about the rest of the season because of how his team played overall.
Fickell acknowledged that he was pleased to see his players stay together and compete after falling quickly behind, 14-0, in the first quarter, but was careful to tell them that "if this doesn't hurt in your stomach and burn then you're not on the right path."
"For us to be where we want to be," he said, "there's still some things that we've got to correct. There's an expectation that no matter if you're down three late in the third quarter you've got to expect that you're gonna make some plays."
Instead that's what Michigan did, hitting the Bearcats with 19 unanswered points, starting with a 33-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Wilton Speight to Grant Perry with 3:01 left in the third quarter that gave the Wolverines a 24-14 lead.
The Bearcats trailed, 17-7, at halftime. But on their first possession of the second half, they drove 86 yards in 10 plays and scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hayden Moore to Kahlil Lewis to pull within three points. The key play in the drive was a 46-yard run by Moore on second-and-10 that put UC on the Michigan 12-yard line. It was the longest run of Moore's career.
The Bearcats wouldn't score again.
That UC (1-1) stayed close as long as it did was a tribute to its defense, which allowed 414 yards but contained the Wolverines for nearly three quarters. The UC offense, meanwhile, had a tough time against the vaunted Michigan defense. The Bearcats gained only 200 yards overall, just 68 rushing and 132 passing.
Moore, who was under heavy pressure for most of the game, completed 15 of 40 passes for 132 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, both of which were returned for touchdowns.
"We've got to help the defense out," said offensive tackle Korey Cunningham. "They left us in good field position a lot of times. If we had converted all those times we definitely would have come out on the winning end in this game."
There were two missed opportunities that stood out for UC. One occurred in the third quarter after a shanked Michigan punt gave the Bearcats possession on the Michigan 46 with 5:35 to go with a chance to take the lead. But Moore overthrew a wide open Lewis, who had beaten his defender deep.
The other occurred early in the fourth quarter with UC trailing by 10. Lewis got open again. This time Moore threw him a perfect strike only to have Lewis let the ball slip harmlessly through his hands on the Wolverines' 7-yard line.
Despite Moore's less than impressive numbers, Fickell said he wasn't unhappy with his quarterback's play overall. For the most part, Moore took care of the ball and kept his team in the game until the fourth quarter.
"We're not gonna just take shots," Fickell said. "We need to make sure that we do the things that we need to do to find a way to slow this thing down a little bit and give ourselves an opportunity defensively to be able to battle in there. It's still a growing process for us as coaches."
Michigan struck quickly in the first quarter, scoring on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Speight to Kekoa Crawford to complete a seven-play, 80-yard drive. The Wolverines made it 14-0 when Tyree Kinnel picked off a Moore pass and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown on the Bearcats' first possession.
UC then got a break when a punt hit off a Michigan player and Tyrell Gilbert recovered at the Michigan 38. Nine plays later, Mike Boone scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7. Backup kicker Josh Pasley kicked the extra point for the Bearcats instead of Andrew Gantz. Fickell said Pasley got the nod after a week of competition between the two kickers. Gantz missed a 26-yard field goal and an extra point in the season opener against Austin Peay.
Michigan then drove 60 yards in nine plays to set up a Quinn Nordin field goal, giving the Wolverines a 17-7 lead with 14:03 left in the first half. UC forced another turnover when Speight fumbled on the UC 42. Cortez Broughton recovered for the Bearcats with 9:35 left, but they unable to move the ball and were forced to punt again.
On their last possession of the half, the Bearcats drove 53 yards to the Michigan 28-yard line. A delay of game penalty pushed them back to the 34. With three seconds left, Pasley attempted a 51-yard field goal, but his kick was short.
Things unraveled for UC late in the game. After Nordin kicked a 24-yard field goal with 9:02 left, the Wolverines recorded a safety when the snap for punter James Smith sailed into the end zone. Smith ran back and batted it out of the end zone to keep the Wolverines from falling on it for a touchdown. In an apparent miscommunication, Smith wasn't ready for Jon Vincent's snap. Then with 4:21 left, Moore was picked off at the UC 24 by Lavert Hill who returned the ball for a touchdown to account for the final points.
"When you let an opportunity just slip right out of your hands it hurts," said defensive tackle Cortez Broughton. "When you see the opportunity, when you see the chance that you get, you've got to capitalize on it. For us this wasn't trying to shock the world. We had an opportunity and we didn't take advantage of it."
Next week the Bearcats will try to continue their recent mastery over neighborhood rival Miami, a team they've beaten 11 straight times, knowing that they went toe to toe on the road with one of the best teams in the country for nearly three quarters.
"We didn't make this a one-game season," Fickell said. "This is part of us building what it is we need to build. It's not about one game. We're gonna start to prepare ourselves in a few short hours for a rivalry game making sure that we can move forward and can take the positives from this game."
Said running back Mike Boone: "I just wish we would have executed at the end. It would have been a completely different game."
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.