TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI - When University of Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell called last week's loss to Navy a humbling experience, he had no way to know that things were about to get worse before they got better.
One week after the Bearcats surrendered 569 rushing yards, the most ever allowed by a UC team, in a 42-32 loss to Navy, they were thrashed at home Saturday night, 38-21, by Marshall before 35,736 fans at Nippert Stadium, most of whom had left the premises long before the game ended.
The Bearcats (2-3) committed three turnovers that resulted in 21 Marshall points and after they began to show signs of life in the second half after falling behind 24-0 at halftime, the Thundering Herd (3-1) took advantage of a muffed UC punt to put the game away late in the third quarter.
"It was a tough night," said UC coach Luke Fickell. "Not a whole lot of things went well for us. We've got to be one of those teams that's not gonna sit there and wait for something to go right. We want to be a team that goes out there and generates some things. At some point in time we've got to be able to feed off some positive momentum and some positive energy and we just haven't had that opportunity just yet."
Marshall gained 366 yards to 349 for the Bearcats, which doesn't sound too bad, but most of UC's yardage came late in the game when the Herd had the game well in hand. UC quarterback Hayden Moore, coming off one of the best passing games of his career, was 22-for-45 for 211 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions. Marshall quarterback Chase Litton was 21-for-34 for 233 yards and four touchdowns, three to tight end Ryan Yurachek. Litton was not intercepted.
The game started on a promising note for UC when Marshall fumbled on its first possession and Perry Young recovered for the Bearcats. But UC promptly fumbled it right back to Marshall when the ball slipped out of Moore's hand as he attempted to pass.
The Herd then drove 66 yards in 10 plays and took a 7-0 lead on Litton's 14-yard touchdown pass to Yurachek with 8:39 left in the first quarter. Litton completed six of seven passes on that drive for 60 yards.
"The defense definitely got us in scoring position right off the bat," said UC offensive tackle Korey Cunningham. "We've got to execute. We've got to start backing the defense up. They got us the ball right there in perfect field position, beautiful field position. We've just got to execute off those things."
With the Bearcats unable to generate much of anything on offense in the early going, Marshall extended its lead to 10-0 on a 26-yard field goal by Kaare Vedvik early in the second quarter. The three-and-outs continued to pile up for UC's offense while the Herd kept moving up and down the field.
The inability to get the offense on track early in the game has been a nagging problem for the Bearcats, especially in the last two weeks.
"That's something we stressed on this week, just trying not to come out flat on offense and starting out with all those three and outs," Cunningham said. "That's something we can't do as an offense. We've got to start out with energy. We're gonna get there. I guarantee that."
Late in the second quarter, facing a fourth-and-2 at the UC 27, the Herd elected to go for a first down. The UC defense cooperated by leaving Willie Johnson wide open a few yards in front of the goal line. Litton connected with him for a touchdown to put Marshall ahead 17-0 with 1:38 left in the half.
On the Marshall kickoff, UC's Thomas Geddis attempted to run out of the end zone only to fumble. Marshall's Nazeeh Johson recovered at the Bearcats' 15. On the next play, Litton passed to Yurachek for another touchdown to give the Herd a halftime 24-0 lead.
The Bearcats finally showed signs of life when Moore passed to Devin Gray for 42 yards to the Marshall 16, but when they were unable to push the ball over the goal line, Josh Pasley missed a 26-yard field goal attempt wide right.
By the end of the first half, Marshall had 229 total yards to 84 for UC and 17 first downs to UC's three while controlling the ball for 24:19 to UC's 5:41. Moore was 4-for-13 for 75 yards. Marshall's Litton was 20-for-29 for 202 yards and three touchdowns.
After getting pushed around in the first half, the Bearcats started the second half with a 15-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in Gerrid Doaks' 2-yard touchdown run to get UC on the board while ending a streak of six scoreless quarters by the Marshall defense. That cut the Herd's lead to 24-7.
The UC defense forced a Marshall punt late in the third quarter, but the ball hit off UC's Linden Stephens and was recovered by Marshall's De'Andre Wilson at the UC 31. Litton then passed to Yurachek for his third touchdown of the game to make it 31-7 with 1:06 left in the third quarter.
"We go down there right before the half and try to punch one in," Fickell said, "Then we say OK, you know what? Let's be smart. Let's take some points here to generate a little bit of positivity and we missed the field goal right there going in. Then you come out and you score and you have the ball hit off you on the punt. It's one thing after another. You can't make excuses for it. You've got to make your breaks. Nobody's gonna hand us anything.
"We're a fighting crew. We know that and we're gonna pride ourselves on that, but we'd like to be able to fight in those situations where like two weeks ago when we're gonna fight to make a win. We don't want just to be fighting and clawing out there trying to make it close. That's not who we are. That's not what we want."
UC came back with a seven-play, 78-yard drive that ended with Michael Warren's 27-yard touchdown run to make it 31-14 with 14:15 left, but Marshall answered with a 1-yard touchdown run by Keion Davis with 9:14 to play and the Herd had a commanding 38-14 lead. The Bearcats tacked on another touchdown on an 18-yard pass from Moore to Javan Hawes with 3:03 remaining to make the score a more respectable 38-21.
This was probably the most disappointing loss of the three that UC has absorbed this season. No one expected the Bearcats to beat No. 8 Michigan and the loss to Navy could be explained away by the difficulty in preparing for Navy's potent triple-option rushing offense.
But this was a game the Bearcats were supposed to win.
"This is one of those where we're gonna have to go back and study hard," Fickell said. "It's not like last week where you kind of put it away a little bit. This is one you really study and try to figure out where are the things that are showing up on Tuesday and Wednesday in practice and aren't showing up on Saturday.
"We're gonna pop on that third and fourth quarter and find out who really wants to play and who's got a burning desire and a passion to take this program and take this season and the things that we're doing in the right direction."
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.