TicketsIf winning 'em all was easy, everyone would do it.
Through eight weeks, 2021 has been a minefield. A record 51 teams ranked in the AP Top 25 have lost. More than half of those losses have come against unranked opponents. Saturday saw #7 Penn State fall at home to 2-5 Illinois and #8 Oklahoma State tripped up by unranked Iowa State. #3 Oklahoma needed late-game heroics to overcome Kansas.
📍 Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium#Bearcats pic.twitter.com/Ow6mzlE00P
— Cincinnati Football (@GoBearcatsFB) October 23, 2021
Winning 'em all is hard, especially this year.
It becomes even more complicated when presented with the task of facing a team running the triple-option. The few offenses still running this scheme have been scaring fan bases for years. An unranked Georgia Tech knocked off #9 Florida State in 2015. In 2017 Navy went to Notre Dame Stadium and came within a score of the 9th-ranked Irish. The Army Black Knights are the masters of close calls—in 2018 falling a TD short of an upset at #5 Oklahoma before finishing three points shy of #7 Michigan a year later.
The triple-option is dastardly. Just ask the 2016 Houston Cougars, a team that saw a 19-1 run that included wins over the likes of #9 Florida State and #3 Oklahoma ruined by an October trip to Annapolis.
Luke Fickell was quick to recall Cincinnati's 2017 matchup against Navy in a sideline interview with ESPN Saturday, rattling off the exact number of rushing yards (569) his Bearcats allowed in a loss to the Midshipmen in his first season in red and black. Navy's attack is designed to muck up the game to such an extent that opponents can't get comfortable enough to be themselves, and that's precisely what it did in making the Bearcats look mortal for the first time in 2021. After scoring a combined 108 points in wins over Temple and UCF earlier this month, Cincinnati did well to find 27 on Saturday.
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Fickell has talked a lot about the target that exists on the back of the Bearcats. Opponents might roll over at the first sign of trouble when you're 4-3, but you'll get haymakers ranked #2. His team did what it had to do in a 27-20 victory. That's all that matters––a fact recognized by the voting body of the AP Poll, which was content to keep them ranked 2nd in the country. The sun still shines in Cincinnati.
A win counts all the same, and they aren't always pretty, despite this bunch's knack for making them majestic. Don't expect the punches to stop coming; be grateful these Bearcats were tough enough to survive them.
Breakout PerformersCincinnati's stars haven't disappeared. Desmond Ridder tossed a pair of touchdown passes, and Jerome Ford added 90 rushing yards and another touchdown––keeping him on pace for the kind of special season I talked about last week. Otherwise, Saturday was about breakout performers. Local kid Josh Whyle, a superstar in the making who hasn't quite gotten over the hump so far in 2021, reeled in four catches for 60 yards and a pair of touchdowns that looked effortless. Subbing in for injured starter Cole Smith, kicker Christian Lowery connected on all three of his extra-point attempts in addition to a successful 32-yard try in the second quarter.
But perhaps the game's most underrated play came in the waning moments of the first half. Navy squared up to try a long field goal, but the Bearcats shredded the line, setting Deshawn Pace up for a block that he returned into Navy territory. Just one play after defending a Midshipmen field goal, it was Cincinnati's turn for an end-of-half attempt. Alex Bales, a redshirt sophomore from Westfield, Indiana, trotted out there and drove one through from 52 yards on the very first attempt of his career. It was the longest kick for the Bearcats since Jake Rogers hit from 53 at Hawaii in 2008. The Bearcats were scrapping and clawing Saturday. Bales helped his team find some points in the couch cushions.
Check out this complete list of every Bearcats kicker in the last 136 years to make a field goal longer than Bales' kick Saturday:
The Bearcats play one more on the road––Saturday at noon against Tulane. The team returns home Saturday, November 6 against Tulsa for Homecoming. The game is sold out, but tickets remain on the secondary market through StubHub HERE.