Bearcats survive furious second half comeback by Connecticut

The Cincinnati Bearcats defeated the Connecticut Huskies Saturday night, 47-45, despite a furious second half comeback by a determined Husky team. The Bearcats, who now find themselves at 9-0, seemed to have things in control as they entered the locker room with a 30-10 halftime. After all they were facing a Connecticut team that, after losing teammate Jasper Howard last month, had suffered two straight crushing blows at the hands of West Virginia and Rutgers.

But, to their credit, Connecticut had no intentions of rolling over for the number 5 team in the nation. After opening the half with a touchdown to make it 30-17, the Huskies would continue to take swings at the Bearcat defense. They scored fast, and they scored often. And, with under 6 minutes to play, Jordan Todman scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the day from a yard out, making the score 40-38 with a two-point conversion still to come.

But, as championship-caliber teams often do, the Bearcats came up with perhaps their best defensive play of the day when they needed it most. On the ensuing two-point conversion, Curtis Young sacked Connecticut quarterback Zach Frazier, knocking the ball loose. The Bearcats fell on the ball, and held onto the lead.

On the ensuing drive, the Bearcats scored a touchdown when Isaiah Pead took the handoff from quarterback Zach Collaros on 4th and 1, and scampered 14 yards for the game clinching score. Connecticut would score another touchdown late, but the onside kick was unsuccessful and the Bearcats escaped with the win in front of the largest crowd in Nippert Stadium history (35,100) and a national television audience.

“We got off to a great start,” said head coach Brian Kelly when asked about the game. “The way we started offensively—you get up 30 to 10 at half and we come out and stop them on a three and out. I thought that was huge. But you have to give credit to UConn. Clearly offensively we had to score more points to win this game today. That happens sometimes. We’d all like to play our best in every phase of the game, but sometimes you just have to find a way to win.”

“There was def sense of urgency on that last drive,” said Collaros of the game clinching drive. “Everybody on the offense was saying they can’t beat us if they don’t stop our offense. That last drive everybody really cowboyed up and we did it.”

The statistics in this one were nothing short of mind-blowing. With a combined total of 1,173 yards between the two teams, you know there’s going to be some impressive numbers. For starters, backup quarterback Zach Collaros continued his incredible run. The redshirt sophomore completed 29 of 37 throws for 480 yards and a touchdown. He also carried the ball 13 times for 75 yards and 2 scores. His 480 yards marked the second highest total in UC history.

“He sees the field extremely well,” said Kelly of his quarterback. “He made plays all over the place, and he got great help. We have great receivers and great balance. We ran the ball well. I don’t know what else you can say offensively. With all of that offense, we didn’t turn the ball over once. I think that says a lot about our discipline.”

Senior wide receiver Mardy Gilyard was his favorite target, hauling in 12 balls for 172 yards. But, as Gilyard likes to say, it doesn’t matter what he does individually as long as the team comes home with the win.

“It really doesn’t matter to me as long as we win,” said Gilyard. “We’re fifth in the country right now, and some people lost in front of us this week. I come in week in and week out and I just want to win. I could have negative yards, but if we win it’s a good day.”

The ground game was also very effective for UC, with Isaiah Pead and Jacob Ramsey carrying the bulk of the load out of the backfield. Ramsey carried the ball 12 times for 91 yards, and Isaiah Pead carried it 10 times for 67 yards and two touchdowns, one of which sealed the win for the Bearcats late in the fourth quarter.

In the end, the Bearcats totaled 711 yards, and escaped with a win. Typically, when you eclipse the incredible 700 yard mark, you wouldn’t expect to find yourself in the situation the Bearcats found themselves in tonight, but as Coach Kelly will tell you, you’re not always going to win pretty.

The defense didn’t play extremely well, as you might expect since they gave up 35 second half points, and sophomore linebacker J.K. Schaffer spoke highly of the Connecticut offense after the game.

“In the first half, we really didn’t play too bad besides a couple of those long plays,” said Schaffer. “In the second half it wasn’t so much the big plays, but they were getting 2 or 3 yards at time. They had an extremely talented offense.”

He continued on,

“It’s always exciting when you don’t have your best game and you still get the win, because it just shows you how much better you can get,” said Schaffer. “It’s not the best thing to give up as many yards and points as we did, but in the long run its really going to help us.”

The Bearcats are now 9-0, and with Iowa losing to Northwestern earlier in the day, the Bearcats should find themselves at number 4 in the BCS rankings headed into next Friday’s Big East showdown with West Virginia.