No Moral Victories But.....UC Played With Passion

Cincinnati (1-3) fell two points short of upsetting number 8 Oklahoma (4-0).

Oklahoma runs a hurry up offense that prevents teams from substituting on defense.  The Sooners ran 94 plays at the Bearcats for 452 yards.

"We knew they were going to do that and we prepared for it," linebacker JK Schaffer said.  "They had us on our heals in the first quarter but you could see the energy on our defense.  We played with passion."

Oklahoma broke out of the gate with two first quarter drives that covered 80 yards in 4:03 and 69 yards in 3:09 to jump to a 14-3 lead.

"We were going to play with passion no matter how much we were down by or whatever came our way," Shaffer said.

First year coach Butch Jones also saw it that way.

"We came of age.  There are absolutely no moral victories but our leadership stepped up," Jones said.  "We showed a little bit of character."

The Bearcats took Oklahoma's best shot and fought back.

Isaiah Pead, who was unavailable to Cincinnati for most of the first three games, joined the offense and rushed for 169 yards against a big physical defense.  He provided a boost to an offensive line that had been challenged to improve on its performance in the first three games.

"I knew we could play with these guys," Pead said.  "I knew I could give our team a boost.  We left everything on the field.  We gave them our best punch."

"Without looking at the tape, I think our offensive line did a good job," Jones said. "We challenged Pead and planned to give him the ball.   We were able to get our running game going."

The addition of the run allowed Cincinnati to outgain Oklahoma on the night, 461-452.

Quarterback Zach Collaros was relieved from carrying the entire weight.

"We played hard.  It was something we can feed off of.  We did a good job of keeping our poise.  Our word for the week was to sustain,  no matter what adversity or what came at us."

DJ Wood had an up and down game.  He made some big plays and had some big mistakes.

Wood caught seven passes for 171 yards and a touchdown but one of the turning points came on a 69 yard catch on which he fumbled into the Oklahoma endzone after being stripped by Jonathan Nelson.  He also dropped a punt that Oklahoma recovered on the Cincinnati eight in the last five minutes of the game.  The Bearcats had closed the gap to 24-22 and forced a punt.

Oklahoma put the game away with a touchdown after that decisive fumble.

"I felt we outplayed them," Pead said.  "We have to stop beating ourselves."

"DJ Wood got injured but he came back," Jones said.  "Our kids are resilient. DJ also made some big plays for us.  I will live and die with DJ Wood.  He's a competitive kid."

Cincinnati scored with 58 seconds left but could not come up with the onside kick and came up short, 31-29.

They take on Miami on October 9 before they delve into Big East Conference play.