Instant Analysis: Pittsburgh-Cincinnati

Their Big East championship and attendant Orange Bowl bid are not official, but with only one conference game remaining in their sensational season, this much can definitely be said about the Cincinnati Bearcats: They’re made of sterner stuff… especially quarterback Tony Pike.

Why are coach Brian Kelly’s Bearcat brothers just one win from an unexpected conference crown? Besides being the most complete team in the Big East, these cool and calm Cats have received the quality quarterbacking and competent coaching needed to outthink and outflank their opponents. Saturday night’s victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers showed exactly why this is the case.

In a year when so many of their quarterbacks have been injured, the Bearcats haven’t missed a beat because of the preparedness of Kelly’s staff, combined with the athletic courage of Pike, the signal caller who took hold of this team after a more severe injury sidelined Dustin Grutza at the beginning of Cincy’s season. Pike himself broke his non-throwing arm in a narrow Sept. 27 victory over Akron, but when teammates Chazz Anderson, Zach Collaros and Grutza were called upon to pick up the slack under center, they regularly succeeded. Pike returned to the team after his late-September injury and led the UC offense with distinction, but on Nov. 14 against Louisville, Pike got popped once again. A bruised sternum left Cincinnati with a fragile field general heading into the Big East game of the year. The Bearcats needed a quality game plan—and a gutsy performance from their best quarterback—in order to prevail against Pittsburgh.

After 60 sensational minutes, it became overwhelmingly clear that this is the best Cincinnati team to come down the Pike in quite some time.

Pike didn’t just hold up okay or merely “manage” the game, as football people like to say when referring to quarterbacks whose main job is to simply avoid big mistakes. No, this terrifically tough youngster dominated this football game with help from Kelly, the magnificent mastermind who—like Urban Meyer four years ago—has become the “it guy” in the college football coaching community.

Pike—who, on this day, did something very similar to what Brian Johnson achieved against BYU in Salt Lake City—threw more than 30 passes and failed to complete just six of them. By hitting 26 of 32 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns, Pike painted a pigskin Picasso, a work of art that was partially fashioned by his crafty and clever coach.

Two of UC’s four touchdown plays covered 20 yards or more, and were superbly executed by Pike. With that being said, it also has to be noted that those two significant snaps involved masterful design by Kelly and the Bearcat braintrust. A 20-yard toss from Pike to Marcus Barnett could have been completed by a high school quarterback. Yes, Burnett came open by that great a distance on a delay route over the middle that clearly snookered Pitt’s defense. In the third quarter, Cincy padded a touchdown lead by taking a 21-7 advantage on a 39-yard strike from Pike to receiver Marshwan Gilyard. This play—much like the 20-yard play to Barnett—fooled Pitt’s secondary. An underneath route caused a Panther safety to flinch for just a moment, but that was all Gilyard needed to make an easy and unmolested catch in open space on a sideline route.

A third UC touchdown also came easily, due to Kelly’s X-and-O acumen. A four-yard paydirt-producing flip from Pike to receiver Dominick Goodman was so easy that Goodman stood in the end zone, flat-footed and frozen, for a few seconds, before finally making the statuesque grab of a Pike’s feathery throw. All night long, Cincy’s coaching staff left Pitt paralyzed. As a result, Kelly is now king in the Queen City.

Tony Pike and the rest of his teammates have been beaten, bruised and broken over the course of this season, but that’s only a physical description. Bodily injuries and frequent turnover at the quarterback position have not led to psychic wounds or the on-field turnovers that truly take down a talented team. They might have had a revolving door under center this season, and their foremost field general might have carried a bruised sternum into the biggest football game of the season, but the Cincinnati Bearcats have shrugged off the searing pain while ignoring the infirmary as well. The toughest and most inspiring team in Cincinnati is making the locals forget about the embarrassing Bengals. One more win, and Kelly’s cool customers will be mixing it up in Miami on New Year’s Night.