Instant Analysis - Nov. 13
Cincinnati 24 ... West Virginia 21
Pete
Fiutak
You are aware that Cincinnati has sort of done this
before.
It hasn't gotten to 10-0 and it hasn't been in the
national title chase this late into the season, but
this tremendous start and the success shouldn't come
totally out of the blue. After all, under head coach
Brian Kelly, the program has now won 31 games in
three seasons and has hit the double-digit mark for
the third straight year. But there's still work to
be done. Last year's team went to the BCS, and this
year's team, for all the great things that have
happened so far, needs to beat Pitt to be assured of
a spot.
This win over West Virginia might have been more
impressive than any other this season because it
showed the team could win when nothing seemed to be
clicking. West Virginia had a lot to do with the
problems, but this wasn't the normal Bearcat team
that has been so good at dropping the hammer time
and again to make a close game a blowout. It was
close, getting up ten late before WVU's Jarrett
Brown got hot in the final minutes, but the team was
able to come up with the big fourth down stop when
needed, got the late field goal when it had to, and
came up with the win it had to. Now comes an
exhibition against Illinois, it doesn't really
matter in the scheme of things, before facing the
Panther for all the marbles.
Richard
Cirminiello
Isaiah Pead. And West Virginia’s Big East title hopes got flushed down the toilet.
On a night when Cincinnati was not at its finest and QB Zach Collaros was mortal, the Bearcats got bailed out by a cameo from one-time starting QB Tony Pike and Pead, who rushed for a career-high 187 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. The gem of the 2008 recruiting class, who’d ironically turned down an offer to be a Mountaineer, he showed a national TV audience why he was such a hot commodity coming out of Eastmoor (OH) Academy. Weaving in and out of the West Virginia defense, the sophomore flashed a tremendous burst of speed and the change-of-direction to make defenders whiff in space. And just in the nick of time. For the first time all year, the Bearcats were held below 28 points and for the second straight week, they needed an onside kick to remain unbeaten.
Cincinnati may not have looked like the nation’s fifth-ranked team on Friday night, but it stayed unbeaten when it didn’t have its best stuff, the sign of a champion. Pead played a huge role in win No. 10, helping the Bearcats move a step closer to that winner-take-all showdown with Pitt on Dec. 5.
By Aaron Calhoun
Mountaineer head coach Bill Stewart will go to sleep tonight wondering why he went for it on 4th and 8.
With five and a half minutes remaining, West Virginia faced the aforementioned fourth down from the Cincinnati 24 yard line. At this point, quarterback Jarrett Brown had attempted only four passes in the second half—and completed just one. Nonetheless, instead of going for the field goal and trusting his defense to hold the Bearcats—with all three timeouts still in his pocket as well— Stewart sent the offense back on the field in an obvious passing situation. As a result, Brown’s pass went through the end zone and the Mountaineers were turned away. Subsequently, Cincinnati used its ensuing drive, and all three of West Virginia’s timeouts, to stretch its lead to ten. All of a sudden, instead of being down four with all three timeouts, West Virginia was forced to try and come back from two scores down without being able to stop the clock—offensive first downs notwithstanding; additionally, the garbage touchdown the Mountaineers scored in the last minute would have turned into a game-tying one had kicker Tyler Bitancurt connected. That questionable call by Stewart cost the Mountaineers time, timeouts, and, ultimately, the game; granted, a forty-two yard field goal is hardly a sure thing, but Bitancurt should have at least been given a chance.
After all, there’s no way he could’ve shanked it as badly as Bearcat kicker Jake Rogers did on his first attempt.