Bearcats rally to knock off Hoosiers
Ridder leads No. 8 Cincinnati to a comeback victory over IU
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder struggled through the first half.
He reverted to form in the second half -and so did the Bearcats.
The senior threw two touchdown passes and ran for another in the final 30 minutes, helping No. 8 Cincinnati rally for a critical 38-24 victory at Indiana on Saturday.
“This is huge. I feel like it’s a weight lifted off our shoulders,” Ridder said. “People talk about checklists and what you’ve got to do and that’s a check mark off the list.”
It’s one. But the bigger one could come in two weeks when the unbeaten Bearcats visit Notre Dame for a showdown that could provide momentum for their playoff hopes.
Without Ridder’s resilience, those aspirations could have ended in Bloomington. His two first-half turnovers, an interception and a fumble, allowed Indiana to build a 14-0 lead in front of its largest home crowd for a non-conference game, 52,656, since September 1987.
But the momentum swung when Ridder took a big hit on third-and-10 late in the first half. A replay review resulted in a targeting call and the ejection of Hoosiers linebacker Micah McFadden, giving the Bearcats a rare first down.
Almost instantly things changed for Indiana
(1-2).
“We were dominating them till that point,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said. “He’s our leader, he’s part of our pressure, he makes a lot of tackles, and when you lose a guy like that, that’s tough.”
The Bearcats sensed it, too, and Ridder wasted no time taking advantage by leading the Bearcats (3-0) to their first score. They added a field goal before halftime and Cincinnati finally took the lead on Jerome Ford’s second TD run, a 3-yarder midway through the third quarter.
Indiana answered with a 14-yard scoring run from D.J. Matthews Jr. Tre Tucker gave Cincinnati a 23-21 lead with a 99-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, b ut when the
Bearcats missed the extra point the Hoosiers regained the lead with a 49-yard field goal. Ridder took care of the rest.
He threw a 19-yard TD pass to Alec Pierce for the go-ahead score with 12:13 remaining, scored on a 7-yard run with 2:37 to go and completed a 2-point conversion pass to seal Cincinnati’s big win.
“It’s huge for us,” coach Luke Fickell said. “It’s a little different world for us just because it’s a little bit of a spotlight, a little bit of a bull’s eye. I’m not saying it’s any more of a spotlight or a bull’s eye than anyone else who’s ranked. But for us as a program it’s a little different than what we’ve experienced and our guys are finding a way to really handle it.”