Cincinnati
Survives WMU Rally
by Mike Mitchell
1/6/07
3:30 pm est
Cincinnati
blew all of a 24-0 lead, the beat Western Michigan 27-24 on Kevin
Lowell's 33-yard field goal with 6:11 to play in the International
Bowl.
Western Michigan missed a game-tying 51-yard field goal with
just over a minute left.
Brian Kelly was victorious in his debut with Cincinnati as he
became the first head coach to beat the same team twice in a
season while coaching two different teams. Kelly coached Central
Michigan to a 31-7 regular season victory over the Broncos. He
left the Chippewas, three days after they beat Ohio in the MAC
to championship game, to take the job vacated by Mark Dantonio
at Cincinnati. Dantonio accepted the head coaching position at
Michigan State to replace the fired John L. Smith.
Kelly's chief assistant, Jeff Quinn, and some of his other staff
helped coach Central Michigan to its 41-24 Motor City Bowl win
over Middle Tennessee before joining Kelly at Cincinnati.
The Bearcat win allowed the Big East to complete the bowl season
with a perfect 5-0 record, the best of any conference.
Cincinnati started the game fast, taking a 7-0 lead on John Bowie's
26-yard return of a Ryan Cubit pass on the Broncos first possession
of the game.
The Bearcats added two 21-yard touchdown passes from Nick Davila
to Dominick Goodman on its next two possessions, and a 37-yard
Lovell field goal on its fourth. With 10:24 still left in the
first half, the game looked like a blowout.
But, this has been the bowl season of comebacks and trick plays.
Western Michigan began their rally on the first play of their
next possession when, off of a reverse, E.J. Biggers teamed up
with Jamarko Simmons for a 76-yard touchdown pass. Momentum shifted
and, after WMU forced a Cincinnati punt, Cubit completed a 6-play,
56-yard drive with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Herb Martin.
Western Michigan closed to with 24-17 on a Nate Myers' 30-yard
field goal with 7 seconds left in the half. That score was set
up by Matt Ludeman's interception of a Davila pass at the Bearcats'
19-yard line.
The teams fought a scoreless and turnover-plagued third quarter,
the most damaging of which was a Davila fumble when he was sacked
at the Bronco 12-yard line after the Bearcats had driven to a
3rd-and-goal at the 3.
Western Michigan had lost the ball on the previous series on
Cubit's second interception of the game.
The fourth quarter began with more of the same as a second consecutive
Cincinnati series ended on a Davila turnover when Bronco linebacker
Paul Tithof batted and intercepted a pass at Cincinnati 47-yard
line. Brandon West scored six plays later on a 7-yard touchdown
run and the extra point tied the game at 24-24.
Cincinnati fumbled the ensuing kick-off but recovered it at its
own 8-yard line. The Bearcats then regrouped offensively and,
spurred by two Butler Benton runs that gained a total of 41 yards,
drove right down the field before stalling at the Bronco 16.
Lovell then connected on the 33-yard field goal for what proved
to be the game-winning points.
The debut International Bowl was played in Toronto at Rogers
Centre, a multi-use facility that hosts Major league baseball's
Blue Jays and the Canadian Football League's Argonauts.
The Broncos and Bearcats had previously played in a combined
total of just nine bowl games. Western Michigan hadn't played
in a bowl game since the 1988 California Bowl and are still winless
in three bowl trips. Cincinnati evened its bowl record at 4-4. |
