Cincinnati does what it needed to do — win and win convincingly

CINCINNATI – Ahh, the end of November, when a playoff contender’s thoughts turn not just to winning but to humiliating the opponent. No. 4 Ohio State set the standard early Saturday, administering a 56-7 beating to No. 7 Michigan State, the Buckeyes’ biggest victory in a series that started in 1912.

Not to be outdone by the team 70 miles north of Nippert Stadium, No. 5 Cincinnati (11-0, 7-0 in the AAC) dominated SMU in every way one football team can dominate another, winning 48-14 and — all together now — Sending a Message to the College Football Playoff selection committee.

The Bearcats gained 544 yards of total offense, allowed the Mustangs only 199 yards, 300 yards below their average, and blocked a punt and a field goal.

“In all three phases, we played a complete game,” said Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, wearing a black vest adorned at the back of his neck with “T.E.A.M.,” which stands for Today Eviscerate All Mustangs. “We challenged these guys early in the week, we challenged them again at halftime, and everything that we challenged them to, they stepped up and performed.”

Oh, sorry; On3 Research indicates that “T.E.A.M.” stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. The Bearcats did that on a day they needed to do it, and against an opponent that came in 8-2. As a Group of 5 team ranked just outside the four-team field, Cincinnati resides in the unenviable position of having to prove itself playoff-worthy in a way that other programs do not.

The Bearcats had sputtered in their past four games, playing down to the level of their competition – Navy, Tulane, Tulsa and USF have won 11 games among them, same as Cincinnati. Yet the Bearcats struggled to put all of them away, needing an eight-play goal-line stand against the Golden Hurricane to win two weeks ago on homecoming.

“The past few weeks have been frustrating,” wide receiver Tre Tucker said. “We know our potential, what we can do.”

‘A little something different coming into this one’

Fickell may be in his sixth season as a head coach, his fifth at Cincinnati, but he sounded like a young coach as he described groping for an answer to the riddle getting his team to focus.

“That’s been my mission,” Fickell said. “That’s been my drive the last three or four weeks, beating myself up about it. There was a little something different coming into this one. Not just that they were 8-2, the way they had played all year, the things that they had done. But I did sense a little more sense of urgency, a little more of that energy.

“That’s what you want every week. We’re always striving to get those guys to really kind of hone in, lock in on the things we continue to preach. It’s not the easiest thing in the world.”

On another emotional Saturday — it was Senior Day — Cincinnati and its 32 seniors gave an effort worthy of the event. Fickell believed that had more to do with the crisp play than trying to rebut the Bearcats’ critics. “I think if they were tired of hearing that, they might have done it a week or two ago,” he said.

The game began for fifth-year senior quarterback Desmond Ridder when, upon being introduced in the pregame ceremony, he walked onto the field carrying his 7-month-old daughter, Leighton. The game ended for Ridder in the middle of the third quarter, when he caught a 5-yard Philly Special for the fifth touchdown from sixth-year wide receiver Jordan Jones, who last played quarterback at Smackover (Ark.) High in 2015. Ridder looked the ball right into his hands, catching it in front of his body, chest-high.

“We’ve had that play for four to five years now,” Ridder said. “I’ve let the coaches know my hands are certified every time we’ve tried it. I bring that up every year.”

“I’m glad they didn’t tell me they were running that one,” Fickell said, smiling. “I’m not sure I would have been good with it.”

Between those two milestones, Ridder threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 46 yards and another score. Five touchdowns in your last regular-season game in your stadium, where you have a 25-0 record as a starting quarterback. Not bad.

Cincinnati on point from the start

On the Bearcats’ first play from scrimmage, Ridder threw a 53-yard touchdown to Tyler Scott. On their third possession, he scooted around charging Mustangs safety Trevor Denbow and sprinted 40 yards for a score. Ridder grabbed a drumstick, pounded a drum belonging to the Cincinnati band, then raised his hands to the adoring student section above him.

At that moment, the 5:32 mark of the first quarter, the scoreboard in the north end zone showed BEARCATS 81, SMU 7. That was total yards, but it felt like the score. The Mustangs had yet to make a first down, and the Bearcats had scored two touchdowns. The game never got closer.

SMU didn’t reach the red zone until the 8:32 mark of the fourth quarter, when Cincinnati led 48-0 and the Bearcats’ first-team units on both sides of the ball had been pulled. SMU avoided its first shutout loss in six years when Tre Siggers rushed 2 yards for a score.

The Mustangs added another touchdown in the final seconds, so someone just looking at the score might not understand the nature of this victory. Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham, who this summer participated in a mock playoff selection staged by the College Football Playoff, knows the committee will get a report on just how big a blowout it was.

Before the game, standing on the sideline, Cunningham said there is a “natural bias” toward the big-name schools. The committee “tries to keep it out of the room,” he said.

“But … ” and he put his palms in the air and shrugged. All he can do is hope.

Cincinnati closes out the regular season next Saturday at East Carolina (7-4, 5-2), which is third in the American, then will play No. 24 Houston (10-1, 8-0) in the December 4 league championship game.

With No. 3 Oregon getting hammered at Utah on Saturday; either No. 4 Ohio State or No. 6 Michigan losing next week; and No. 2 Alabama playing No. 1 Georgia a week later, Cincinnati’s path to the playoff is clear. If the Bearcats continue to play as well as they did Saturday, the committee will have to twist itself into knots to keep them out.