The game started with first and 10 WVU at their own 24 yard line. The drove 44 yards to the Bearcats 32 but on 4th and 4 Nicco Marchiol threw and incompetion to Kole Taylor and the drive ended. Cincinnati at their 32 and drove 68 yards on 13 plays and took a 7-0 lead on a 2 yard TD run by senioor tailback Cory Kiner. After a Mountaineer punt the Bearcats would mount another drive that looked as if it would take them to a 14-0 lead but after driving 56 yards on 10 plays the Bearcats talented sophomore quarterback Brendan Sorsby committed a critical error when he attempted to throw the ball away while in the grasp of a WVU defender to avoid a sack and it was picked off by senior Mountaineer safety Anthony Wilson Jr at the WVU 21 yard line and returned 79 yards for a Mountaineer touchdown and just like that instead of a 14-0 Bearcat lead we were looking at a 7-7 game with 12:31 to go in the 1st half.

On the ensuing possession Cincy QB Sorsby would simply lose possession of the football after a 6-yard scramble and it was recovered by WVU senior safety Kenoura Tarnue at the Bearcat 37 yard line and the Mountaineers had a golden opportunity to take a 7 point lead however on 3rd and 4 and the Cincinnati 6 yard line Nicco Marchiols pass to the endzone was incomplete and WVU would settle for a 24 yard Michael Hayes field goal and with 2:27 to go in the 1st half it was 10-7 EERs.

The Mountaineers would get on the board again before the break after a Bearcat punt with 5:05 to go in the first half was returned 29 yards by WVU speedy wideout Preston Fox for 20 yards to the Cincinnati 41-yard line Nicco Marchiol would find senior wideout Justin Robinson for a 10-yard touchdown and we went into the break with the Mountaineers holding a surprising 17-7 lead.

The Bearcats would get the ball to start the 3rd quarter but after just 4 plays punted to the ball and the EERs would start their first drive of the 2nd half at midfield and on the 2nd play of the drive Marchiol would find sophomore wideout Traylon Ray for 38 yards to the Cincy 14 and two plays later Marchiol would take it in himself from 8 yards out and with 8:29 to go in the 3rd quarter it was 24-7 Mountaineers. At this point I felt WVU had perhaps taken control of this game and might run the Bearcats off their own field as after yet another Cincy punt the EERs would drive 61 yards on 5 plays to the Bearcat 22 yard line. The drive was highlighted by a 50 yard bomb from Nicco Marchiol to Justin Robinson but on 3rd and 3 and the Bearcats 22 Marchiol tossed and interception in the endzone in what looked like was going to be a touchdown pass to Rodney Gallagher but was taken away by the Bearcat defender. This would have made it a commanding 31-7 lead for WVU with 2:42 to go in the 3rd quarter but it was not meant to be.

Instead the Bearcats would take over first and 10 at their own 20 after the interception and on the first play Sorsby would find junior Evan Pryor for an 80 yard touchdown pass and just like that we went from the potential 31-7 WVU lead to a 24-14 WVU lead and Cincinnati clear had stolen back the momentum in the game. After a WVU punt the Bearcats would drive 71 yards on 11 plays as the WVU coaches were playing a form of prevent defense to prevent another long TD pass from the Bearcats. Instead, the Cincy coaches simply took everything underneath and drove to the WVU 12 where on the next play quarterback Sorsby would bust 4 tackles and scamper the remaining 12 yards for the touchdown and with 9:42 to go in the game it was 24-21 West Virginia.

After a 3 and out buy the Mountaineer offense WVU punter Oliver Straw got off another outstanding punt and the Bearcats took over first and 10 at their own 6-yard line. I figured the Cats would drive the length of the field chewing up the rest of the clock and score late to win the game. However on 1st and 10 at their own 27 Bearcat quarterback Brendan Sorsby would make his 3rd critical error of the game by throwing a backward pass that was scooped up by Mountaineer senior linebacker Tyrin Bradley Jr and returned 14 yards for a touchdown which was their 2nd defensive touchdown of the game and with just 3:30 too go in the game it was 31-21 West Virginia which meant that the Bearcats would need to score then recover an onside kick and score again.

The Bearcats took the ensuing kickoff after the defensive touchdown and drove 64 yards in 14 plays to the WVU 11 yard line and had 3 shots at the endzone but all 3 Sorsby passes were incomplete so they settled for a 29 yard Nathan Hawks field goal to make the score 31-24 with 36 seconds to go in the game hoping to recover the onside kick but the kick went straight to a Mountaineer who fell on the ball and WVU had their 5th victory of the season. The WVU offense was sluggish and somewhat coontained by the Cincinnati defense but they did score a coupl of touchdowns. The Mountaineer defense and special teams bailed oout the offense in this contest. Two defensive touchdowns? You have to go back to 2001 against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a game that ended up an incredible 80-7 WVU victory. Special teams crontributed two outstanding kick returns by Preston Pac Man Fox along with stellar punting by junior punter Oliver Straw and the steady placekicking of senior Michael Hayes. In all it was a great effort on the road against a pretty good Cincinnati Bearcat team. Its rather odd that this WVU team is 3-1 on the road, 3-0 in Big 12 Conference play, and just 2-3 at home. So now we await the 5-4 Baylor Bears who have been playimg better lately having won three straight games at Texas Tech and at home against Oklahoma State and TCU but have never won in Morgantown West Virginia even when Art Briles brought top 10 teams in twice. Hopefully this will not be the year and WVU will move to 6-4 and bowl eligible after next Saturday.