Play.
Ridder scored 5 times in the win over SMU.
In Cincinnati's win over SMU, Ridder threw three touchdown passes and ran for one. (2:25)
9:30 PM.
After four weeks of games that were too close for comfort, Cincinnati unleashed its full potential in a 48-14 win over SMU on Saturday, securing a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game against Houston.
The win was a statement of sorts.
Even if that is not an official criteria, "style points" were very much in play with Cincinnati sitting at No. 5 in the College Football Playoff selection committee rankings. The bar is so high for Group of 5 schools to make a convincing enough impression to land in the top four that it did not do Cincinnati any favors to look sluggish in wins over Navy, Tulane, Tulsa and USF.
SMU entered the game against the Cincinnati with an average of 41.6 points per game, sixth best in the nation. SMU entered the game with an 8-2 record, third best in the American Athletic Conference. The Cincinnati defense forced a three-and-out from the start. The first play of the next offensive series was a 53-yard touchdown pass from Ridder to Tyler Scott that gave the Bearcats a 21-0 lead.
The Cincinnati head coach did not want to talk about style points after the game, but he praised his team for playing a complete game, as offense, defense and special teams all made big plays. Fickell said that he has been working on putting together a complete performance for the last three or four weeks.
"I don't know what the difference was, sometimes the opponent, sometimes just recognizing the challenges that are ahead of you," Fickell said. Every game is a challenge. I think there was something different about this one, not just that they were 8-2, the way they had played all year, and the things that they had done. I felt a bit more of that energy. It was in the entire week.
You want that every week. We're always trying to find ways to get those guys to understand what we're saying. It's not easy in the world.
The schedules are not the same for a Group of 5 team and a Power 5 team, so it's important to have something different. Cincinnati cared about sending seniors out the right way on Saturday, not only putting together a dominant performance.
In the Cincinnati's win over SMU, Ridder had 325 total yards of offense and five total touchdown.
Cincinnati has won at least one game at home for four years in a row. Ridder had never lost at the stadium and he was going to do it against SMU. He had a total of 325 yards of offense, three passing, one rushing and one receiving.
"We knew we had to come out here and have a dominant game for us," Ridder said. We've had a lot of ups and downs with SMU, where the past couple games have been a battle all the way up until midway through fourth quarter. We knew we had to start fast and play an entire game. The defense did that for us. It made it easy for us to start with the field position.
The conference championship game between Cincinnati and Houston will be played at home if the Bearcats win at East Carolina on Friday.
Fickell wants to see a formula similar to the one he saw on Saturday.
The only way to win a championship is to be able to score points, move the football, control the clock and play aggressive defense.
