 "Photo: Kareem Elgazzar | The News Record")
MIAMI –– In the first BCS bowl game in school history, the University of Cincinnati football team was plagued by missed opportunities and turnovers, which lead to a 20-7 Orange Bowl loss to Virginia Tech, on Thursday, Jan. 1.
“Offensively we turned the ball over and when we got opportunities to score points we shot ourselves in the foot,” said head coach Brain Kelly.
The Bearcats (11-3) went on a six-play 72-yard drive that ended in a 15-yard touchdown catch by Mardy Gilyard on their first possession of the game, but that would be the only points Cincinnati would score.
A missed field goal in the first quarter, an interception in the endzone late in the first half and a failed fourth down conversion on the 1-yard line, in short, is what lost the game for Cincinnati.
Quarterback Tony Pike struggled against the Hokies defense and threw four costly interceptions that led to 10 Virginia Tech points. Pike finished the game completing
16-of-32 passes for 239 yards and one touchdown.
“I think they were able to get pressure with just four and five-man rushes. They disguised their blitzes really well and the biggest thing was they just made some plays on the ball,” Pike said. “I have never seen guys with makeup speed like that and guys that break on the ball so well.”
Virginia Tech dominated time of possession, holding a 39:39 to 20:21 edge. The Hokies ran the ball 55 times, compared to only 21 rushes for the Bearcats.
Jacob Ramsey had four carries for 34 yards and John Goebel rushed for 28 yards on nine carries.
Virginia Tech ran for 248 yards against the No. 13-ranked Cincinnati defense that entered the game allowing just 102 rushing yards per game.
Tyrod Taylor rushed for 47 yards on 15 carries and one touchdown, but it was Darren Evens who really hurt Cincinnati. Evens rushed for 153 yards on 28 carries and scored one touchdown.
“I think the biggest deal was missed tackles,” senior defensive end Connor Barwin said.
Although the Orange Bowl was a huge disappointment for many of the players, the Bearcats came a long way after going through five different quarterbacks and being picked to finish fifth in the Big East preseason poll.
Cincinnati went 6-1 in the Big East and reeled off six straight wins to conclude the regular season.
“All the seniors feel good about what we were able to accomplish this year. I truly love Cincinnati and I wish we could have given the university, the city, a BCS championship,” Barwin said. “We weren’t able to do it, but that doesn’t take away from everything else that we did. We did win the Big East, so everything wasn’t lost by losing this game. We wish we would have. It would have been a lot sweeter, but they out-played us tonight.”
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