Imperfect Play Keeps Bearcats Perfect At 10-0

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season At this point in the season when a handful of teams are fighting for just two spots in the national championship game, style points are key if you can get them.

And although Cincinnati stayed unbeaten with an entertaining 24-21 defeat of visiting Big East rival and former league bully West Virginia, the Bearcats struggled at times and seemed downright lucky to escape Nippert Stadium with a 10-0 record on Friday the 13th.

UC lost its first fumble of the season, and the Bearcats threw an interception, dropped a touchdown pass and missed a field goal.

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Cincinnati caught a break when Isaiah Pead (pictured, above) fumbled while diving over a pile of players near the goal line in the second quarter. The Mountaineers recovered, but the officials reversed the call and ruled the play a touchdown after reviewing the video, saying the ball crossed the plane before Pead lost control of it.

Pead would finish with a career-high 175 yards, including a pair of nifty runs of 52 and 43 yards.

Quarterback Tony Pike (pictured, right), out the last month with an injured forearm, threw a pair of touchdown passes in two celebrity red-zone appearances. To cap UC's opening drive, he came in when the Bearcats were at the 10, and on his first play since Oct. 15, rifled a pass over the middle to Armon Binns in the back of the end zone.

And to open the second half, Pike connected with D.J. Woods for a six-yard scoring strike to give the home team a 21-14 lead.

Zach Collaros, who's sparkled in a fill-in role since Pike went down, took all but a handful of snaps for UC Friday and passed for 205 yards, adding 44 more on the ground.

The Bearcats are 10-0 for the first time in school history, and at 6-0 in the Big East, are a half game ahead of Pittsburgh, whose Panters are 5-0 in the league. The teams will meet for the conference crown on Dec. 5 in Pittsburgh.

Cincinnati only has one game before then, a home date with Illinois on Nov. 27, the night after Thanksgiving. The BCS computers have shown pretty good love for the Bearcats, but nailbiting triumphs in their last two outings don't help their cause. Convincing wins against the Illini and at Pittsburgh are necessary if UC wants to play for all the marbles.

I can't recall a mid-November scenario where two power teams (Florida/Alabama and Texas) appeared on a collision course to meet in the championship game while three other unbeaten teams (TCU, Cincinnati, Boise State) stood by, hoping for some help. I know we say it seemingly every Thanksgiving, but if there's ever a year for the NCAA to figure this thing out, it's this year.