It might be a bit extreme to say the game was decided by a single penalty, but that’s my take on the American Athletic Conference Championship game. The Cincinnati Bearcats kicked a 34-yard field goal with no time remaining to defeat the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, 27-24, Saturday night at Nippert Stadium, in Cincinnati.

With 1:04 remaining in the game, Cincinnati was looking at their second fourth-and-two of the final quarter, and decided once again to go for it. Tulsa had stopped the Bearcats previous conversion attempt, but this time, one of the TU defensive linemen was offside before the snap, giving the Bearcats five yards to the 19-yard line and a first down.

Cincinnati moved the ball to the Tulsa 17-yard line over the next three plays, and finished with a game winning field goal as the clock ran out.

The 20th-ranked Golden Hurricane (6-2) was looking for its 5th comeback win of the season after trailing by double-digits in the first quarter, but it wasn’t to be as the nation’s 6th-ranked Bearcats (9-0) capitalized on Tulsa’s mistakes.

The weather was cold and raining the whole game, and the condition of the field had an impact on the game. Several plays by both teams didn’t go as planned as players were slipping on the turf. One instance that cost TU some points was when kicker Zack Long missed a 36-yard attempt as his plant-foot slipped and he lost his balance.

Many Tulsa fans upset about the fact that Cincinnati had twice canceled their game in Tulsa this season due to positive COVID-19 tests among their players, were opining on social media that had the game in Tulsa been played the week before, and TU won, this title game would have also been in Tulsa, and that’s obviously not what the folks at Cincinnati wanted.

One thing is for certain, the weather in Tulsa on Saturday was much better than it was in Cincinnati, and at least that aspect would have been taken out of the equation.

The Bearcats will face Georgia in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on January 1.

TU BOWL GAME

Tulsa will travel to Ft. Worth to take on Mississippi State in the Armed Forces Bowl, on Dec. 31. The kickoff is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. (CST).

Mississippi State comes into the bowl matchup with a 3-7 record. The Bulldogs surprised LSU in their first game of the season, with a 44-34 win, and defeated Missouri, 51-32, in the final game of the regular season.

The Bulldogs team stats include 311 passing yards and only 36 rushing yards. They have scored an average of 23 points per game, while allowing 28.3 ppg.

Tulsa’s stats include 241 passing yards and 160.3 rushing yards. The Golden Hurricane have scored 27.3 points per game and have given up 20.8 ppg.