PONTIAC, Mich. — By all rights, it should have been a blowout. Toledo dominated the line of scrimmage so thoroughly that every time the University of Cincinnati tried to play smash-mouth football, the Bearcats came away with a bloody lip.

Ray Jackson is consoled by WR Tye Keith and assistant coach Amos Jones after dropping the potential tying TD pass in the end zone. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        Rushing yards: 322 for Toledo, 13 for UC. But, as the game wound down, the Bearcats were still very much alive and believing they would pull it out, just as they had so many times this year.

        “We were all confident,” quarterback Gino Guidugli said.

        This time, there was no miracle. This time, Toledo's Andy Boyd knocked the ball out of Ray Jackson's hands in the end zone to preserve the Rockets' 23-16 victory over UC in the Motor City Bowl before 36,250 at the Silverdome Saturday.

        “That's a credit to the kids,” UC coach Rick Minter said. “We were thoroughly outplayed. Yet, we came within an eyelash on the last play.”

        UC ends the season 7-5. It was the Bearcats' second straight loss to a Mid-American Conference team in the Motor City. They lost 25-14 to Marshall last year.

        Toledo, ranked No.25 nationally, finishes 10-2.

Gino Guidugli was 29 of 46 for 283 yards and 1 TD. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        Toledo took the lead with 3:23 left to play. Motor City MVP Chester Taylor capped a seven-play, 80-yard drive with a 24-yard run. The run was the last of 31 carries for 190 yards for Taylor.

        “Those were hard yards,” Toledo coach Tom Amstutz said. “He keeps pounding, then he eventually breaks a play that breaks the other team.”

        UC fans and players didn't feel broken. They felt confident because Guidugli was getting hot.

        “There was no sense of urgency,” receiver Tye Keith said.

        UC started at its own 35, and Guidugli immediately began picking apart UT's secondary with short passes to the sidelines: 15 yards to Keith, 11 to Keith, 9 to LaDaris Vann, 9 to Daven Holly, then 8 to Jackson.

        That pushed Guidugli's streak of consecutive completions to 10 and put UC at Toledo's 19.

Nathan Wize is collared by Toledo's Corey Morris. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        Guidugli converted on a third-and-4 by hitting Vann for 8 yards. That got UC to the 11.

        Guidugli threw an incompletion, hit Keith for 5 yards to the 5, and then missed Vann. That set up a fourth-and-4 at the 5. UC could get a first down, but the call was to throw into the end zone. Vann was the primary target as Guidugli rolled to the left. Vann was well covered.

        “I saw a lot of people out there, and not many of them were ours,” Guidugli said.

        Still, Guidugli got the ball to Jackson. “He couldn't have made a better throw,” Minter said.

        UT safety Boyd was right with Jackson.

        “I heard it hit his hands,” Boyd said. “I tried to tear his arms apart. I didn't see what happened, but I heard our fans.”

        The game, if not the ending, was typical of UC's year.

Tim Walker celebrates his TD catch. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “We haven't been pretty to watch,” Minter said. “But we've been effective.”

        Never more so than Saturday.

        The Rockets ruled the ground game, outrushing UC 322 to 13.

        “That's got to be the all-time worst,” Minter said. “That's horrible.”

        UC started worse than horrible. The Bearcats racked up a total of 3 yards in the first quarter. But they trailed only 3-0.

        Toledo was coming at Guidugli so hard with the rush that UC began using the rollout.

        It worked. Guidugli was 11-for-15 for 116 yards in the second quarter as UC scored on its last three drives of the half — two Jonathan Ruffin field goals, sandwiched around a 28-yard touchdown pass from Guidugli to Tim Walker — to take a 13-3 lead to the break.

        Toledo quarterback Tavares Bolden scrambled for 41 yards on the first play of the second half. That led to a Toledo field goal. Bolden tied it at 13-13 two possessions later with a 28-yard scramble for a TD.

Jon Olinger can't reach a potential TD pass in the fourth quarter. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Both offenses clicked in the fourth quarter — with the Rockets moving on the ground and the Bearcats through the air. Toledo went up 16-13 when Todd France hit a 30-yard field goal at the end of a 14-play, 76-yard drive.

        Guidugli hit all four passes on the next drive to get UC to the Toledo 15. UC settled for Ruffin's third field goal to tie it.

        Toledo got the ball back with 6:26 to play and went 80 yards in seven plays in less than three minutes.

        UC got it back with 3:23 to play. That was plenty of time for Guidugli.

        “I thought (Jackson) caught it,” he said. “It was almost a miraculous catch.”

Cincinnati            0 13  0  3  16 
Toledo                3  0 10 10  23   


 Toledo-FG T France 28
 Cincinnati-FG Ruffin 29
 Cincinnati-Walker 28 pass from Guidugli (Ruffin kick)
 Cincinnati-FG Ruffin 46
 Toledo-FG T France 42
 Toledo-Bolden 28 run (T France kick)
 Toledo-FG T France 30
 Cincinnati-FG Ruffin 25
 Toledo-Taylor 24 run (T France kick)


                     Cincinnati      Toledo 
First downs                  19          24 
Rushed-yards              20-13      51-322 
Passing yards               283         135 
Sacked-yards lost          2-14         0-0 
Return yards                 30          21 
Passes                  29-47-0     14-28-1 
Punts                    7-49.1      4-39.3 
Fumbles-lost                1-0         0-0 
Penalties-yards            6-48        8-75 
Time of possession        25:44       34:16 


Individual Statistics 
RUSHING: Cincinnati-Mccleskey 11-18, R Jackson 7-9, Guidugli
2-minus 14. Toledo-Taylor 31-190, Bolden 7-99, Mccray 12-36,
Team 1-minus 3.


PASSING: Cincinnati-Guidugli 29-46-0-283, Keith 0-1-0-0.
Toledo-Bolden 14-28-1-135.


RECEIVING: Cincinnati-Keith 9-63, Vann 8-78, Olinger 3-47, R
Jackson 3-38, Mccleskey 2-18, Wize 2-7, Walker 1-28, Holly 1-4.
Toledo-Ford 5-73, Mccray 3-14, Johnson 2-23, Greene 2-13,
Holmes 1-15, Clarke 1-minus 3.


Att: 44,164

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