![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789868071_587_05b175a4-9781-47ba-ad33-403005f8f7ec_1489699438.jpg\")
CINCINNATI \u2014<\/p>\nCincinnati rallies from 21-point halftime deficit to defeat Miami 35-31 on Tabb\u2019s TD run<\/p>\n
CINCINNATI \u2014<\/p>\n
Cole Tabb\u2019s 53-yard touchdown run with 1:29 remaining rallied Cincinnati to a 35-31 victory over Miami (Ohio) in the 129th meeting of the \u201cBattle for the Victory Bell\u201d on Saturday after the Bearcats trailed by 21 points at halftime.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati has won 18 of the last 19 meetings in the oldest non-conference rivalry in the nation and the fifth-most played in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The two schools aren\u2019t scheduled to play each other for the immediate future.<\/p>\n
The game was played at the home of Major League Soccer\u2019s FC Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
On third-and-1, Tabb got the handoff from JC French IV out of the shotgun formation, eluded a couple of tackles near the line of scrimmage and another at the Miami 46-yard line before outracing defenders for his second TD of the game.<\/p>\n
The Redhawks drove to the Cincinnati 33 before quarterback David McComb had the ball punched out by Antwan Peek Jr. on a sack. It was recovered by Drew Logan at the 34 to allow the Bearcats to hold on and go 3-0 for the first time since 2021. <\/p>\n
French completed 31 of 43 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns. He also ran it in from 1 yard out midway through the third quarter to start the comeback. JV Gibson had seven catches for 68 yards, including a TD for the third straight game.<\/p>\n
After turning it over on downs on their opening series of the third quarter, the Bearcats scored on four of five possessions.<\/p>\n
Miami (1-2) led for virtually the first 58 1\/2 minutes after Scoop Smith returned the opening kickoff 98 yards. Smith, the shortest player in the FBS at 5-foot-5, fielded the ball at the 2 near the left sideline, faked a reverse handoff near the 10 before changing direction and blew past Cincinnati\u2019s kick coverage team up the right sideline.<\/p>\n
It was the first time since 2018 that Miami returned a kickoff for a touchdown, which was also the opening play of the game.<\/p>\n
McComb passed for 334 yards and a touchdown along with a rushing score. McComb, who completed 17 of 28 passes, connected with Maleek Huggins on a 36-yard touchdown to the right corner of the end zone to make it 28-7 with 21 seconds left in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Miami (Ohio): Hosts UConn next Saturday.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati: Hosts Kansas State in its Big 12 opener next Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cincinnati rallies from 21-point halftime deficit to defeat Miami 35-31 on Tabb\u2019s TD run CINCINNATI \u2014 Cole Tabb\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[161045,57340,15068,916,161039,161043,123,125,124,10154,161042,161040,161041,161038,161044,10438,8733],"class_list":["post-405045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-129th-meeting","tag-bearcats","tag-cincinnati","tag-game","tag-halftime-deficit","tag-handoff","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-ohio","tag-opening-kickoff","tag-scoop-smith","tag-second-td","tag-tabb","tag-td-run","tag-touchdown","tag-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}