Following No. 9 Georgia’s nail-biting 24-21 victory over No. 8 Cincinnati in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Bearcat head coach Luke Fickell, along with a few of his players, met with the media. Here are the highpoints from Cincinnati’s post-game press conference:

…After trailing by as many as 11 points early in the third quarter, Georgia eventually rallied to take a one-point lead on a 53-yard field goal by Jack Podlesny with just three seconds remaining in the contest. The Bulldogs added an exclamation point to their victory by recording a safety on the final play of the game. Mere minutes following the defeat, while Fickell was visibly dejected regarding Cincinnati’s only loss of the season, the head coach was proud of his team’s effort against Georgia.

“Obviously, like I told our guys, very disappointing when you come out so close,” Fickell said. “But it's not—we’re not disappointed. I can't tell you how proud I am of—I say the seniors all the time, but how proud I am of all these guys.”

…With 1:41 left in the game and Cincinnati facing third down and two while holding possession on its own 40-yard line with a 21-19 lead, Bearcat quarterback Desmond Ridder nearly completed a pass to receiver Michael Young—but it was broken up by Georgia defensive back Tyrique Stevenson. Cincinnati was forced to punt. The Bulldogs then drove 44 yards in eight plays to their game-winning field goal. Fickell was asked why he passed on third down, considering that by running the ball, the game clock would have likely been reduced to around one minute remaining, if not less.

“Is that, really, are you serious?” Fickell, noticeably annoyed, asked the reporter. “Because we're going to play to win. We play to win. And you know, we do what we do. It wasn't like we wanted to throw the thing. It was an opportunity.”

…Ridder completed a respectable 24 of 37 passes for 206 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. However, he was sacked eight times, finishing with minus-17 yards rushing on 15 attempts after entering the game with nearly 2,000 career rushing yards. The junior signal-caller gave his insight on the third-down pass call.

“[The pass play] was a smash concept with [receiver] Josh Whyle coming into the flat. We were expecting to get it to him quick,” Ridder said. “It was only one, two yards we had to gain, and then their corner had jumped outside of it—all the defensive push to our spot route at five yards—and then they cut Mike (Michael Young) loose. The ball just didn't get—the ball hung up in the air for what felt like an eternity. But if that ball had gotten up and down quicker, it would have been a completion.”

…After Jerome Ford’s 79-yard touchdown run on the second play of the second half gave Cincinnati a 21-10 lead, the Bearcats were limited to just 32 yards of total offense on 27 plays in the final 29-plus minutes of the game. The sophomore running back finished the contest with 97 yards on eight carries, including the 79-yard score.

“I think a combination of both (Georgia doing something differently on defense and Cincinnati struggling on offense),” Ford said when asked what happened to the Bearcat offense following his scoring jaunt. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple times and, you know, they capitalized. I think it was a combination of both.”

…Playing for the final time as a Bearcat, senior cornerback Coby Bryant totaled three tackles and made the game’s lone interception. He was asked if Cincinnati, a Group of Five school, could compete with “any” Power Five school despite the loss to Georgia.

“Absolutely,” Bryant replied. “You know, we have the right coaches to prepare us, the right mentality. So absolutely, I have no doubt in that.”

…Fickell promptly added that Bryant didn’t “know what that (Power Five) means” since Cincinnati doesn’t distinguish it from the Group of Five—“doesn’t use that word, that ‘P,’ whatever it is.”

“But we don't look at anybody any different,” Fickell said regarding the two groups of schools. “Obviously, there's conferences that are, you know, historic and great, and teams, like Georgia, doesn't matter what conference they were in and what ‘P’ was in front or after their name. That was a great football team, and we really loved the challenge.”