Tulsa had been moving, midway through the fourth quarter. Thanks to a couple of big plays and three penalties on Cincinnati, the Golden Hurricane moved the ball down to the Bearcats' two yard-line. And that was set up by a late hit out of bounds by defensive lineman Ryan Mullaney.

Cincinnati held firm. The Bearcats stopped Tulsa on two runs, a pass to the one yard-line and knocked down a fourth and goal pass to hold on for a 31-21 win.

As coach Luke Fickell said Tuesday, he believes the defense has made progress. Penalties, though, are another matter. Cincinnati committed 11 of them for 109 yards and gave Tulsa seven first downs.

"We know what it is that we want," Fickell said. "I think that we are kind of honing in a little bit better on it each and every week. We have to grow and this isn’t a team that, like we said in the last two years, had a lot of guys in the same positions where you could feel a little bit better about the things that you were going to do and adjust to each and every week. As we develop what us is, it's also about how much can we grow who we are throughout the entire season."

Check out the video above for the full weekly press conference from Fickell, Jabari Taylor and Ja'Von Hicks.