Cincinnati Bearcats: Highlights from Desmond Ridder’s performance in first career win

Check out a handful of highlights from Desmond Ridder’s clutch performance in his third start to help secure his first career win as the Atlanta Falcons escaped the Arizona Cardinals last week.

In the second quarter, Ridder found tight end MyCole Pruitt a couple times before connecting with rookie running back Tyler Allgeier for a first down en route to grabbing a 14-10 lead at halftime.

During the fourth quarter, Atlanta trailed 16-14 before Ridder led a 9-minute drive to regain the lead. Ridder found London to help get into field goal range and eventually take a 17-16 lead.

The former Bearcats quarterback made plenty of clutch plays during his illustrious career and that experience paid off after the Cardinals regained a lead with less than five minutes left.

Cincinnati Bearcats: Desmond Ridder secures first career win as Falcons escape Cardinals

Ridder found running back Cordarelle Patterson to get the drive started and later connected with Pruitt on a pinpoint pass through a tight window to set up the game-winning field goal attempt.

Despite committing a costly fumble in the first half to give up a short field, Ridder bounced back to finish with 178 total yards and a season-high 73.1% completion rate in the last-second win.

Even though there is room for improvement, the Falcons rookie quarterback has flashed intriguing potential. Ridder reacted to his first career win in a postgame interview per Fox Sports.

"“It feels great. Not only for myself but this entire team. We’ve had an up and down season but one thing we want to do is finish strong. So these last two games, just go 2-0 and we’re obviously off to a good start. I think everyone was just prepared for the moment. There were no lulls. We were just excited and had great energy throughout the entire week. Everyone was just ready to go and get out here to play so when we came out, we started fast. That’s what we wanted to do then everything else took care of itself.”"