Luke Fickell and the Cincinnati Bearcats find themselves in a 17-3 hole at halftime against No. 1 Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

Frankly, the Bearcats are lucky the deficit isn’t larger, as the Cincinnati defense has made some big plays early in the College Football Playoff semifinal in Arlington.

This stat is pretty telling:

Fickell spoke with ESPN’s Molly McGrath before heading into the halftime locker room, explaining what his team needs to do to get back in the game:

“We’ve got to do a better job getting off the field defensively, especially on third down and stopping the run,” he said. “Our offense just has to get back to the way they were there on the first drive there. We’ve got to move the ball around and take some shots. We’re going to have to battle.”

Can Cincinnati turn things around? The second half is coming up on ESPN.