From Start to Finish, UCF Crushes Temple and Wins 49-7

Throughout the entire game, UCF simply kept beating on Temple, offensively and defensively, and the Knights pulled away for a lopsided victory.

Brian Smith | Oct 30, 2021

PHILADELPHIA - Everything seemed to come together. UCF’s offense kept battering the Temple defense while Mikey Keene threw strikes when available, and UCF’s own defense kept coming up with big stops and fumble recoveries.

For the game, UCF rushed for 199 yards, including touchdown runs by Isaiah Bowser and Johnny Richardson, the one-two punch from the UCF running back corps. Bowser barely played during the second half because he simply was not needed, and the Knights rotated players across the board as the lead continued to mount over the Owls.

Here's @Humble_Johnny! 😈 pic.twitter.com/zfKp8lHNR6
— UCF Football (@UCF_Football) October 30, 2021

With the running game moving the football, that allowed Keene to take several deep shots, as well as find tight end Alec Holler for two touchdown passes. For the game, Holler caught four passes for 87 yards. With Jaylon Robinson unavailable today, it was good to have an additional big-play threat. Today, it was the former walk-on making plays within the deep secondary. Speaking of big plays, here’s an interesting statistic that’s about as rare as rare can be.

With UCF up 35-0, Keene was 12 of 18 for 150 yards. His counterpart, D’Wan Mathis, was also 12 of 18 at that point, throwing for 88 yards. The total yards were different, but that’s not the most important total to note.

At that particular juncture, Keene already threw four touchdown passes, while Mathis had zero. UCF took advantage of its opportunities for the most part, while Temple just squandered their chances, and the UCF defense took away several more chances from the Owls, figuratively and literally.

For the game, Keene passed for 221 yards and five touchdowns. The efficiency in which he accomplished those numbers is staggering compared to last week, as Keene only needed to complete 15 of his 21 tosses. That’s one in three completions going for a score, an incredible ratio.

To get to the point of wanting to improve, UCF scored touchdowns throughout the game: one in the first quarter, two in the second quarter, three more in the third quarter, and then finished off with one more score in the fourth quarter.

The reason that the UCF offense kept getting the football back would be the play of the entire defense. UCF physically out performed Temple. That led to four sacks, as well as recovering three fumbles.

It’s almost impossible to pick a single defensive player of the game, but defensive end Big Kat Bryant and cornerback Justin Hodges deserve strong consideration, among others. Bryant recorded 1.5 sacks and 1.5 tackles for loss, while Hodges did a tremendous job in coverage while also registering four tackles, a tackle for loss and a sack, plus a pass breakup. Perhaps their efforts represent a collective effort.

UCF defensive players were consistently in position to make plays. Temple only gained a grand total of 297 yards, averaging a pedestrian 4.3 yards per play. Those statistics include the fourth quarter when the game was already decided and the Knights kept playing like the score was 0-0. That type of mental dedication will serve the Knights well as they look to finish out the 2021 regular season strong against Tulane at home, on the road against SMU, and by hosting Connecticut and USF.

Yessir @BigKat 😤 pic.twitter.com/QIHiZAm2R3
— UCF Football (@UCF_Football) October 30, 2021

Is this game the turning point for the 2021 UCF Football team? One could certainly make that argument, as the Knights played inspired football.

This game represents the best game of the Gus Malzahn era as UCF's Head Football Coach, and it’s not even close. Absolutely an exceptional job by the entire UCF Football family.

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