UCF Defense Swarms Cincinnati's Rushing Attack
When a football team finishes with 35 rushing yards, that’s not good. When that same team had a 39-yard touchdown run and still finished with just 35 yards. That would be worse.
During the 25-21 victory for the UCF Knights over the Cincinnati Bearcats, that’s exactly what transpired. It’s incredible after one considers what team the Knights accomplished that feat against.
During the past three seasons, Cincinnati has not run for fewer yards than it did against UCF last night. Even the 2021 season’s Cotton Bowl game versus Alabama game during the College Football Playoffs saw 74 rushing yards for Cincinnati. The year before that, against Georgia, Cincinnati also rushed for 99 yards in the Peach Bowl.
Bluntly, UCF's defense absolutely mauled Cincinnati's offensive line and rushing attack.
During the first quarter, the Bearcats had no runs for over a one-yard gain. Think about that. Just one yard. Overall, Cincinnati was at minus-seven yards rushing at the end of one quarter.
For the first half, Cincinnati produced just 12 rushing yards. The ringleaders for the Knights were many, with the leading tacklers as follows: linebacker Jason Johnson led with seven, defensive end Josh Celiscar had five, Ricky Barber, Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste and Brandon Adams all had four tackles each.
But make no mistake, this was as widespread a defensive effort as there has been since head coach Gus Malzahn took over at UCF.
That balance–from the defensive line to the linebackers to the secondary–was a primary point of how well the Knights contained the Bearcats. Run fits were good, the UCF defenders wrapped up against quality running backs like Charles McClelland and Ryan Montgomery, and the effort to run to the football was outstanding. Plays made behind the line of scrimmage stemmed from that.
🙏 @CeliscarJoshua pic.twitter.com/QnQ7pL65Bn
— UCF Football (@UCF_Football) October 29, 2022
UCF accumulated four sacks, including the safety in the video above, and five total tackles for loss. Doing that against a No. 20 ranked Cincinnati team should be considered impressive by any measure. The timing of some of the big plays made behind the line of scrimmage were also valuable.
When Cincinnati quarterback Ben Bryant was heating up in the second half, the Knights did hold down the rushing attack. Cincinnati had only five rushing yards in the third quarter. As good as Bryant played, and he’s a talented young man, it’s hard to pass every down and expect success. That’s what the Bearcats had to try to do, however, as the UCF rush defense stalled multiple Cincinnati drives via the rushing defense.
That inability to run the football consistently also kept the Bearcats off the field. The Knights won the time of possession battle with a 37:05 to 22:55 advantage. Third downs presented another win for UCF, as the Cincinnati offense was only 4-of-14.
Both of those statistics are attributed in large part to UCF's rushing defense. It was truly impressive.
Whatever way one defines this UCF defense, make sure to include something to the effect of, rising to the occasion and/or being clutch. The Knights came up big against Cincinnati’s ground game and it was the biggest factor for UCF winning the game.
Hats off to all the players for the UCF defense. They deserve an applause from the UCF faithful.
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