Some Saturdays almost everything turns to gold. Other weekends it's hard to grind out much of anything. Most games it's somewhere in between.
Saturday at Spectrum Stadium, UCF upped its level of play on defense in a big way in the second half—while Dillon Gabriel and the Knight offense continued to do what they do best (score touchdowns in a very quick fashion).
That was enough for UCF essentially to hold serve, extend its win streak to four and keep itself in the mix in the American Athletic Conference East Division.
Here are some final thoughts on those areas and more from the UCF (7-2, 4-1 AAC) victory in Orlando against Houston (3-6, 1-4 AAC):
- It almost makes no sense. Houston ran 20 more plays, held the ball for more than 23 minutes than did UCF and totaled 357 first-half yards. And yet the Cougars saw all those positives go up in smoke when the Knights scored three unanswered TDs in a 9:30 span in the third period. It's been part of the UCF DNA all year, as Saturday the six home team TD drives averaged 5.2 plays, 68 yards and 1:26. That means 50 of the Knights' 62 scoring drives in 2019 have been under three minutes and 41 have been under the two-minute mark. UCF ranks fifth nationally in scoring and second in total offense despite ranking 127th out of 130 FBS teams in time of possession. That's why it's called UCFast.
- These numbers are crazy. Few teams in the country have been more dominant in the opening period, with the Knights outscoring their opponents 139-38 in those first quarters. That equates to 15.4 points per opening period for UCF. Throw in the second quarter (a 127-56 Knight advantage) and UCF is outscoring its foes 266-94 in the first half—an average of 29.5 points per game in those first two periods. Exactly half of all FBS teams (65) don't average 29.5 points for their full football games.
- And the Knights continue to hang with . . . . National statistical rankings again list UCF among names in the conversation at the upper echelon of this week's NCAA numbers. Overall, the Knights rank in the national top 10 in eight different NCAA categories—and lead the AAC in nine. Here's where UCF stands in various top 10s:--1st in tackles for loss (9.9 per game—Ohio State is #2 at 9.3, USF #3 at 9.1—on Saturday vs. Houston UCF had 17 tackles for loss, 11 in the second half))
--2nd in first downs with 236 (Clemson is #1 with 238)
--2nd in total offense at 551.0 yards per game (Oklahoma is atop that list at 598.4)
--5th in scoring offense at 46.3 (Oklahoma tops that chart at 49.3)
--7th in passing yards per completion at 16.07 (Navy is #1 at 23.97)
--8th in passing offense at 324.9 (Washington State is #1 at 436.4)
--8th in third-down defense percentage at .294
--9th in team passing efficiency at 170.54 (Oklahoma is #1 at 212.91)
- The American on full display. The AAC this week boasts four teams (Cincinnati at #17, Memphis at #19, SMU at #23, Navy at #25) in the Associated Press top 25 and that number would be five if you go one more slot and find UCF at 26th as far as votes received. Only two leagues boast more representatives among those 25 than the AAC—and that's the Big Ten (six) and the SEC (five). The only other league with more than two teams in the poll is the Big 12 (three). And how crazy is the AAC? Its highest-rated team, Cincinnati, won a road game Saturday night despite allowing 638 total yards—at the same time unbeaten SMU and one-loss Memphis were combining for 102 points, 806 passing yards and 1,067 total yards. Meanwhile, if UCF can win on the road Friday night at Tulsa it will give the Knights 39 combined victories over the 2016-19 seasons, most in any four-year span in UCF history.
- Gabriel settling in. Now that he has started eight straight games, true freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel seems to have found something of a comfort zone with the Knights. Saturday, for example, he misfired on his first three throws and then proceeded to connect on 21 of his last 27 (298 yards, three TDs). He's already the most productive UCF rookie quarterback in terms of passing yards. He has built an impressive 23-5 TD pass-to-interception ratio and he has five games with three or more TD passes. Gabriel now ranks eighth in the nation in passing yards and passing efficiency and ninth in TD passes.