Central Florida 11/21 3:30 ESPN

[swilsonsp4]

Play of the game - our stolen recovery of the second fumbled punt. It was a great heads up play by our guy (don't remember who it was). A UCF player had his hands on the fumbled ball and our guy just forced it away from him. If UCF gets that fumble, they probably go up 21-3 and the outcome might well have been different.

The player who saved Montgomery's bacon after the second muff was CB Justin Harris.

[MI Bearcat]

I agree, I would rather them have added the touchdown. Yes UCF could have scored quickly (or returned kick off for a td) and then recovered on onside kick but I would rather live or die with our defense.

[Lobot]

Links:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2020/11/21/cincinnati-football-no-7-bearcats-stand-tall-after-tough-bout-ucf/6362707002/

($) https://theathletic.com/2213626/2020...tball-playoff/

https://sports.yahoo.com/no-7-cincinnati-stays-unbeaten-in-3633-win-over-ucf-003132320.html

[coach]

I got to give a game ball to Cole Smih. 2 fg's coming in and goes 3/3 with a 48 yder. Kicking has been mia but he came through yesterday. A perfect season is definitely in the scopes at this point. Congrats to the Cats!

[djs]

Play of the game - our stolen recovery of the second fumbled punt. It was a great heads up play by our guy (don't remember who it was). A UCF player had his hands on the fumbled ball and our guy just forced it away from him. If UCF gets that fumble, they probably go up 21-3 and the outcome might well have been different.

[Lobot]

Some observations:

We start start slowly even on defense and it almost came back to bite us in this one. If we make it to CFP or NY6, we're going to have to start better against a quality opponent. If you take away the punt return fumble and rash of offsides penalties in the 1st quarter, this would have been a lopsided game.

I thought at the time we should have gone for it on 4th and pinned UCF deeep on the 1 yard line instead of having Cole Smith make a chip shot. I'm surprised Fickell was that conservative in that situation. Turned out that he made the right call in kicking as that was the margin of victory.

I understand why Doaks went down in the field of play to run out the clock but that almost came back to bite us as well. Good strategy as long as you don't snap the ball into no man's land and get it returned for a TD. I about had a heart attack until I realized the clock was at zeros. I would really prefer that UC takes the points next time.

Ridder had a great game with 338 yds passing and 4 TDs. He probably should have had a 5th on a missed read option.

The TE corps had themselves a day. Whyle and Taylor dismantled UCF's pass defense. They couldn't cover either of them which is a good thing since the WRs were having some trouble getting open downfield.

Darrian Beavers had a great game with 12 total, 8 solo tackles and 4 TFLs. Love the fact that he wants to return next year.



Box score:

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...meId=401212540

[longtimefan]

Great win. Another big time game by Ridder. In addition to the win, we found out we have two TE's that will play on Sunday.

[BigDaddyCornHusker]

I didn't think UC had a prayer the way UCF started. Very impressed with the win, go Cats!

[Greg7173]

Great Game!! Team got it together after a rough start and really said something about their character. A bit too cute at the end but a W is a W. Kudos for another gutty performance by Ridder. Defense rose to the occasion when they had to. I can't remember when we kicked that many field goals. On to Temple.

[Lobot]

Tre Nixon is dressed and warming up for UCF

[Lobot]

It’s currently pouring down rain in Orlando

[Lobot]

Ponder is out per Justin Williams. Vann and Brooks will play his spot. LaBelle is a game time decision and may play

[coach]

The good thing is most of defense have seen it before so there should be no surprises there.

I fully expect we'll see some gambling on all those outs they throw to the wr's. Gardner got one last year for the big score so i would expect no less. Key is to pressure the qb. He's shown he can make mistakes. Can't give him a lot of time to throw the ball.

[Gilenerm]

UCF wins games with their up tempo offense. It's hard to determine how we will do against it, but our guys have to be ready to go on defense as soon as the ref sets the ball. That means they have to be mentally focused. It also takes some of our depth out of the game as we aren't able to sub and rotate players no defense. I think UCF will get away with a few tempo plays on us. They tend to slow down in the red zone, so hopefully, we can hold them to a bunch of field goals.

Prediction: UC 42 UCF 24

[Lobot]

Really good breakdown of UC at UCF plus some mailbag questions about CFP and NY6 ($).

How Cincinnati’s defense, UCF’s offense are viewed by opposing coaches: G5 Drive
https://theathletic.com/2204181/2020...shared_article