Sort of.
For those of us at the Villanova game a couple years ago, this may have been a little reminiscent. In that game, UCF couldn’t find any defense. Last night it was the exact opposite. The uneasiness left in the stomachs of most fans though, may very well have been the same.
For 3+ quarters, UCF held a mere one score lead over the SCSU Bulldogs. Defensively, the Knights looked true to form despite the weather. Offensively, we simply couldn’t get anything going. The final score was 17-0.
First, let’s give credit where it’s due: SC State’s defensive line went toe to toe with our o-line and was able to successfully blitz on just about every down. Greco’s a mobile QB with stereotypical mobile QB issues. He showed what many of us feared he would — the constant desire to make plays with his feet instead of letting his routes develop. If/when our O-line did manage to pick up the blitz, Greco would roll way out of pocket and bring the blitzing defense right back into the picture. On paper, he actually doesn’t look all that bad — 9 for 16. It’s just the plays where he didn’t pass and that fumble in the red zone that has everyone so panicky.
Weaver and Murray proved they can be a capable combination in the backfield. Rocky Ross had a couple of fantastic catches that really saved crucial momentum. Aiken’s absence was definetely felt though.
Our kicking game also left us with more questions than answers. Two weeks ago, our new kicker was bragging about hitting a 72 yarder in practice to the Florida Today. Last night he shanked a 35 yard attempt hard left. I guess it may have had 72 yards of total distance to it. Just in the entirely wrong direction. Kickoffs weren’t much better.
In fairness, you can boil it down to about three plays where if things went the other way, UCF would have scored another 17 points to beat the spread. It was an extremely wet game with painfully vanilla play calling. SCSU didn’t start dealing with cramps and hands-on-their-sides syndrome until late in the 4th — beating my prediction of sometime in the 3rd. They played a great game, and we just happened to play poorly offensively.
Play of the game goes to the SC State band and cheerleaders. They were the only real reason I had not to fall asleep during this barn burner.