Wow. This game went exactly opposite of how I saw it going in my head and how I projected it would go on my previous write ups. I watched, in person, Colorado get absolutely bullied by Nebraska. They couldn’t run or stop the run, they were brutal in the trenches. They struggled against inferior competition in other games and were two TD dogs coming into this game vs. a team that was playing at home, off a bye week with the #1 rushing attack in the nation in much different weather then they are used to playing in. I knew Colorado would score, they have too much talent not to but I didn’t expect them to shut down Harvey the way they did nor did I expect them to run the ball at will against us like they did. They gassed our defense. At one point late in the game CU was out rushing UCF. No one predicted that. No one had that happening. It defies logic. Well, that was the kind of game it was…
I am starting with the slows tonight because I need to vent before I can focus on anything else…
UCF Slow:
- Gus: I feel like Gus calls a pretty good game until we get the ball inside the 5 yard line and then he just has a massive stroke. WTF, how does the #1 rushing team in the Nation with a 260lb QB and one of the top 5 running backs in College Football have the ball TWICE inside the 5 yard line for 1st and goal and come away with ZERO points? It defies logic. No one on this board can convince me that if we have first and goal from the 2yard line that we cannot line KJ up under center and just tush push him 4x and we aren’t going to score a TD every time OR maybe you just hand the ball off to Harvey and let him score? But NO, instead we run read option with KJ in shot gun and we lose a yard, we have some blown play where KJ just gets back to line of scrimmage and then we throw a fade route for an INT. Next time we get to 1st and goal from the 2 we decide to throw to Hudson for an incompletion, attempt sweep to Johhny Richardson for a loss of 2 yards, KJ then throws another incomplete pass to Pittman and finally KJ is sacked for turnover on downs. That is 7 plays with goal to go and we LOSE yards and RJ doesn’t get one hand off. To me this is just unacceptable. That is 14 pts right there. Throw in the 3pt swing before half and the 2nd and 5 reverse to X that loses 5 yards and we then decide to try a 55 yard field goal and that is how you lose a football game. You’re talking about 17-24pts on those drives left on the field. Terrible. Not capitalizing on that early Int I think was the worst of it. Going up early on Colorado was key for the game script. Can’t give front runners and early lead and we ended up doing exactly that and even when we answered it was on one play only putting our defense right back out there and the script fell apart after that. I think it is a completely different game if we get 7 after that pick.
- KJ: He has some flashes, some good runs, some solid drives like the 3 pass play 92 yard TD drive, but he has to be better for longer stretches. Three turnovers and each of them were just brutal. One is a pick on our 1 yard line that takes points off board, the fumble occurs on our 10 yard line and gets brought back for a TD and the pick to Hunter is the one I lost my mind on because he had Towsend, who the play was called for, WIDE open. I saw it as soon as Towsend came around he was going to be wide open, I yelled “got em” and I get there was some pressure but KJ inexplicably throws the pick to Hunter of all people. Those three turnovers could have easily taken 17 to 21 pts off the board.
- RJ: I love RJ, he is a great player but we needed him to be special today and he wasn’t. Not all is fault, they were stacking the box on us and KJ wasn’t making them pay plus Gus was Gussing himself out of obvious play calls not giving RJ the ball. How is this for a stat, Harvey only had 16 rush attempts, KJ had 20!!!. Then Harvey drops the ball before half that would have at least let us run out the clock, instead Colorado gets a gift 3pts and then Harvey fumbles to basically seal the game for CU. Harvey wasn’t quitting, he was trying to do too much which you hate to knock, you love that fight in him but those were some costly plays. Our best player needs to be better to win games like this.
- Antoine Jackson: He had a rough night. The entire secondary struggled but Jackson especially. That 3rd and 17 prayer bomb that CU got a TD on should have never been caught. Then he gets kick catch interference and later gets burnt for another TD and multiple other issues.
- McCarthy: That punt at the end of the 2nd quarter was awful. Basically, line drived to Jimmy Horn, he caught ball with defense still 15 yards away from him, was able to have great return putting ball in position to easily kick FG for free 3pts. I get he is punting through soup out there but that was a bad time to have a shit line drive punt.
- Refs: I hate ragging on refs and we certainly didn’t lose this game because of them but they were struggling tonight as well. They missed a ton of obvious holdings on CU. They also called multiple BS roughing the passer calls on us protecting Sanders. The one where our guy has hands to his face removing his helmet and then continues to play toward Sanders with NO helmet on and doesn’t even tackle him and gets the roughing called on him. At least offsetting maybe? Then they have another brain fart when they are marking off the one time they did call holding on CU on the punt and they are confused if they add to end of run or not based on exactly when holding occurred, like watching a crew that never applied a penalty before. That was embarrassing.
- In Game Replays: Our stadium still sucks and showing replays. I am sure I missed tons of stuff in this write up because we rarely get a replay we can see. On BOTH the roughing calls on UCF there were no replays. I had a buddy send me one on my phone. It sucks because your eyes move down field toward the ball and then you get this massive call so you want to see if it was legit or not and nothing. We need to do better with the replays. Throw the fans a bone.
- Rain Delay: I hate rain delays, this one was especially weak, didn’t have to delay that long, weather was fine. Wussification of everything. I say it all the time but I sat through that entire Marshall game, I never even heard thunder today, rain was completely stopped before 330. I get the warming up and lightning with in 50 miles or whatever but it just seemed unnecessary.
UCF Fast: Ok, I am going to stop with the slows for now because I can feel myself turning into Abe Simpson yelling at clouds. No one did enough on UCF for me to give a Fast. Not saying we didn’t have some players flash but just not enough to earn the Fast this game but I will give one Fast…
UCF Fans: I realize some people sold out and took the money with their tickets but overall, I was impressed with Knight Nation including the students. It isn’t easy to be a fan sometimes and this week and today certainly had it’s challenges and many of us overcame. I know folks that had personal loss in the hurricane and still found a way to make it to the game. I know folks that had flights cancelled and drove from 5 states away sleeping in their cars to get to the game. For me I had all three kids and the wife up with me early, came out to the Big Noon Kickoff show. Put in a 12 hour day. Sweat our balls off, rained on multiple times, pushed through. When you do all that and lose like this it makes it that much tougher so a “Fast” to all of you that are there every week through all the heat, rain, delays, hurricanes, kids sports juggling, and everything else, and still show up for your Knights.
This was a tough one. National audience, lots of spotlight, UCF big time favorites, healthy, coming off a bye week, 100’s of recruits and x players and celebrities in the building. We had a chance to show everyone what UCF is about and we just shit ourselves. We matched up well against these guys, a lot was in our favor. This one stings. The ONLY positive thing right now is that next week we are at UF. I will be there at my $900 a night minimum two night Hampton Inn. Winning in the Swamp will make up a lot for this fanbase and this team. We will see how this team responds to this loss. Do we come together and fight or do we turn on each other and quit. There is still a ton of football left to be played and our division is wide open. Even if we lose at UF it is really not a major issue since out of conference but if we win it means more then an average win, especially to us long time UCF fans that have had to deal with Gator fans hating on UCF for years. We can get right back on track in a big way. Everything is still in front of us but please for the love of Baby Jesus, when we get first and goal from inside our 5 yard line score the ball. When it is 3rd and 17 get off the field. See you all in Gville, Go Knights!!!
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