UCF's OL Deserves Game Ball vs Cincinnati
Usually it's a quarterback or other skill player that deserved a game ball. It's the offensive line that deserved it this time.
It’s been two days since the UCF Knights knocked off the Cincinnati Bearcats 25-21. During that game, there were several ebbs and flows. One of the consistent themes from UCF’s win, however, stemmed from Knights ability to run the football and protect the quarterback in the pocket.
That's all about the offensive line doing their job.
The offensive line of the Knights opened up big holes in the middle of the Bearcats defense that led to great second down situations. Look at the cover photo of this article just as an example.
The A gap is wide open for RJ Harvey. Even in the red zone, like with Harvey’s 17-yard score with 2:17 remaining that ended up being the game winner, UCF’s offensive line played great in the biggest moments. It was a consistent effort, too.
Here are UCF’s rushing totals by quarter: first (120), second (21) third (52), and the fourth (65). For the game, UCF ran for 258 yards and averaged roughly five yards per carry. Cincinnati had held four of its last five opponents to under 100 yards rushing.
Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee took off and attempted to run for a first down and his subsequent injury did lead to an offensive setback in the second quarter, but that was short lived. Here are the individual rushing numbers for UCF’s offensive skill players, which shows the true balance the rushing attack possessed.
Harvey had 18 carries for 84 yards and two touchdowns, Isaiah Bowser’s 14 attempts netted 58 yards and a score, and even wide receiver Ryan O’Keefe ran six times for 51 yards. Those were just the three leading rushers.
Johnny Richardson (32 yards), Plumlee (26 yards) and Mike Keene (nine yards) combined for another 67 yards on the ground. Those rushing totals helped Keene have time to throw the football.
Keene connected on 15 of his 21 attempts for 176 yards and a quarterback rating of 141.8. Coming off the bench cold, against Cincinnati, that’s impressive. He would not have been able to do that if the offensive line was not protecting as well as it did. It still starts with that rushing attack and pushing the Bearcats off the line of scrimmage.
All of those gut punches slowly wore down the Bearcats. The Knights used that fact during the game-winning drive, where the defense of Cincinnati did not do a good job of consistently pressuring Keene.
Keene went 4-for-4 with two critical passes that were on the money. The first key pass during that drive was the 26-yard strike to O’Keefe that was a beautiful pass and catch after the offensive line did its job.
The next was a critical second down and 12 completion to Javon Baker that needed to allow Baker time to matriculate down the field before making his out cut. The offensive line held off the Bearcats once again. Then, Keene put the football where Baker could get to it and the Cincinnati defender was left with nothing. First down Knights!
Two plays later, Harvey’s touchdown run took place to secure the final score. That’s all a part of the plan set up by head coach Gus Malzahn and his coaching staff. He talks about it on a consistent basis. “When we run the football we’re a pretty good offense.” That’s one of Malzahn’s staple phrases. It’s true.
While the postgame press conference included Keene, Harvey and O’Keefe from the offense, in truth, the entire offensive line deserved to be in front of the media all at once as well.
The deserving offensive linemen from left tackle to right tackle: Tylan Grable, Samuel Jackson, Matt Lee, Lokahi Pauole, and Ryan Swoboda. Pual Rubert contributed as well, coming in as an extra blocker when the Knights wanted to play true power football.
The offensive line played a great game against Cincinnati and were a major part of why the Knights came out victorious. Hats off to each one of them, as they collectively deserved the game ball.
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