UCF Football: 3 takeaways from crushing loss at Cincinnati in Week 6

UCF football had its New Year’s Six hopes almost surely crushed on Friday night. What did Cincinnati do to get the win at home?

UCF took a crushing blow to not only its New Year’s Six bowl hopes, but its American Athletic Conference title dreams as well at the hands of Cincinnati on Friday night.

The Bearcats beat the Knights 27-24 in a game that had the Cincinnati crowd in it from the very beginning. In a sold-out Nippert Stadium, the Knights could not overcome their turnover woes.

Freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel struggled all night in just his second road start of his young career. Unfortunately for UCF faithful, the second appearance on the road happened to look a lot like the first — shaky accuracy and costly turnovers with a pick-six included with a red-zone interception as well that turned out to be a heartbreaking blow to UCF’s chances to shine on ESPN.

Give all of the credit to Cincinnati for making the freshman quarterback uncomfortable all night and forcing three turnovers total to rally the home crowd.

Michael Warren played a huge role for Cincinnati rushing for over 133 yards and helped the Bearcats control the clock to keep UCF’s chances limited for most of the game.

What’d we learn from the Friday night shocker in Cincinnati?