UCF Football: 3 takeaways from upset loss in Week 11 at Tulsa

2. The UCF defense did its part on Friday night

Offense has been UCF’s calling card through much of their reign atop the AAC, and the unit remains dominant this season. The Knights entered Week 11 ranked second overall in yards per game and fifth in scoring. What has made their three-loss season so perplexing, though, is that they actually have a standout defense this year to support the high-flying attack.

That defense did its part on Friday night, holding Tulsa to 353 total yards of offense. The Golden Hurricane finished with 104 fewer yards than their vanquished opponent, but they also benefitted from several turnovers that provided short fields. Even then, the Golden Hurricane often relied on field goals when touchdowns would have really put this contest out of reach.

The fact that Tulsa relied heavily on their kicker is a testament to the UCF defense bailing out the offense and special teams whenever a teammate turned over the football to the Golden Hurricane. There is no way that the Knights would still have had the opportunity to tie or win the game in the final minutes unless the defense did its part and stiffened the closer they got to their own goal line.

Defense can’t entirely cover up mistakes, and it can’t always make enough of a difference to result in victory. But a sound defense will result in more victories than losses, and UCF is 7-3 this year largely because they are able to keep opponents from generating huge scores when they don’t have the football.