Quite simply, Central Florida were the better team. Not by a little bit, either. Where Baylor seemed flat and uninterested, the Knights were committed, hungry and they played disciplined football.
This wasn’t a victory where they got lucky. No, this was a signature win for a program who made their debut this past season in the American Athletic Conference, having spent years in the non-automatic qualifying Conference USA. Anyone who had previously not known about Blake Bortles…well, now you’re aware of the guy, and the UCF quarterback surely saw his draft stock rise even further.
Despite two picks, Bortles was tremendous tonight – 301 passing yards and 93 rushing yards on just eight carries (a career record), with four combined touchdowns, ripping apart the Baylor secondary. He carried the team a long way. When the Knights needed a big play, invariably it was the quarterback who delivered.
Baylor’s Bryce Petty was good, too, passing for more yards than Bortles but he will ultimately rue missed opportunities. It didn’t help that was saddled with a defence that just couldn’t make stops when it needed to, but when the defence did force turnovers – Bortles was intercepted three times – Petty and his offense failed to take advantage by scoring points.
Maybe it was because they had missed out on a chance to play for the National Championship after being strangled by Oklahoma State, but Baylor were insipid for most of the time. This was not the same team we saw late in the regular season, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. Even in their up-tempo offense, the Bears didn’t seem as sharp or as committed as I’ve seen them on previous occasions. Not all that well prepared, either. Yes, the yards and points were there, as per usual, but there was something missing: the x-factor if you will.
The defence, so good against Oklahoma in November, seemed to be mailing it in. They just couldn’t get a handle on what Bortles was doing.Strangely, for an Art Briles-coached team, Baylor were undisciplined, giving up 135 yards on seventeen penalty flags, which will make for some interesting team meetings in the morning.It’s incredibly hard to win football games, especially big ones, if you’re going to draw that many fouls.
It isn’t the first time that a team’s been disappointed with their Bowl destination and come out flat as a result, even in the BCS – remember Alabama soundly beaten down by Utah a few seasons back – but you’d think that a school in its first ever BCS appearance would have been a little more hungry. Truly, they were never quite in the game, even when they were tied, and theoretically in with a shot to win. It always seemed like Bortles and the Knights had an answer.
Often, the answer was RB Storm Johnson, who carried the football twenty times for 124 yards and three scores. If it wasn’t Bortles shredding Baylor’s secondary, it was Johnson abusing their front seven in what could only be described as a coming out party for George O’Leary’s team, whose likelihood of keeping up with Baylor, let alone recording a win, were decried by all and sundry (including myself, I must admit) during the lead-up to the game.
Art Briles said it best: “We caught a football team that was hot. They played extremely well early, got into us. We tried to play catch up the whole game, never could turn it around when it needed turning.”
‘Nitro-hot’ is the best way to describe Central Florida. It happens, you run into a buzz-saw and things don’t go well, but I was surprised how completely dominant the Knights were. Imagine if Bortles hadn’t turned the football over three times, getting points instead, it might’ve been an even more lopsided victory.
The bottom line is this: Central Florida are a damned good football team. We all assumed it was a fluke when they beat Louisville in the regular season, but their Fiesta Bowl performance suggest otherwise. If Bortles comes back for his senior season, the Knights could be dangerous as we head into the era of college football playoffs. There are weapons galore, and that defence is only going to get better with more time together.
At least Central Florida won’t – or shouldn’t – be underestimated going forward.
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