Keyone Jenkins hit on 19 of his 20 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown as UCF did just enough to beat mistake-prone TCU 21-13 on Saturday afternoon in both teams’ Big 12 Conference opener in Orlando.
The Knights (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) finished with just 266 yards of offense but forced four TCU turnovers, including an interception of a Jaden Craig pass by Antione Jackson at the UCF 7-yard line that secured the victory with 1:48 left to play.
Duke Watson ran for 57 yards on 13 carries to lead the UCF ground attack.
Craig passed for 310 yards but was picked off twice. Jordan Dwyer hauled in five catches for 100 yards that included a 43-yard connection on the Horned Frogs’ drive that ended with Craig’s second interception.
TCU (2-2, 0-1) managed just 33 yards rushing and suffered eight tackles for a loss — four of them sacks — in the setback.
After TCU’s Ed Small fumbled at his own 41 on the game’s opening drive, the Knights drove 43 yards on six snaps to Taevion Swint’s 13-yard TD run to give UCF the early 7-0 lead. The Horned Frogs answered with seven-play, 75-yard march that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Jeremy Payne at the 6:48 mark of the first quarter that knotted the score at 7-all.
Nate McCashland’s 29-yard field goal with 8:30 to play in the second quarter garnered TCU a 10-7 lead. The Knights responded with a Jenkins-to-Caden Piening scoring pass with 4:58 remaining in the half to retake the lead at 14-10.
The teams slogged through the third quarter in which they combined for 110 offensive yards, 65 of them by the Horned Frogs. TCU sliced its deficit to a point when McCashland converted a 45-yard field goal with 3:25 to play in the quarter.
The Knights then created some separation on Landen Chambers’ 1-yard run that punctuated an 11-play, 75-yard drive with 12:25 to play. The drive took six minutes off the clock, spanning the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.
McCashland missed wide right on a 50-yard FG attempt with 8:02 remaining, and the Horned Frogs couldn’t make the needed plays down the stretch.
–Field Level Media
