Houston 21, Central Florida 44

The Cougars celebrated Halloween with their most ghoulish and ghastly performance of the season. 

The Good: In the first quarter, DE Payton Turner sacked UCF QB Dillon Gabriel and forced him to fumble. LB Grant Stuard scooped up the ball and ran 34 yards to the end zone for a defensive score that put the Coogs up, 7-3.

That was the highlight of the game. It was all downhill from there. 

The Bad, Ugly, Pathetic, Etc.: The UH defense had no answer for Central Florida's hurry-up offense and was torched to the tune of 681 total yards of offense: 328 through the air and 353 on the ground. The UH offense, meanwhile, sputtered throughout the game. Of Houston's 13 possessions, six ended in punts, two ended in interceptions, and one ended in a missed field goal. QB Clayton Tune had one of the poorer games of his career, continually over-throwing receivers and making poor decisions that resulted in two interceptions. He ended the afternoon 21 of 41 for 263 yards and a TD. The fact that the UH offense did so poorly against a mediocre UCF defense with four starters out is very concerning. 

There's not much else to say about this game. The Cougars were out-hustled, out-matched and out-coached by the Golden Knights all afternoon. This simply wasn't an enjoyable game to watch.

What It Means: The Cougars suffer their first conference loss, and - if the UH athletics message boards are any indication - the UH faithful are beginning to turn on Dan Holgorsen, who so far is not earning the big bucks Tillman Fertitta the University of Houston is paying him.

Next up for Houston is a road trip to play #6 Cincinnati, where they will probably get slaughtered. But at least we get to watch it on ABC!

Ryan Monceaux has more.