The LSU Tigers win their 10th game of the season, snapping the UCF Knights’ 25-game winning streak in the Fiesta Bowl. LSU can thank quarterback Joe Burrow.
For the second straight season, the UCF Knights entered their New Year’s Six bowl undefeated and as AAC Champions. They throttled the Auburn Tigers in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta a year ago. However, it would be Auburn’s SEC West rival in the LSU Tigers who would ruin UCF’s bid at another perfect season.
LSU improves to 10-3 on the year after putting on an offensive clinic versus the UCF defense in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl, winning 40-32. While it was a solid victory for the Bayou Bengals, things were not looking good for them early on at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
LSU was down 14-3 after quarterback Joe Burrow threw a horrendous pick-six to UCF defensive back Brandon Moore. Moore took it 93 yards to the house, while Burrow would get absolutely lit up on a block by a UCF defender on Moore’s glorious trip to pay dirt.
Burrow could have let things snowball, but decided the LSU season wasn’t going to succumb to quicksand after all. After getting decleated on the interception return, Burrow put together his best game in LSU uniform. Frankly, LSU needed him to do so to hold off a feisty UCF team.
He completed 21 of 34 passes for 394 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. His yards per attempt of 11.6 was outstanding, as he set career highs in touchdown passes and yardage in this monumental game for him. Given how bad quarterback play has been at LSU for most of the last decade, you could not have asked for a better showing out of Burrow in this big time bowl game.
Last year, Burrow was a backup quarterback at Ohio State playing for Urban Meyer. In the first day of 2019, Burrow can safely say that he quarterbacked LSU to not just a New Year’s Six bowl victory, but ended college football’s longest active winning streak. UCF had not lost since its bowl defeat at the end of the 2016 NCAA season. The Knights may not play the toughest schedule, but there is no quit in that football team.
Yes, UCF had to play with its backup quarterback Darriel Mack Jr., who replaced McKenzie Milton late in the year due to a gruesome leg injury. However, LSU was without a ton of its outstanding playmakers in the secondary. This includes cornerback Greedy Williams, who decided to sit out what would have been his final game at LSU before entering the 2019 NFL Draft.
Of course, the LSU defense held its own despite being considerably undermanned. That being said, Tuesday afternoon in Glendale was undoubtedly The Joe Burrow Show. He may not have the hype of some of his SEC contemporaries like Tua Tagovailoa or Jake Fromm, but LSU has to feel terrific about its signal-caller entering his senior season down in the bayou.
LSU was a top-four team at one point this year, especially after crushing the Georgia Bulldogs at home in October. However, three conference losses to rivals Florida, Alabama and Texas A&M put a damper on what was a strong season for head coach Ed Orgeron and his LSU program.
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LSU may not be as good as Alabama even next year, but with the way that Burrow played against UCF in the Fiesta Bowl, who’s to say the Bayou Bengals can’t snap another massive winning streak next season? Burrow has shown tremendous resolve this season. Perhaps its best illustrated after overcoming a rocky start to UCF in the Fiesta Bowl. Look for him to build off his biggest game in Tigers uniform next fall.