Arkansas State's defense and special teams came out on a mission early in the AutoNation Cure Bowl against UCF and set the tone for the Red Wolves' 31-13 win over the Knights.

UCF went backwards on its first two drives of the game for a total of negative-11 yards, forcing the Knights twice to punt from deep in their own territory. The second of those punt attempts got blocked by Arkansas State and recovered in the end zone for the first points of the game.

After taking a few drives to settle in, the Red Wolves' passing attack began to catch up to the performance of their defense and special teams, helping Arkansas State pull away for a convincing win over the Knights. Quarterback Justice Hansen completed 12-of-26 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns, including a 76-yard touchdown pass to Kendall Sanders on the opening drive of the second half.

Arkansas State's defense was flying around the field in Orlando, limiting the Knights to 188 yards of total offense and a measly 2.5 yards per play. The Knights' rushing attack was held to 12 yards on 30 carries by the Red Wolves, and the passing game could not pick up the slack with 211 yards and one touchdown on 48 pass attempts.

For the Red Wolves, its the first bowl game victory under Blake Anderson -- the last win was in 2013 when Bryan Harsin was the coach -- and gave them their fifth 8-win season in the last six years.