The UCF Knights beat Temple this week, but they struggled doing it, giving up nearly 700 yards of total offense to the Owls.

However, they remained undefeated, and that’s what is important at the end of the day. So, when the Knights were still only No. 12 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.

On a conference call after the rankings, CFP committee chair Rob Mullens was asked about why the Knights stayed put. As you can see below, he admitted that defensive struggles were something the committee noticed:

Q: I’m asking about UCF in terms of last week the strength of schedule was a knock, but how the committee viewed Thursday night’s Wednesday over Temple in relation to the eye test.

Mullens: Sure, great question. Obviously they have a powerful offense. McKenzie Milton continues to lead that powerful offense, but when you watched their game last week you could see the defensive struggles. They gave up nearly 700 yards to Temple. Again, that is a piece of it. Strong offense, struggling on defense.

The Knights host a unique Navy squad for homecoming this weekend, but the Midshipmens’ 2-7 record won’t do much to sway the committee.

We’ll see where the Knights check in during next week’s rankings, but the important thing is that they keep winning.