#BoxScoreReview
Boxscores rarely lie…finals do. Here’s what you may have missed from the weekend that was
Temple @ Houston
Houston used a steady ground game en route to a 31-10 win over Temple. The cougars ran the football 49 times creating a decisive 42:17 to 17:27 time of possession edge. Total plays in the game? 82-49 Cougars benefiting from a +4 turnover differential.
USF @ Tulsa
USF may have turned their season around against Tulsa. Facing a 27-7 halftime deficit, the Bulls flipped the script in the 2nd half outscoring the Golden Hurricane 31-3. What made the comeback more impressive is they did it without the help of turnovers, covering 52 yards or more on each TD drive.
Syracuse @ Wake Forest
Syracuse scored 1 offensive touchdown in their 30-7 win over Wake Forest. The Orange used a Pick 6 and a fumble return to create an inflated margin of victory. They outgained Wake 370-170 total offensive output.
Baylor @ West Virginia
WVU finished their game against Baylor -3 in turnovers but dominated every other category on the stat sheet. The Mountaineers outgained Baylor 456-318, outrushed them 134-95, and had 77 fewer penalty yards. Art Briles team actually racked up 18 penalties resulting in 215 yards…not good.
Kansas St @ Oklahoma
Oklahoma outgained Kansas St 533-385 but were done in by 2 costly turnovers and special teams gaffes in getting upset by the Wildcats. Trevor Knight was efficient passing the football going 26-32 however his biggest mistake was a poorly thrown out pattern that resulted in a Pick 6.
Iowa @ Maryland
Maryland’s win over Iowa was a game filled with major scoring runs. The Hawkeyes started the game scoring the first 14 points before Maryland went on a 38-7 spree before Iowa closed the tilt with the final 14 points…coming up a TD short.
Western Kentucky @ Florida Atlantic
Florida Atlantic used a pretty impressive comeback to dispatch Western Kentucky. The Owls trailed 31-14 at halftime before the offense really got cranking. When the dust settled, FAU rolled up 619 yards of offense with outstanding balance (341 passing, 278 rushing).
Texas A&M @ Alabama
Texas A&M was just as bad as the 59-0 score line indicated. Bama out first downed their opponent 30-8, out gained them 602-172, and stymied the Aggies ground game holding them to all of 31 yards rushing.
Ball St @ Central Michigan
Ball State and Central Michigan were involved in one of the more curious results in a box score context. Ball St was out gained 426-287 but capitalized on 5 Chippewas’ turnovers giving the Cardinals the ammo to pull an upset in Mt Pleasant.
UAB @ Middle Tennessee St
Austin Grammer completed a grand total of 6 passes in the Middle Tennessee 34-22 win over UAB. The Blue Raiders were outgained by 35 yards but took advantage of a +3 turnover differential despite running 30 fewer plays than their opponent.
Michigan St @ Indiana
At one point in the game Indiana led Michigan St 17-14. That lead was short lived as the Hoosiers were boatraced from that point forward 42-0. On the afternoon the Hooisers only picked up 7 first downs gaining a grand total of 11 yards passing. After their TD drive in the middle of the 2nd quarter Kevin Wilson’s team didn’t gain more than 22 yards on a single drive the rest of the game.
San Jose St @ Wyoming
San Jose St needed OT to get through Wyoming but the final score was actually much closer than the game on the field. SJSU compiled 31 first downs to Wyoming’s 11 and outgained them by just under 200 yards. Two turnovers kept Wyoming in the game late before the Spartans won the game in OT 27-20.
Colorado @ USC
Cody Kessler completed 19 passes against Colorado in USC’s 56-28 route…7 of his 19 completions went for TD’s breaking the USC single game record for touchdown passes.
Tennessee @ Ole Miss
Despite a potential flat spot, Ole Miss shut down Tennessee en route to a 34-3 home victory. In the win the Rebels held the Vols to ZERO yards rushing on 28 carries. Tennessee wasn’t helped at all by their -4 turnover margin in the game either
Missouri @ Florida
The boxscore from Missouri and Florida will go down in BoxScore Review history like Cal vs Washington St. I won’t even try to put into words how ridiculous Missouri’s 42 points on 119 yards really was…see for yourself http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=400548362
Southern Miss @ North Texas
North Texas came up well short against Southern Miss, losing by double digits as 10 point chalk. Andrew McNulty completed 20 of 35 passes for 287 yards…however that’s not the story. Carlos Harris caught 15 of those balls for 216 yards representing basically all of the Mean Green’s aerial attack in the losing effort.
Utah St @ Colorado St
If it wasn’t for Rashard Higgins I believe Colorado St’s passing game would go nowhere. For the 2nd time in a few weeks he went off, this time catching 10 balls for 187 yards. No other member of the Rams had more than 9 yards receiving.
Nebraska @ Northwestern
Nebraska turned a 17-14 halftime deficit into a 38-17 victory over Northwestern in Evanston. Nebraska outgained NU 471-290 riding Ameer Abdullah’s 23 carries for 146 yards.
Kentucky @ LSU
LSU reminded us that Kentucky football isn’t quite there yet
Notre Dame @ Florida St
Despite coming up just short in Tallahassee, Notre Dame was the better team on Saturday night. The Irish outgained FSU 470-323 using a +107 rushing advantage to control the clock as well. Neither team held a lead of more than 7 points during the entire game…alternating scores throughout.
Nevada @ BYU
Turnovers lose football games…yes, I’m being that obvious. BYU has no one to blame but themselves for relinquishing a 28-13 halftime lead against Nevada. Nevada scored the first 28 points of the 2nd half and snuck out of Provo with a 42-35 win. The boxscore shared a very different tale given BYU out first downed Nevada 38-20 and outgained them 601-411 but couldn’t overcome a -3 turnover differential
