Winning Box Scores: Week 7
UConn was the -- what's the opposite of toast? -- spoiled milk of college football after UMass snapped its 16-game losing streak at the Huskies' expense.
A week later, the Huskies got off the mat and won their first game since Oct. 26, 2019. Yes, it was against non-scholarship Yale, but they're a Division I team that sponsors football and UConn beat them.
Not only did UConn win, they quinfecta'd 'em.
For those unaware, a quinfecta is when a team wins all five statistics we've been tracking throughout this season -- rushing yards, passing yards, scoring first, leading at halftime and winning turnovers. Teams that do so are 86-0 thus far, and UConn is now part of that 86.
To say something of the Huskies' margin of error, they're 1-0 when they quinfecta an opponent and 0-7 when they lose a single metric. Beyond that, teams that quinfecta their foes win by an average score of 44-11, and UConn quinfecta'd Yale by a modest 21-15 margin.
The Huskies got on the board first with a 63-yard touchdown pass at the 5:22 mark of the second quarter, then added another touchdown in the final half-minute of the first half to take a 14-0 advantage to the locker room. They out-rushed Yale (modestly, 119-108) and out-passed them (even more modestly, 199-191). They intercepted Yale quarterbacks Nolan Grooms and Griffin O'Connor four times, while committing zero turnovers of their own. And even still they were not home free until the final horn sounded, when Tui Faumuina-Brown grabbed a Grooms Hail Mary in the Huskies' end zone to seal the win. UConn 21, Yale 15.
But a win's a win's a win's a win.
Here's how our five favorite statistics stacked up in Week 7 across FBS:
-- Rush for more yards: 41-11 (.788)
-- Pass for more yards: 32-20 (.615)
-- Score first: 40-12 (.769)
-- Lead at halftime: 45-7 (.865)
-- Win turnovers: 31-8 (.795)
-- Win all five: 14-0 (1.000)
And where we stand over the full season:
-- Rush for more yards: 370-102 (.784)
-- Pass for more yards: 279-193 (.591)
-- Score first: 355-118 (.751)
-- Lead at halftime: 381-69 (.847)
-- Win turnovers: 273-86 (.761)
-- Win all five: 86-0 (1.000)
Additional notes:
-- UCF out-passed Cincinnati 141-140 (on 27 attempts vs. UC's 23), otherwise the Bearcats would've pushed the quinfecta number to 87-0 with their 56-21 beheading of the Knights.
-- Turnovers: Florida 4, LSU 0. Final score: LSU 49, Florida 42.
-- Turnovers: Texas State 4, Troy 0. Final score: Troy 31, Texas State 28.
-- UTSA was five yards shy of quadrupling Rice's 102 yards in their 45-0 quinfecta'ing of the Owls.
-- My calculator tells me Colorado State gained 6.55 yards for every New Mexico yard in their 33-7 quinfecta'ing. The Rams gained 452, the Lobos 69.
