Monday, October 4, 2010

Box Scorin': One yard away, Cougars yield again to misery

Weird, wild and prolific stats from the weekend's action.

This week's prayer for Washington State: With the score improbably knotted at 28 after three quarters at UCLA, the Cougars failed to take a late lead when they were stopped on four straight plays from the Bruin one-yard line early in the fourth. Three plays later, UCLA running back Derrick Coleman broke a 72-yard run to spark a 99-yard drive that put the go-ahead touchdown in the Bruins' column instead. They quickly added another long touchdown drive to push the final score to 42-28, Wazzu's 19th loss in 20 Pac-10 games under coach Paul Wulff.

UCLA finished with 437 yards rushing, 401 of them from Coleman and backfield mate Jonathan Franklin, its third straight week over 250 yards on the ground and first 400-yard rushing game since 2004.

Denard Robinson Watch: Teeing off against arguably the two worst defenses in the Big Ten, Robinson and Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell combined for 969 total yards and eight touchdowns in Michigan's 42-35 escape from Bloomington. Robinson's 494-yard afternoon left him averaging 382.6 per game, more than roughly half the teams nationally, and put him on pace for 2,172 yards rushing for the season – and that's without adjusting for his absence over the last three quarters of the blowout win over Bowling Green last week.

• After scoring touchdowns on each of its first four possessions, Stanford didn't find the end zone again over the last two-and-a-half quarters of a 52-31 loss at Oregon. Facing a fast 21-3 hole in the first quarter, the Ducks scored touchdowns on seven of their last eleven chances with the ball.

Michigan State turned the ball over three times to Wisconsin's zero and was stuffed on 4th-and-goal from the Badger one-yard line in the third quarter, but still won comfortably in East Lansing, 34-24.

N.C. State rolled up 507 yards total offense against Virginia Tech, joining eventual national champions LSU in 2007 and Alabama in 2009 as the only attacks to put up 500 yards on a Bud Foster-coached defense since the Tech moved to the ACC in 2004. But the Wolfpack also gave up 440 yards, allowed a kickoff return for touchdown to open the second half and committed three turnovers in a 41-30 Hokie win.

• For the record, LSU outgained Tennessee by 217 yards prior to the ridiculous ending in Baton Rouge, but blew scoring chances with a missed field goal and two turnovers in the Volunteer red zone. Fortunately for Les Miles, the Tigers, uh, came through with the game-winning touchdown in the end.

Iowa State and Texas Tech combined for 80 points in the second and fourth quarters of the Cyclones' 52-38 upset in Ames, but just 10 points in the first and third quarters. Maybe it was the wind?

Virginia gained 32 yards in the first half en route to a 27-0 halftime deficit against Florida State, and 269 yards in the second half of a 34-14 loss.

• Playing in place of injured All-American Dion Lewis, Pittsburgh running back Ray Graham ripped off 277 yards and three touchdowns on 9.6 per carry in the Panthers' 44-17 blowout over Florida International, topping Lewis' career bests by a full 83 yards and 1.7 yards per carry. Graham came into Saturday averaging 24 more yards per game than Lewis over the first three, on half the attempts.

Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa passed for 309 yards and ran for 99 more, ultimately accounting for 84 percent of the Wildcats' 486 total yards in a dramatic, 29-28 win at Minnesota.

Rutgers broke a 91-yard touchdown run by Mohamed Sanu on the second snap of the game, then proceeded to punt on nine of its next ten possessions in a 17-14 home loss to lowly Tulane.

TCU held Colorado State to 161 total yards and eight first downs in a 27-0 rout in Fort Collins, the Frogs' first road shutout in ten years under coach Gary Patterson.

• Including quick turnovers, Penn State's offense went three-and-out or worse six times in a 24-3 loss at Iowa, and finished with as many punts, penalties and sacks allowed (15) as first downs.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.


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