Before we move on to week six of the college football season, let’s take a snapshot of week five, through the lens of 20 statistics from the 20 most intriguing matchups on the schedule.
This review won’t tell you everything there is to know about the past week in college football, but it will give you a sense of what matters and what doesn’t; what’s aberrational and typical; what’s peripheral and what’s central to the workings of a college football season.
The games we statistically surveyed:
Notre Dame-Clemson
West Virginia-Oklahoma
Minnesota-Northwestern
Texas-TCU
Michigan-Maryland
Iowa-Wisconsin
Ohio State-Indiana
Texas Tech-Baylor
Alabama-Georgia
Ole Miss-Florida
Arizona State-UCLA
Mississippi State-Texas A&M
Arizona-Stanford
Kansas State-Oklahoma State
Boston College-Duke
North Carolina-Georgia Tech
Air Force-Navy
Houston-Tulsa
Arkansas-Tennessee
Oregon-Colorado
*
Let’s see what emerged from these 20 games:
20) Teams with more first downs went 12-8 in these 20 games.
19) Five teams with at least five or more first downs than their opponents lost: Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Indiana, and West Virginia. The Mountaineers finished with 10 more first downs than Oklahoma, 26-16.
18) Teams with more yards went 16-4 in these 20 games.
17) In the Alabama-Georgia, Ole Miss-Florida, West Virginia-Oklahoma, and Texas Tech-Baylor blowouts, the overall yardage differential was no more than 80 yards.
16) Two teams with fewer than 230 total yards won: Iowa (221) and Duke (228).
15) Notre Dame finished with 141 more yards than Clemson.
14) Teams with more rushing yards went 14-6 in these games.
13) West Virginia outrushed Oklahoma by 89 yards.
12) Teams with more passing yards went 13-7 in these games.
11) Alabama forged its blowout win with only 11 completions.
10) Tennessee, Wisconsin and Colorado all completed nine or more passes than their opponents.
9) Teams with more penalties went 9-11 in these games.
8) Teams with more turnovers went 2-15 in these games. The three other games in this stack of 20 featured a statistical tie.
7) The two teams which won despite committing more turnovers: Ohio State (minus-3 differential) and Oklahoma State (-1).
6) Teams with more time of possession went 13-7 in these games.
5) Georgia Tech lost despite a 17:30 time-of-possession advantage.
4) Indiana and West Virginia lost despite TOP advantages of at least 6:22.
3) Third-down conversion rates for various blowout winners in this stack of games: Alabama 1-12; Oklahoma 2-12; Duke 4-17. Navy went 4-14 on third downs, but compensated by going 3-3 on fourth downs, creating this amazing stat:
Over the last 11 games against Air Force, #NavyFootball is 20 for 20 on fourth downs.
— Navy Athletics (@NavyAthletics) October 3, 2015
2) Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Kansas State all blew leads of at least 14 points. Kansas State’s streak of 49 straight wins when leading at halftime was snapped by Oklahoma State.
1) Four games involved scoreless fourth quarters: Alabama-Georgia and Arkansas-Tennessee were two of them. However, two others were even more similar:
Iowa-Wisconsin and Boston College-Duke both featured 16 total points and only one touchdown apiece. They both involved at least one instance of a team turning the ball over inside the opponent’s 5 — Wisconsin with a fumble, Duke on downs. Duke rushed for 33 yards, easily the lowest rushing total by any winning team in these 20 games.
*
Freelance researcher Mikhail Palekar contributed to this article.
