There will not be 20 games of significance this upcoming Saturday, so this marks the regular-season finale of 20 for 20.
The box score of the week goes to Iowa-Nebraska. The Huskers piled up numbers. Iowa didn’t convert a single third down. However, Old Demon Giveaway doomed Big Red. It’s a tale as old as time: Statistical domination means nothing when accompanied by a gob of massive mistakes.
Let’s see what else we gleaned from week 13:
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The 20 games surveyed:
Notre Dame-Stanford
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State
Florida State-Florida
Iowa-Nebraska
UCLA-USC
Ohio State-Michigan
Baylor-TCU
North Carolina-North Carolina State
Ole Miss-Mississippi State
Texas A&M-LSU
Navy-Houston
Oregon State-Oregon
Louisville-Kentucky
Miami-Pittsburgh
Western Michigan-Toledo
Texas Tech-Texas
Marshall-Western Kentucky
Virginia Tech-Virginia
Clemson-South Carolina
Alabama-Auburn
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Here are 20 statistics we gleaned from week 13:
20) Teams with more first downs went 13-7 in these 20 games.
19) Oklahoma finished with only one more first down than Oklahoma State… in a game OU won by 35.
18) Nebraska gained 12 more first downs than Iowa… and lost.
17) Virginia gained nine more first downs than Virginia Tech… and lost.
16) Florida gained four more first downs than Florida State despite scoring zero points on offense this past Saturday. Gaining 19 first downs and zero points is pretty hard to do, but the Gators pulled it off against the Seminoles. FSU, for its part, went 2-of-14 on third downs and won by 25.
15) Teams with more yards went 15-5 in these 20 games.
14) Nebraska gained 121 more yards than Iowa… and lost.
13) Virginia gained 129 more yards than Virginia Tech… and lost.
12) Teams with more passing yards went 11-9 in these games.
11) Michigan gained 194 more passing yards than Ohio State… and lost by 29 at home.
10) LSU passed for only 83 yards against Texas A&M… and won by 12.
9) Oklahoma passed for only 180 yards in its blowout of Oklahoma State.
8) Teams with more rushing yards went 14-6 in these games.
7) Texas rushed for 403 yards against Texas Tech… and lost at home.
6) Notre Dame rushed for 146 more yards than Stanford… and lost.
5) Teams with more penalties went 7-12 in these games, with one statistical tie.
4) Teams with more turnovers went 4-13 in these games, with three statistical ties. The four teams which won with more turnovers: Texas Tech, Clemson, North Carolina, and Louisville.
3) Teams with more time of possession went 14-6 in these games.
2) Nebraska (plus-12:12) and Virginia (plus-9:14) lost despite their massive time-of-possession differentials.
1) In Texas A&M-LSU, the combined number of penalties and turnovers (23; 4 turnovers plus 19 penalties) exceeded the combined number of completed passes (22; 15 for A&M, 7 for LSU).
