Beyond The Box Score: USF Part 1 (Free!)

What a fantastic day at TDECU: perfect weather, great tailgating, a preview of the Fertitta Center, and the Coogs put together a four-quarter game to demolish USF. Once again, we’re going Beyond the Box Score twice today. Here’s part 1:
 

• USF falls to 17-3 in the last two seasons. D’Eriq King has almost single-handedly caused 2 of their 3 losses.
   

• UH was the only Southwest Conference team to win this weekend. All of Baylor, Texas Tech, Rice, TCU, SMU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Texas lost.
   

• The Coogs have scored 40+ every game this season and continue to be the only school in the nation to have done so.
   

• The Cougars have scored 50+ twice this season. Before 2018, UH had gone over 50 just 8 times in the last 6 years.
   

• D’Eriq King threw for 419 yards and ran for 132. He’s just the 12th player in NCAA history to join the 400/100 club. Our own Kevin Kolb was the third player to ever accomplish the feat. Thanks to GoCoogs Insider ‘Cougar Red’ for this nugget and chart:
   
  

  

• King averaged 10.5 yards an attempt, 15 yards a completion, and 11 yards a carry. That’s an average 10.6 yards a touch.
   

• The UH defense shut out the Bulls in the first and 4th quarters. Start strong and finish strong is a great way to live.
   

• In addition, UH scored twice in each quarter:
   
  

• The Coogs have now outscored opponents 101-44 in the first quarter and 115-58 in the 4th quarter.
   

• After 682 yards vs. USF, UH has gone over 500 yards six times this season.
   

• The Cougars were 13/18 (72%) on 3rd down yesterday – by far their best day of the year in that stat. The last play of the game was a 3rd down so you could say UH really was 13/17 (76%).
   

• The Coogs continue forcing turnovers – this week, it was a fumble and an INT. Of course, we probably got hosed on two turnover calls from the replay booth.
   

• The LOL of the week goes to this Fansided writer. Not sure who he’s been watching:
  

  

• By allowing only 263 pass yards, the Coogs improved to … wait, nope. UH stayed dead-last in the country in passing yards allowed. We’re now just 15 yards a game behind the 128th-best team, UConn. To be fair, UH has been considerably stronger since conference play began.
   

• UH gave up an average of 389 pass yards a game out-of-conference but have given up just 260.5 a game in AAC games.
   

• UH punted twice in the 1st quarter and didn’t need Dane Roy again in the game. After those two punts and a pretty bad INT, UH scored on 6 of the next 8 drives (and could have easily scored on the last drive of the game).
   

• Single dip: Jeremy Singleton and Raelon Singleton each caught a touchdown pass in the game. It was Jeremy’s first TD as a Cougar and Raelon’s second.
   
  

  

• On the safety: I’ve never seen intentional grounding called when the play was obviously just a mix-up on routes. King was under no duress. To have it occur in the end zone is total garbage.
   

• It’s rare you see a safety and a two-point conversion in the same game.
   

• The Coogs have had 124 total drives in 8 games this year with 91 of those lasting two minutes or less (72%).
   
  [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#c62b29″ class=”” size=”25″]
  Bonus stat: 33 of those 78 drives under 2 minutes have been touchdown drives (41%).
  [/perfectpullquote]

• UH had the ball to end both halves and both of those drives ended on the USF side of the field. In the other eight drives that crossed midfield, UH scored touchdowns all 8 times.
   

• If you take out King’s TD, UH ran the ball 8 times for just 16 yards in the 1st quarter. But Houston had 200 rush yards over the final 3 quarters.
   

• By halftime of the USF game, UH had played 15 halves of football this season. In 9 of those halves, the Coogs had less time of possession than they did in the 4th quarter alone of the USF game (12:18). UH’s best TOP quarter before yesterday was just 9:16 (2nd quarter – Texas Tech). That makes the final quarter yesterday over 3 minutes longer than any previous one.
   

• Before yesterday, UH had won TOP in just 2 halves this season and both were under 15:30 TOP. UH’s 17:14 TOP in the second half vs. USF was by-far a season high.
   

• Major slowed it down in the 4th but Kendal’s offense still managed 30 plays in our variation of the ‘slow down’ (21 were rushes).

 
Part 2 coming soon!
 

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