Numbers game: 12 stats you need to know from Week 3

Each week, On3’s Matt Zenitz takes a look at some interesting stats coming out of that weekend’s games. Here are 12 such stats from Week 3.

8: With two touchdowns during Ohio State’s 77-21 rout of Toledo, Buckeyes sophomore wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. now has eight touchdowns along with 24 catches and 413 yards in his past four games, dating to the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl win over Utah in January.

10: Auburn’s 41-12 loss to Penn State was its most lopsided home loss in 10 years, since a 38-0 loss to Georgia in 2012.

11: Purdue wide receiver Charlie Jones, an Iowa transfer, already has 11 more catches in three games with the Boilermakers than he had in two seasons with the Hawkeyes. Jones leads the nation with 32 catches, ranks second with 474 receiving yards and is tied for second with five receiving touchdowns. 

12: One of the feel-good stories of the early portion of this season has been Minnesota star running back Mohamed Ibrahim bouncing back from a torn Achilles tendon he suffered last September. He continued a lengthy streak on Saturday with a 202-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 49-7 romp past Colorado. No opponent has held Ibrahim under 100 rushing yards since 2019. It’s a 12-game streak for Ibrahim that includes each of the first three games this season. He ranks second nationally, behind Illinois’ Chase Brown, with an average of 154.7 rushing yards per game. Ibrahim is the only player in the FBS with 130 or more rushing yards and multiple touchdowns in each of a team’s first three games.

14: Ole Miss’ 42-0 win over Georgia Tech was the Rebels’ first shutout of a Power 5 opponent in 14 years. Chris Partridge is in his first season as Ole Miss DC, and his unit has allowed just 13 points total through three games. It comes after the Rebels ranked 117th nationally in scoring defense in 2020 (38.3 points per game) and 51st last season (24.7).

17: Through his first 18 career games at Georgia, All-America tight end Brock Bowers already has 17 touchdowns. He had three TDs along with 121 yards on five catches during the Bulldogs’ 48-7 win over South Carolina. He already has nine career games with at least one touchdown, six with multiple touchdowns and two with three touchdowns.

53: There probably aren’t many people capable of guessing the team that ranks No. 2 among Power 5 teams in scoring offense. It’s Kansas. The 3-0 Jayhawks, just two years removed from ranking 123rd nationally in scoring with an average of 15.8 points per game, are averaging 53.0 points per game in Year 2 under second-year coach Lance Leipold and OC Andy Kotelnicki. Kansas ranked 111th nationally in scoring offense last season (20.8 points per game).

70: There will be a matchup of two surprising unbeatens this week – the aforementioned Kansas vs. Duke, led by first-year coach Mike Elko. It’s the first time in 70 years that the Jayhawks and Blue Devils have started 3-0 in the same season.

84: Georgia has outscored its first two Power 5 opponents, Oregon and South Carolina, by a combined 84 points (87-3) during the first three quarters of those games.

241: Alabama had 241 punt return yards during its 63-7 rout of ULM, the most punt return yards by a Power 5 team since 2012.

359.7: After season-ending injuries in each of his four years at Indiana, Michael Penix Jr. is thriving in his first season at Washington. Penix has led the Huskies to a 3-0 start and ranks first among Power 5 quarterbacks with an average of 359.7 passing yards per game. He’s one of just two Pac-12 quarterbacks since at least 2000 with at least 1,000 passing yards, at least 10 passing TDs and fewer than two interceptions in a team’s first three games. The other was Sean Mannion at Oregon State in 2013.