San José State Sacks UTEP 11 Times, Wins 24-11
San José State got to the quarterback 11 times, and that is how a team that gained 36 fewer yards ended up winning by 13. The Spartans beat UTEP 24-11 even though UTEP had the bigger box score, 462 yards to 426.
It started with an 11-yard touchdown from Daniel Rolovich to Carson Clark with 7:59 left in the first quarter. Then nothing happened for a long time. Neither team scored again in the second quarter, and it was 7-0 at the half. The third quarter belonged to Viliami Teu, who ran 2 yards for a touchdown with 13:09 left and then broke a 67-yarder with 5:25 left to make it 21-0. UTEP finally got a 47-yard field goal from Carlos Arreola with 2:07 left in the quarter, Trajan Sinatra answered with a 26-yarder, and Nik Henry's 8-yard run with 10:52 left in the fourth (plus a two-point pass from Jaden Smith to Cash Cheeks) made the final score. UTEP never led and never got closer than 13.
UTEP threw for 282 yards, more than the 193 San José State got through the air, but San José State ran for 233 against UTEP's 180. Neither team turned the ball over, so the sacks are the difference you can point to. UTEP's 462 yards turned into 11 points.
San José State goes to 4-3 and UTEP falls to 1-6. For fantasy, Teu scored 28.8 points after averaging 1.7 over his previous three games, and Smith caught 12 passes for 21.0 on the losing side.