[thesportsguru11]

Super Utility

McNeal scores triple crown, UConn moves to 7-1

If UConn was looking for a way to bounce back after a rough visit to a Big 12 foe on the road and a turbulent week off the field, a visit back at the rowdiest house in the east temporarily patched up some of UConn's problems.

After a 54-27 pasting of 1-7 Kansas in East Hartford, UConn, and for that matter Coach Diaco, have both regained some of the confidence they lost last week and regained their foothold near the top of the Big 12 race.

Leading the way was a 267 yard, 2 TD performance from freshman sensation Tanner Dean-Lowry and 199 all-purpose yards from Jeff McNeal, who made UConn history by scoring on all three sides of the ball -- offense (rushing TD), defense (INT return TD in the 4th), and special teams (103 yard kick return in the second).

Despite a slow start (the first points coming off an INT return TD from Travis Lumpkin), UConn was able to start pulling away before the half.

Late in the second quarter, backed up to their own 8 yard line after a good Kansas punt, UConn got a 16 yard catch from Jeff Matthews, which was followed by a beautifully executed play action streak to Jon Haden, who blew past the Kansas secondary and jetted to the house for a 76 yard TD.

Immediately after a 51 yard Sam Shelten field goal, McNeal pushed the UConn lead to 21-3 on his 103 yard return TD -- pure speed to the left side, outrunning everyone.

UConn began to put the game out of reach after the half. TDL led a long 12 play drive that culminated in a Ron Johnson TD from 4 yards out to make it 28-3.

Alston Trent led KU with a big 26 yard scramble to the UConn 14, but Joe Dineen Jr. and Corey Avery failed to finish the job, so the Jayhawks were forced to take 3 and rely on the defense.

Haden caught his second TD of the day after another good return from McNeal to the Husky 42 yard line. From the 22, Haden ran a curl route on the right side and his dive at the end zone was enough to get him in and stretch the lead to 35-6.

James Atkins recorded another sack (#15 I believe..??) on the next drive, and he is closing in on the single season sack record for UConn, set last year by Cam Stapleton. That sack ruined all the momentum Trent and Kansas might have had, as a few plays later Trent's lame duck pass going nowhere fast was picked off by Ross Sinclair. Trent had 4 INT's the game (Lumpkin, Sinclair twice, McNeal), compared to 265 yards and only one TD.

Kansas would get on the board and make the game a bit more respectable than it actually was, though. Anthony Cortenlen ended a promising UConn drive with a pick six of his own late in the third quarter, Kansas' first TD of the day late in the third quarter.

But after a second rushing TD from Johnson, UConn had put the game out of reach, the second stringers came in and UConn wound down a 54-27 win and big confidence booster.

UConn enjoyed a fantastic day in all facets of the game, with McNeal's three TD's and 200 all purpose yards, TDL's 2 TD passes, Johnson's 2 running TD's, Haden's 116 receiving yards and various other contributors scoring solid days in the win.

Now that we're back on track and that we've had our best offensive day of the year arguably, we can refocus our sights on perhaps the bigger picture. With 4 games remaining (Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU and Houston), we are still very much in the Big 12 Title hunt and a New Year's Six and CFP berth.

With another bad team in Kansas State next (albeit in Manhattan), can UConn keep it up? Come back next time and find out.

Kansas Jayhawks at Connecticut Huskies
Oct 20, 2018	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Kansas Jayhawks (1-7, 1-3)	0	3	10	14	27
#9 Connecticut Huskies (7-1, 3-1)	7	14	14	19	54

Team Stats Comparison
	KU	CONN
Total Offense	353	441
Rushing Yards	96	163
Passing Yards	257	278
First Downs	17	21
Punt Return Yards	3	16
Kick Return Yards	108	159
Total Yards	464	616
Turnovers	4	1
3rd Down Converstion	3-11 (27%)	6-10 (60%)
4th Down Conversion	1-1	0-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	2-1-1	5-3-0
Penalties	2-5	0-0
Posession Time	14:04	17:56

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		KU	CONN
2:16	(CONN) Lumpkin returned INT 24 yds (Miller kick)	0	7
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		KU	CONN
2:55	(CONN) Dean-Lowry 76 pass Haden (Miller kick)	0	14
:26	(KU) Shelten 51 FG	3	14
:15	(CONN) McNeal kick return 103 yds (Miller kick)	3	21
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		KU	CONN
5:14	(CONN) Johnson 4 run (Miller kick)	3	28
3:37	(KU) Shelten 25 FG	6	28
2:16	(CONN) Dean-Lowry 22 pass Haden (Miller kick)	6	35
1:16	(KU) Cortenlen returned INT 61 yds (Shelten kick)	13	35
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		KU	CONN
6:54	(CONN) Johnson 4 run (missed PAT)	13	41
5:15	(KU) Trent 38 pass Peters (Shelten kick)	20	41
2:55	(CONN) McNeal 1 run (missed PAT)	20	47
2:29	(CONN) McNeal returned INT 17 yds (Miller kick)	20	54
1:14	(KU) Avery 11 run (Shelten kick)	27	54

Kansas Jayhawks PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Alston Trent 23-40 257 1 4 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Joe Dineen Jr. 10 48 4.8 0 Corey Avery 3 14 4.6 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Marcellos Horn 6 93 15.5 0 Jonathan Jones 4 35 8.7 0 Darious Crawley 2 22 11.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Aaron Thomas 13 (2 TFL) 0 0 0 McCoy Bridges 6 (2 TFL) 0 0 0 Anthony Cortenlen 3 0 1 1

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tanner Dean-Lowry 17-28 267 2 1 Isaac Jackson 1-1 11 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Ron Johnson 21 81 3.8 2 Arkeel Newsome 10 59 5.9 0 Jeff McNeal 1 1 1.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jeff Matthews 5 60 12.0 0 Jon Haden 4 116 29.0 2 Jeff McNeal 2 23 11.5 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Vontae Diggs/Luke Carrezola 6 (TFL) 0 0 0 James Atkins 5 (4 TFL) 2 0 0 Travis Lumpkin 3 0 1 1