San José State Edges Eastern Michigan 27-21 After Trailing Late
San José State trailed 21-17 going into the fourth quarter, and Cooper Hoch ended that with one play. His 40-yard touchdown catch from Luke Weaver at 11:19 put the Spartans up 24-21, and a 49-yard Trajan Sinatra field goal with 1:37 left made it the 27-21 final. Eastern Michigan did not score again.
The game was a seesaw until then. Eastern Michigan opened the scoring with a five-yard pass from Noah Kim to Harold Mack in the second quarter, San José State tied it at 7-7 on Weaver's 27-yarder to Jase Nix, and Sinatra's 45-yard field goal as the half ended made it 10-7. There were five lead changes in all, and the lead went back and forth in the third. Amareon Blue broke a 50-yard run to put EMU up 14-10, Hoch caught a 10-yard score to flip it to 17-14, and Bryce Llewellyn recovered a fumble in the end zone for a score with 53 seconds left in the quarter, which put the Eagles back on top 21-17.
That fumble is the stat that nearly decided it. San José State lost one fumble, and it turned into seven points for Eastern Michigan. Flip it and the Spartans are up 17-14 entering the fourth. Eastern Michigan's offense also gave the ball away once, on an interception from Kim.
The yardage was not close: San José State had 455 total yards (316 passing, 139 rushing) to Eastern Michigan's 295. Weaver was 23 of 39 for 316 yards and three touchdowns with one interception, and Jabari Bates carried 20 times for 119 yards. San José State goes to 1-1, and so does Eastern Michigan.
For fantasy, Weaver and Hoch did the heavy lifting. Weaver had 31.6 Promethium points and Hoch had 28.5 on two touchdown catches. Harold Mack was the best of the Eagles with 20.2.