Illinois State Holds Off Northern Illinois Comeback 28-24
Take away Jack Oliver's pick-six in the first quarter and Northern Illinois wins 24-21. Instead Illinois State won 28-24, after leading 21-0 and trailing 24-21.
The start was all Illinois State. Oliver returned an interception 39 yards for a touchdown, Chase Kwiatkowski ran 14 yards for another, and Gage Roy's 6-yard pass to Dylan Lord made it 21-0 with 14:52 left in the first half. Then Northern Illinois got its own defensive score, a 30-yard interception return by Andruw Ellis, followed by a JJ Schlenhardt field goal and a 2-yard touchdown pass from Taron Dickens to DeAree Rogers on the last play of the half. It was 21-17 at the break, and Northern Illinois had scored 17 straight.
The third quarter had no scoring. Telly Johnson Jr. scored from a yard out with 7:24 left in the fourth to put Northern Illinois ahead 24-21, and that lead lasted until 1:53, when Roy found Alex Herrera from 16 yards for the final points. Northern Illinois had 24 straight points and then ran out of clock.
Northern Illinois gained 308 yards (196 passing, 112 rushing), sacked the opponent three times and threw two interceptions, one of them the pick-six that started the day. That is a lot of damage from one mistake.
Illinois State starts 1-0, and it earned it the hard way. Northern Illinois is 0-2 with two games of evidence that it can play, and nothing in the standings to show for it.
The three top fantasy scorers all played for Northern Illinois, led by Rogers with 11 catches and 24.4 points.