Marshall Survives Middle Tennessee's Late Rally, 28-26
Middle Tennessee led 20-14 after three quarters and still went home with a loss. Marshall scored the last 14 points of the game's middle stretch and held on for 28-26 when the Blue Raiders' late touchdown came with a failed two-point try attached.
The first half was a trade. Marshall hit first on a 69-yard pass from Carlos Del Rio-Wilson to Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw, and Middle Tennessee tied it 7-7 within two minutes on a 1-yard fumble return by Kalen Woods (Marshall's lone lost fumble, and it went straight into the end zone). Dominic Bourgeois added field goals of 52 and 35 yards, and Del Rio-Wilson's 4-yard run kept Marshall in front 14-13 at the half. A Roman Gagliano 11-yard touchdown to Cam'Ron Lacy in the third made it 20-14 Middle Tennessee.
Then Marshall's running game took over. Turner-Bradshaw scored from the goal line early in the fourth to make it 21-20, and TJ Lester's 2-yard run with 4:18 left made it 28-20. Marshall ran 35 times for 132 yards and threw for only 181, a fine way to win when your quarterback goes 7 for 8. Gagliano answered with a 15-yard touchdown to AJ Jones with 0:50 left, but the two-point pass failed and it stayed a two-point game.
Middle Tennessee out-gained Marshall 352 yards to 313 and lost anyway. Gagliano threw one interception on 47 attempts, and needed every one of them to get to 243 yards. Flip that failed conversion and you have a tie game with seconds left. Both teams sit at 1-1.
For fantasy purposes, this was a Gagliano and Lacy game, with a Turner-Bradshaw cameo that paid whoever had him.