Middle Tennessee Outlasts Nevada After Four Ties and Three Lead Changes
Flip the turnovers and maybe this is a different game. Nevada fumbled away the ball twice, threw an interception, and still tied this thing four times before Middle Tennessee pulled out a 27-20 win. The Blue Raiders ended with zero giveaways, which is a big reason they moved to 2-1.
Nevada scored first on a 1-yard Dominic Kelley run, and Roman Gagliano answered with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Koraun Perdue to make it 7-7. A Nevada field goal put the Wolf Pack back in front, and a 47-yard Dominic Bourgeois kick as the first half expired made it 10-10. Gagliano then hit Cam'ron Lacy from 10 yards to open the second half and a 17-10 lead.
Carter Jones wiped that out with a 1-yard run that tied it 17-17, and Joe McFadden's 20-yard field goal at the start of the fourth quarter gave Nevada a 20-17 lead. Bourgeois tied it again from 23 yards with 9:51 left. Then came the decider: Antonio Martin ran it in from 3 yards with 5:59 to go, and Nevada never scored again.
The box score tells the lopsided part of the story. Middle Tennessee outgained Nevada 333 yards to 263 and ran for 160 yards to Nevada's 78. Nevada had 34 rushing attempts and got an average of about 2.3 yards from each (78 yards, if you are keeping score at home). The Wolf Pack drop to 1-2.
Fantasy takeaway: Gagliano's two touchdown passes got him 20.3 points, Martin led the rushing side with 104 yards on 23 carries, and Jones scored even in a losing effort.