Nate Bell's Five Scores Lift Eastern Washington past Northern Iowa
Nate Bell had a hand in every Eastern Washington touchdown, five of them, three on the ground and two through the air. Bell ran for three scores and passed for two, and the Eagles beat Northern Iowa 34-24 after the lead changed hands six times.
It started with a Bell 34-yard run, and a blocked extra point left it 6-0. Northern Iowa's Jaxon Dailey answered with a 4-yard score to lead 7-6, and Jaxon Branch put Eastern Washington back up 13-7. The Panthers took the lead on a field goal and Dailey's second touchdown (17-13), Bell ran in from 2 yards to flip it again, and Dailey's third rushing score, a 9-yarder with 27 seconds left in the half, made it 24-20 at the break. Bell's second short touchdown with 1:32 left in the third put the Eagles up 27-24, and that was the score entering the fourth. Jamai East's 15-yard catch with 3:16 left made it 34-24, and nobody scored after that.
Northern Iowa threw for more yards, 287 to 257, and ran for far fewer, 63 to 142. Dailey threw one interception, Eastern Washington had none, and the Eagles sacked the passer five times without being sacked once. Take the blocked extra point away and the early score is 7-0 instead of 6-0, which did not matter in the end.
Eastern Washington is 1-1 and Northern Iowa starts 0-1. For fantasy, Bell's 49.7 was the best total on the board, and Dailey's 31.3 on the losing side shows how a quarterback can score three times without throwing a touchdown.