Elijah Owens Carries Indiana State past Eastern Illinois 42-35
Elijah Owens accounted for five touchdowns, scored 51.2 fantasy points, and nearly needed every one of them. Indiana State beat Eastern Illinois 42-35 after being up 35-7 in the third quarter.
Owens ran in from a yard out and threw 35 yards to Dane Pardridge and 1 yard to Aaron Ball in the first half, then hit BJ Wuest from 42 yards early in the third for a 35-7 lead (Aaron Ball had also opened the scoring with a 3-yard run). Indiana State never trailed, and the only tie was Charles Kellom's 76-yard run on Eastern Illinois's first scoring play, which made it 7-7 with 11:18 left in the first quarter.
Then Cole LaCrue got going. He found Jeremy Reeves from 21 yards at 4:23 of the third, ran in an 8-yarder at 1:23, and it was 35-21 going to the fourth. Owens answered with a 15-yard touchdown run at 10:40. Eastern Illinois scored again anyway, LaCrue to Jacarre Fleming-Page from 7 yards at 6:16, and again at 4:03 with an 8-yard pass to Kellom, and it was a one-score game at 42-35. That is 28 of the last 35 points of the game, and the comeback fell a touchdown short.
The yards were closer than the margin suggests: 504 for Indiana State, 451 for Eastern Illinois. Indiana State threw one interception, and Eastern Illinois lost a fumble. Owens ran 18 times for 98 yards on a team that rushed for 220, and passed for 284 with one interception.
Both teams are 1-1. For fantasy, you could pick either quarterback and be happy: Owens at 51.2 points and LaCrue at 41.2 (three touchdown passes, one rushing touchdown, 65 yards on the ground) were the top two scorers of the game, and Kellom scored 31 in a loss.