Middle Tennessee Outlasts Delaware 33-30 in a Seven-lead-change Shootout
Seven lead changes, and the last one belonged to Roman Gagliano. His 14-yard touchdown pass to Neo Clifton with 3:06 left gave Middle Tennessee a 33-30 win over Delaware, after the Blue Raiders had trailed by four at their lowest point.
It started with kicks. Delaware's Tucker Smack hit from 33 yards, Dominic Bourgeois answered from 47 (the only tie of the game, 3-3), and a safety put Middle Tennessee up 5-3. Gagliano ran in from a yard out to make it 12-3, and then Delaware took over the second quarter with an 11-yard Kaderris Roberts run and a 15-yard touchdown pass from Bryson Graves to Tyler Bell. The extra point was blocked, and Delaware led 16-12 at the half.
The second half belonged to the quarterbacks. Gagliano threw 80 yards to Koraun Perdue to start the third, Bell (yes, the guy who caught a touchdown) threw 33 yards to Josh Humes to flip it back, and Gagliano found Clifton from 18 yards to flip it again. Bell hit Roberts from 23 yards to make it 30-26 with 9:57 left. Then came Clifton's second score. Gagliano finished 22 of 32 for 291 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
A 33-30 final with 789 combined yards (398 for Middle Tennessee, 391 for Delaware) is about what you would expect when the two teams swap the lead seven times.
Middle Tennessee sacked Delaware five times and is 3-3. Delaware drops to 2-4 after a game where it had 391 yards and a 306-yard passer. For fantasy, nobody left disappointed, least of all the Gagliano and Bell owners.