Tyler Hughes Runs for Four Scores as Wyoming Beats NIU
Tyler Hughes, a quarterback, carried 12 times for 183 yards and four touchdowns, and he also went 16 of 19 through the air. Wyoming beat Northern Illinois 41-23, and 24 of those 41 points came off his legs. That is the recap.
The Cowboys scored first on an Erik Sandvik field goal and never let go. Hughes broke a 53-yard run with 5:39 left in the first quarter, then added a 24-yarder in the second, a 6-yarder in the third and an 11-yarder to open the fourth. Wyoming led 20-6 at the half and 27-9 after Hughes' third score. Northern Illinois did get close enough to be annoying: Telly Johnson Jr. ran 13 yards for a touchdown and George Dimopoulos ran in the two-point conversion, which made it 27-17 late in the third quarter. Then Wyoming scored twice more, the second on Landon Sims' 11-yard run with 6:48 left, and it was 41-17. La'Don Bryant's 34-yard catch with 3:53 left made the final 41-23 (the two-point try failed).
Wyoming ran 39 times for 317 yards and threw for just 196, for 513 total to Northern Illinois' 392. Neither team turned the ball over, and Wyoming sacked its opponent 5 times. JJ Schlenhardt kicked three field goals for the Huskies, who got 216 passing yards on 24 of 44 from Taron Dickens and still trailed by at least 10 points from early in the third quarter on.
Wyoming is 4-3 and Northern Illinois is 0-6. For fantasy purposes, Hughes' 50.1 points was a season best by a mile and more than four times his previous three-game average of 11.4.