Eastern Washington Beats Northern Colorado 31-22
Northern Colorado ran 44 times for 281 yards and lost by nine. That sentence is the whole recap, but I will keep going. Eastern Washington beat the Bears 31-22, and it did it with Nate Bell's arm and a first half that was over by the time the teams got to the locker room.
Bell threw four touchdown passes before halftime: 53 yards to Wesley Garrett, 19 to Drew Carlson, 7 to Kevin Allen III and 10 to Rylin Lang. The Eagles led 14-0, then 21-3 and 28-6, with Landon Richardson kicking two field goals for Northern Colorado in between. Eastern Washington never trailed. The Eagles did not score a touchdown in the second half, and Northern Colorado clawed back with a Keegan Patterson one-yard run in the third, a field goal and a Patterson eight-yard catch from Jordan Herron to make it 22-28 with 9:11 left in the fourth. Soren McKee's 46-yard field goal with 2:30 to go made it 31-22 and settled it.
The stats say Northern Colorado was close to the better team. It had 468 total yards to 399, and 281 of them on the ground. It also threw two interceptions, while Eastern Washington had none. Eastern Washington is 2-4 and Northern Colorado is 1-4. Eastern Washington threw for 334 yards, rushed 21 times for 65, and did not need more than that. The second half belonged to Northern Colorado, 16-3, and it was still not enough. Twenty-eight points before halftime is a hard thing to chase, even with 281 rushing yards. For fantasy, Bell was the easy answer, and Garrett his favorite target.