A good running game is rare to see in this era of football that we live in, but that's precisely how the Northern Illinois Huskies won their first MAC game of the season Saturday night.
The Huskies (2-3, 1-0 MAC) ran 49 times for a total of 240 yards in their 13-6 win over the visiting Kent State Golden Flashes. The ground game made up for a meager passing game by NIU quarterback Josh Haldi, who went 7-19 for 60 yards.
The Golden Flashes (2-3, 0-2 MAC) were not anemic in their offense as one might believe. With more total yards (338) than the Huskies (300), their Achilles' heel was poor production when they needed to move the chains. Kent State went 2-15 on third down conversions and 0-2 on fourth down conversions bringing down the guillotine on many of their drives.
"I hope you know what a big win that is for us," NIU Head Coach Joe Novak said. "They're (KSU) a good, well-coached, team - tough to play against. It was a great win for us. We needed that for our psyche. Our defense played outstanding."
Huskies' wide receiver Dan Sheldon ran back a 90-yard kick off for a touchdown at the beginning of the second quarter. It was the only touchdown scored in the game.
NIU running back Michael Turner rumbled through Kent State's for 203 yards on 40 carries. No big deal for Turner, who leads his team and is second in the conference with 539 rushing yards. He also ranks third in the conference in points with 36.
Kent State quarterback Joshua Cribbs went 14-27 with 109 yards and one interception in the loss. Eddie Beccles led the Golden Flash running game with 16 rushes for 109 yards.
The MAC had three winless teams heading into Saturday's action. Only the Akron Zips remain.
The Zips (0-5, 0-2 MAC) were handed their fifth loss of the season by the Miami (OH) RedHawks, 48-31 before 17,298 fans at Akron's Rubber Bowl. Central Florida and Ohio, the other two winless teams, each put one in the win column Saturday.
Things started off promising for the Zips. The first quarter belonged to Akron as quarterback Charlie Frye connected with wide receiver Matt Cherry for a 22-yard touchdown. With 4:55 remaining in the first, running back Brandon Payne stormed into the end zone for a 1-yard run, putting Akron up 14-0.
The Zips, however, eventually shot themselves in the foot and never recovered.
After a RedHawks' touchdown run by running back Luke Clemens late in the first quarter and a Jared Parseghian 29-yard field goal in the second, Akron made their biggest error of the game - with 6:52 on the clock, they fumbled.
When the dust from the ensuing mad rush and pile on had settled, Miami defensive lineman Ryan Terry had recovered and returned the fumble to put the Redhawks on top 20-14.
Miami (3-2, 2-0 MAC) never looked back and their defense helped by notching five sacks on the day for a total loss of 39 yards.
Akron Head Coach Lee Owens questioned his team's heart as he searched for an explanation as to why they blew yet another early lead.
"I don't know how to explain it, this has happened to us a couple of times. I don't know if we're not doing the job we need to do adjusting, or the team is wearing down. They exploited some weaknesses and I think it's a combination of all those," Owens said. "Right up until the very end it looked as though there were eleven guys fighting on those last couple of drives. I'm starting to question if there was some kind of letdown that you can't have on a football team. It seemed like it was to easy at the end on Miami's last couple series."
Zips' quarterback Charlie Frye went 29-46 with 348 yards and two touchdowns.
Miami's sophomore quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw for 240 yards on a 16-22 day. Clemens led the RedHawks by charging for 153 yards on 24 attempts with three touchdowns.
Mike Langford's 37-yard field goal on Ball State's (2-2, 0-0 MAC) first possession of overtime was enough to push the Cardinals to a 24-21 win over the Connecticut Huskies.
On their overtime possession UConn managed to move the ball to the Cardinal's 27, but Marc Hickock's 37-yard field goal sailed wide to the right and gave Ball State their second victory of the year. Hickock had two missed field goals in the game, also missing a 48-yard attempt with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.
"Langford came through with a big kick, and then the defense held them to no first down and forced their kicker to make a big play," BSU Head Coach Bill Lynch said. "He is a good kicker, but things change in overtime and it didn't go through for him today."
Marcus Merriweather led the Cardinals with 124 rushing yards on 28 carries. He scored one touchdown, and also had five catches for 70 yards.
Derrick Vickers completed only 12 of 25 passes for a feeble 88 yards in Central Michigan's 43-0 shutout at the hands of Boston College. The Eagles had 525 yards in the game, more than double the amount of the Chippewas' . Fifth-ranked Virginia Tech routed Western Michigan 30-0 as the Hokies and their No. 2 rushing defense allowed only 37 rushing yards in the game . Three turnovers for Toledo did not help the efforts of quarterback Brian Jones and his 306 passing yards as the Rockets fell to Pittsburgh 37-19 . Central Florida beat up on Liberty 48-17 as quarterback Ryan Schneider threw 23-31 for 397 yards and four touchdowns . Eastern Michigan managed to squeak by Southern Illinois 48-45 in double overtime.
