Toledo’s undefeated season disappears in 32-27 loss to NIU
Hours after Toledo was ranked in the first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings, the Rockets’ undefeated season went away.
The Rockets fell 32-27 to Northern Illinois on Tuesday night at home. Its the Rockets’ sixth-straight loss to NIU. And it couldn’t have come at a worse possible time.
Toledo was ranked No. 24 and entered the game 7-0. If it finished the season undefeated it had a chance to make it to a New Year’s Six bowl game if it passed Memphis and Temple in the CFP rankings. Now those chances are pretty much gone.
The Rockets had a chance to score with two minutes to go but on the first play of their final drive, QB Phillip Ely threw a short pass to RB Kareem Hunt. The ball sailed through Hunt’s hands and was intercepted.
NIU simply had to run out the clock.
While the road upset for NIU (6-3) was unexpected, it was even more so given what happened in the first half to two of the team’s most important offensive players. Wide receiver Tommylee Lewis, who caught a 67-yard tochdown pass and finished with five catches for 125 yards, suffered an apparent left knee injury.
Immediately after Lewis exited the game, QB Drew Hare was lost for the game with an apparent injury to his right ankle. He left the field unable to put any weight on his right leg and was replaced by Ryan Graham. Following the game, NIU coach Rod Carey said Hare would be out for the season.
Carey: Hare out for season
— HuskieWire (@HuskieWire) November 4, 2015
Graham finished the game 9-12 passing for 137 yards and a touchdown and also had a 38-yard run. He found Kenny Golladay on two consecutive plays on the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter (though Golladay got away with pass interference on the first), and RB Joel Bouagnon scored four plays later.
Ely, meanwhile, struggled. As NIU’s QBs combined to average over 11 yards per attempt, Ely didn’t break five. He finished 15-33 passing for 136 yards a touchdown and two interceptions.
Not only does the loss take Toledo from the ranks of the unbeaten but it also drops the Rockets out of first place in the MAC’s West Division. Toledo is now in a three-way tie for second with Central Michigan and NIU as Western Michigan has sole possession of first at 4-0.
The Rockets can still win the West with games against CMU and WMU remaining in addition to a game against Bowling Green. But with three teams in the CFP top 25, the American Athletic Conference now has a wide-open road to the New Year’s Six bowl berth reserved for the highest-ranked non-Power Five team.
For more Toledo news, visit RocketNation.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
