2 TD's in 28 Seconds Give Western Michigan Wild Comeback Win over Toledo

November 12, 2020 by Staff

A 9-yard TD pass off a fake spike with 17 seconds left in the game lifted Western Michigan to an improbable 41-38 win as that touchdown erased a 10-point Toledo lead in the final minute. It came just 28 seconds after the Broncos pulled to within 4 and was setup by a successful onside kick.

Trailing 38-28, Western Michigan closed to within 4 on Kaleb Eleby's 1-yard run with 45 seconds remaining, but the PAT was no good. That took a game-tying field goal out of the equation if the Broncos recovered the onside kick.

Low and behold, Western Michigan did recover the kick, and found paydirt again just 4 plays later.

Starting from their own 49, Eleby completed passes of 11 and 13 yards to Sean Tyler, and 18 to D'Wayne Eskridge. The completion was to Eskridge over the middle to Toledo's 9 and temporarily stopped the clock with 20 seconds left to move the chains. That's when Eleby faked throwing the ball to the turf to stop the clock and past left to a wide open Jaylen Hall in the endzone for the game-winning score with 17 seconds left on the clock.

That game was the last of 6 early-week MAC contests, evenly split between Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Ohio downed Akron 24-10, Kent State thumped Bowling Green 62-24, and Buffalo routed defending conference champion Miami 42-10.

The other games on Wednesday saw Ball State rally past Eastern Michigan for a 38-31 win, and Central Michigan dominate Northern Illinois 40-10.

The Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com are now 12-0 in picking outright winners in MAC games. Those picks were 3-3 against the spread this week, including a correct call of the Western Michigan victory.