Northern Illinois (4-3, 3-0 MAC) detonated in the fourth quarter for 34 points against the Miami (OH) RedHawks (4-3, 2-1) to come back and win 48-41 on Saturday in MAC football action.
'That was a great win. It didn't look very good when it was 27-7. Sometimes you get up and are in control, they had everything going their way and I think psychologically they might have let up a little bit," said NIU Head Coach Joe Novak. "(Tailback Michael) Turner had a big run to get us going, made some big plays after that and we came out ahead."
Turner exploded for 232 yards and 20 carries while hitting paydirt five times to help erase the 20-point deficit NIU faced in the second half. He scored three touchdowns in a seven minute span to tie the game at 27.
"Michael is fast, and he's a load to tackle," Novak added. "He popped that one long run and then they were concerned with him so we hit the two big plays with the pass. Josh threw some good passes and we came out with big scores."
Those scores set the stage for quarterback Josh Haldi to put the Huskies in the lead when he threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Dan Sheldon with 11:09 remaining, putting Northern Illinois up 34-27.
"Miami does a great job taking the run away, which takes Turner away from us. If you're going to make us beat you throwing the ball then that's what we'll do, and we did," said Novak
Miami would answer back however, when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger connected for a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jason Branch with 4:36 remaining.
Roethlisberger broke his own MAC passing record on the day going 41-61 with 525 yards and four touchdown passes. Unfortunately for the RedHawks, he also threw three interceptions.
Northern Illinois put the game out of reach by scoring the next two touchdowns.
Around the MAC
Central Florida (2-3, 1-1) slipped by Western Michigan (2-4, 1-1) 31-27 en route to their first MAC win in school history. Quarterback Rob Schneider threw for three touchdowns and 341 yards . Bowling Green (5-0, 2-0) quarterback Josh Harris ran for three touchdowns and threw for another as the Falcons beat Central Michigan (3-3, 1-1) 45-35. BGSU is now ranked 23rd in the nation according to the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll . Ohio (2-5, 2-1) outgunned Eastern Michigan (3-4, 1-2) 55-27. Running back Chad Brinker rushed for 127 yards and a school record four touchdowns to lead the Bobcats . Toledo (4-2, 2-0) crushed Ball State (2-4, 0-2) 37-17 on the strength of quarterback Brian Jones. The Rockets' QB accounted for four touchdowns (three through the air) and passed for 258 yards . Akron (1-6, 0-3) beat up on hapless Liberty to give the Zips their first win of the season.
