Terry Swanson showed up, Sutton Smith didn’t
Toledo’s in the driver’s seat for the MAC West crown
It seems like people forgot that Terry Swanson was once a 1,000-yard rusher. After living through the shadows of Kareem Hunt, Swanson’s role on the team has picked up and is a huge reason for the Rockets to be 8–1 overall, 5–0 in Mid-American Conference play after Thursday’s 27–17 victory over Northern Illinois.
Since senior wide receiver Cody Thompson suffered a season-ending leg injury against Eastern Michigan at the beginning of October, Swanson has rushed for 145, 123 and 105 yards in the following three games, then had his number called 29 for 116 rushing yards and three touchdowns against the Huskies. This was his sixth game of the season with at least 100 rushing yards.
These kinds of games don’t normally happen to NIU (6–3, 4–1 MAC), the best defense in the league. Coming into Thursday’s action, NIU allowed 106.1 rushing yards per game and gave up only four rushing scores. The Huskie defense is good enough to limit offenses to 2.7 yards per carry, but the Rockets, let by Swanson, averaged 4.2 yards per rush.
Swanson didn’t have any huge rushes — his longest was for 22 yards — but he made the most out of his opportunities in the red zone. His three scores came from four, 13 and 1 yard(s) out.
It was only a 10-point win for Toledo, but Toledo’s offense put on a clinic.
The loudest play of the night was Logan Woodside’s 89-yard pass to sophomore Diontae Johnson, from the one-yard line, in the second quarter. Even though Woodside fumbled the ball away on the next play, it showed how vulnerable NIU’s defense could be.
The Woodside-Johnson connection was hot all night as they hooked up 10 times for 166 yards. Tight end Jordan Fisher caught six passes for 106 yards. Woodside, who did not throw a touchdown for the fourth time this season, completed 23 of his 31 pass attempts for 361 yards. Woodside also had 17 rushing yards on seven carries.
NIU linebacker Jawaun Johnson was injured late in the first half, tried to get back on the field to play in the second half, but it was clear that he wasn’t able to finish off the game.
The initial hit, which Jawaun Johnson laid on Logan Woodside in the red zone, initially looked like it was a head-to-head collision that lingered on for the linebacker. After the hit, neither players looked dizzy (nor were they brought out of the game for concussion-like symptoms) but it looks like Jawaun Johnson may have hyper-extended his left leg.
As Huskie Wire pointed out in another tweet, NIU’s defense has been without Kyle Pugh on defense with a torn bicep.
Sutton Smith, the sophomore defensive end who leads the nation with 20 tackles for loss, was silenced. Toledo did a great job of planning for him, out-muscled him on blocks and. He finished with two assisted tackles and one quarterback hurry.
NIU quarterback Marcus Childers had at least 300 yards of total offense in each of his three previous starts, but Toledo put just enough pressure on him and the secondary kept the NIU receivers in check for most of the game. Childers had 23 of his 43 passes competed for 235 yards and rushed 15 times for 49 yards and one score.
In all, Childers had 284 total yards of offense, but his two interceptions to Toledo’s Trevon Mathis were proven costly.
Now that Toledo has won its second-straight contest over NIU after losing the six previous matchups in the often MAC-West-deciding series, the Rockets are in control of their season with three games to go.
The Rockets will play at Ohio on Wednesday (with two fewer rest days than the Bobcats), then at Bowling Green for a rivalry game the following week, then home against Western Michigan to close out the regular season.
Toledo has not gone to the MAC Championship game since 2004 when the Rockets beat Miami 35–27.
