Bold 2-point call, dose of belief power Western Michigan to last-minute win vs. Toledo, 14-13

Kalamazoo — Lance Taylor felt a pang of indecision, but stuck to his guns with the game on the line: Western Michigan was going for two, and the win. 

Trailing Toledo by a touchdown in the final three minutes of the MAC opener at Waldo Stadium on Saturday, Western Michigan had to first stop the Rockets and force a punt, then likely drive without timeouts and waning time to score. And on the sideline before the defense took the field, Taylor knew his team wanted to go for two when the time came, and he promised they would.

“When we had two minutes left and two timeouts,” Taylor said, recalling his sideline conversations, “I said, 'Let's go get a stop.' I said, 'We're going to go down and score on offense and when we score, I'm going to go for two.' And I told the offense the same thing. I almost didn't do that. Because those are hard decisions, there, when it matters the most. But our guys wanted to go for it and they believed in each other and they said, 'Coach, you told us we were going to go for it.' I said, 'I did. Let's go for the win.' And they executed the play.”

Sticking with his promise paid off, as a pin-pull option rollout for quarterback Broc Lowry turned into a walk-in score to give Western Michigan its first, and final, lead of the night, as the Broncos beat Toledo, 14-13, with a gritty late comeback. And following an 0-3 slog to start the season with one win slipping away, seeing a 60-minute performance pay off with win No. 1 mattered greatly to Taylor and Co. The offense did its part, special teams showed up when it needed to and the defense played lights out, save for a series to start the second half.

And the result is proof positive that the elements of strong outings in the first three losses weren’t just mirages, and that this football team still has the potential to do big things as MAC play proceeds. Taylor spoke postgame of a new belief and buy-in on the sideline this year that might not’ve been present last year, which helped propel Western Michigan to a win Saturday, the first time the Broncos have overcome a 13-point deficit in the second quarter or later under Taylor. 

“It took offense, it took defense, it took special teams,” Taylor said. “It took all 60 minutes and it took every single player and coach believing in what we were doing, to freaking come out on top.”

But to even get in a position to win, the Broncos defense first had to get a stop, one of many on Saturday, taking over after the offense turned it over on downs at the Toledo 16 yard line with 2:10 to play. 

After a handoff and a Western Michigan timeout, followed by another handoff and then the two-minute stoppage, Toledo faced 3rd and 12, with a first down more or less winning the game. Gleason dropped back to pass, got forced off his spot to his right and started to scramble, trying to stay in bounds. But tip-toeing the sideline, the Broncos forced him out, stopping the clock and saving the final timeout for Taylor to use. 

That critical stop was one of several in the game for the Western Michigan defense, which played dominantly for much of the game. The unit intercepted Gleason twice, consistently disrupted him in the backfield, and came up clutch in two instances defending a short field off a turnover.

First, a muffed punt just before halftime set up Toledo in the Western Michigan red area with less than one minute to half time. And in the second half, a fumble set up Toledo just outside the 20 of Western Michigan. Both times, Western Michigan didn’t give up a first down as Toledo kicked field goals. 

And in that pair of quick-change series, against six plays, the Western Michigan defense gave up four yards. 

“We gotta nut up as a defense,” edge rusher Nadame Tucker said postgame about the mindset in those situations. “Stand firm. That's what good defenses do. They stand firm and they don't break, no matter the situation, no matter what happened.”

After the critical stop inside of the final two minutes, Western Michigan took over at the Toledo 48 with 1:40 to work with. But it looked like a lost effort at first, as the first three plays for Western, all dropbacks, all went incomplete. 

A key 4th and 10 with the game in the balance awaited, and it would fall to Lowry to make a play. And Lowry, who played the entire game at quarterback on Saturday after he and Brady Jones shared the load the first three weeks, needed to inject some life into the passing game when it most needed it. 

With no panic, Lowry dropped back and connected with Tailique Williams as the receiver busted the Rockets’ coverage and nearly scored himself, rumbling down inside the red zone and getting tackled at the Toledo 5 yard line. 

“They all did a great job getting open,” Lowry said of his pass catchers. “It's a lot easier when your guys are wide open.” 

After a Lowry keeper took Western Michigan to the 3 yard line, Toledo head coach Jason Candle used his final timeout, with :58 left in the game. 

Lowry scored a rushing touchdown the next play, outracing defenders to the pylon and extending his right arm while laying out across the goal line. Taylor took a timeout, and felt the seeds of doubt. 

But then he looked at his team, a team that kept believing in itself, the players in each, and in what the coaching staff wanted to do, and knew he’d ride with them. Even when the results weren’t coming, this team kept the belief on Saturday, and that belief had helped whittle a 13-0 Toledo lead to a 13-12 score with the game up for grabs. 

The bold choice ended up being the correct one, as Lowry scored and the Broncos could taste victory. But with :52 seconds to play, still, kick coverage and a stop was needed. 

And following a clutch tackle by kickoff specialist Hunter Smith and one last defensive stop, the Broncos took a knee and savored the first victory. 

“And even with all of that, we had to go out there and get a stop,” Taylor said. “I mean, one of the unsung plays of the night was on kickoff. We kick the ball off, they have a great return and Hunter Smith, our kicker, makes the tackle. If he doesn't make that tackle, they might walk it off with a home run kickoff return touchdown right there. I thought that was a big play. He got him on the ground. And then our defense went out and did what it did again. Got 'em off the field and won the game.”

Because after all the challenges of the first three weeks, the Broncos never let the belief slip away that this was a good football team, and it paid off on Saturday night. 

And now, they have a bit of proof to go with that belief.