Miscues spoil Western Michigan’s strong showing in OT collapse, 33-30 loss to North Texas

Kalamazoo — After teammates picked each other up off the field at Waldo Stadium, and the North Texas celebration retreated from the east end zone to the visitors locker room, and the reality of a squandered home win set in, Western Michigan faced a sobering reality after a 33-30 loss in overtime. 

There was no one to blame but themselves. 

“I’ll go to war with that group in there any day of the week because they laid it on the line,” Taylor said. “They're hurting right now, like we all are. But I am proud of the fight. We will grow and learn and get better from this.”

And unlike the countless times a message along the lines We felt like we could win this football game gets laundered through a postgame press conference, when Taylor spoke to media briefly — after the Broncos watched a second half lead slip, cost themselves a chance to a game-winning field goal and eventually lost in overtime as penalties and miscues were too much to overcome — it was true. Western Michigan could’ve, and maybe arguably should’ve, won on Saturday. 

Because on a day where the Broncos led by two scores in the second half, dominated the time of possession, rushed for more than 200 yards and had the ball across midfield in a tie game with a chance to bleed down the final minutes, just a handful of plays did cost Western Michigan a win.

“So I think we're going to continue to get better as we look at this film and really see the things that we can clean up,” Taylor said. “Because we were really one or two plays away from winning this football game.”

Facing a North Texas team that plays up tempo Air Raid, spreading the field and attacking down it, the script Western Michigan wanted to follow was simple: Control the ball and shorten the game.

And the Broncos did just that. 

With Brady Jones starting at quarterback, the Broncos offensive line went to work early, and the offense dialed up five straight handoffs to talented tailback Jalen Buckley before attempting a pass. Neither drive scored, but both flipped the field and, starting drives inside the 10, the North Texas offense couldn’t get in rhythm.

But things really shifted into a road-grading gear for Western Michigan with Broc Lowry entering at quarterback on the third drive.

The better runner of the two, Lowry helped establish a ground-centric game plan — the Broncos carried it 54 times on Saturday as a team — that kept the Broncos offense on the field and, for most of the game, ahead, as he played effectively the rest of the game after entering.

He sparked the scoring in the second quarter, breaking a 0-0 tie when he took a quarterback keeper up the middle, broke a tackle through the line of scrimmage, and scampered 25 yards into the end zone. 

And as much as the play calling relied on brute force running for the Broncos, some timely passes and getting Lowry on the move paid dividends. Twice, to convert key short yard situations, the Broncos lined up in a heavy look and faked a give to the back, rolled Lowry right and got him an easy flat completion to tight end Blake Bosma, converting both times. 

And for the second touchdown of the game, from inside the Mean Green 20, Lowry had Buckley lined up to his right in the shotgun and faked a handoff. Buckley kept up with the fake, jogging out through the left side of the line, where the defenders left him alone. 

Lowry just had to lob it his way for a walk in touchdown, the first for both through the air. 

“Our offensive staff really put together a really good game plan to attack — to one, put us in position to succeed, use our strengths really well, and attack some of their weaknesses,” Taylor said. 

The defense played its part well, too.

Teeing up against a backed-up offense, the pass rush got to work and recorded a few sacks on Drew Mestemaker, including a multi-sack day by Rodney McGraw. 

In the first half, outside of one touchdown drive fueled by a handful of chunk plays that North Texas hit on, the Broncos defense forced four stops, three of them on three and outs, getting the ball back quickly to the offense that kept grinding clock and limiting possessions. 

Special teams played its part, too, as kicker Palmer Domschke went 2-for-2 on field goal attempts, hitting from 40 and 43 yards, and punter Ryan Millmore had five punts for 178 yards, with one going for more than 50 yards and four downed inside the 20 — three of them were downed inside the 10. 

And the offense-defense-special teams synergy had Western Michigan with the game in its palm with 14:13 to play, leading 27-17. 

“We really made this, and turned this into the type of game we wanted it to be,” Taylor said. “We dictated the tempo early and often in the first half with our offense, defense and special teams. We made this a physical game.”

Then it all started to unravel. 

Early in the fourth quarter, North Texas marched 68 yards in nine plays in just more than four minutes. With 10:03 to play, the Broncos offense wanted to bleed clock, but failed, posting back-to-back three and outs, with a stop from the defense sandwiched in between. 

On the second of those three and outs, the Broncos were going to attempt a 4th and 1 just across the 50, getting close to a spot where the offense could bleed out the remaining 3:32. Then right guard Gavin Dabo false started and a punt followed. 

After holding North Texas to a game-tying field goal on the ensuing drive, the Broncos had 1:35 to drive into range to give Domschke a third attempt, this time to win the game. 

The North Texas 47 yard line was as far as that drive got, as a 1st and 10 incompletion was wiped out by a personal foul on Dabo, setting the Broncos back into home territory for a 1st and 25. 

Some of the penalties and nastiness Taylor could abide by, even if he didn’t love it, after earlier in the week challenging his team to play more physically and with a pronounced edge. He understood that in striving for that, there might be some “aggressive-type” penalties coming from plays. 

“What we can't have are pre-snap or post-snap penalties,” Taylor said. “As you saw, some of the post-snap penalties really killed us. We had one early, an unsportsmanlike, then we had one late. Both of those were really costly penalties, which we can't have. Those are self-inflicted wounds that we'll get better from and have to grow from.”

Western Michigan didn’t want to give the ball back to North Texas, so Taylor opted to bleed it down and attempt an ultimately futile Hail Mary at the end of regulation. 

“I will evaluate that for myself, whether we executed that situation correctly,” Taylor said, of opting to end the half with the ball. “I thought we did based on analytics and what the book told us in terms of the timeouts. We would've loved to have been able to move the ball and given Palmer a chance for a game-winning field goal. That's what you're really hoping for there.”

Self-inflicted issues persisted in overtime.

Getting the ball to start, Western Michigan shifted the backfield into a wildcat look for the first play, with Jalen Buckley behind the center in the shotgun, Lowry to his left. Buckley got a low snap, and fell on it for a 5 yard loss. That hamstrung any touchdown chances, and Domschke came on and made a 51-yard field goal for a 30-27 lead. 

Needing to hold the Mean Green to a field goal to keep the game going, a pass interference one play and then taunting by Jarvarius Sims on another, later, put North Texas on the doorstep. 

Makenzie McGill II powered in off the right side for the game winning touchdown in overtime from three yards out.

The North Texas sideline personnel poured on to the field. The Western Michigan sideline cohort shrank, shook hands with the victors and sidled up the tunnel, back to the locker room, accepting the reality that a win slipped away.