MUNCIE, Ind. — East Central Indiana greeted Toledo harshly on Saturday.
The sky was gray. The wind was whipping. Rain fell intermittently. The wind chill was in the 40s.
But the nation’s ninth-ranked scoring offense was unfazed, as the Rockets got three points on a 16-play, 87-yard opening drive. The second possession appeared to be even more successful, with Toledo inside the Ball State 10-yard line.
Then running back Peny Boone fumbled, and the Cardinals recovered. It wouldn’t be the last Boone factored into Saturday’s result, a sloppy, bumpy journey across the finish line that Toledo won 13-6.
“Tough day,” UT coach Jason Candle said. “Tough weather. Not a great environment.”
Toledo’s six-game win streak is its longest since 2015 when the Rockets began the season 7-0. They’re bowl eligible for the 14th consecutive season, the eighth-longest current streak in the country.
Boone stood on the sideline during the next possession and returned later in the second quarter. On 4th-and-1 from the Ball State 43, he got the ball on a zone read and bounced the ball outside instead of going forward. He was met by several Ball State defenders and taken down for a 5-yard loss, drawing a tongue-lashing from Candle.
The two first-half mistakes drew the ire of Boone’s coaches and the Toledo fan base. One group managed a delicate situation, while the other didn’t care to see one of the nation’s top rushers on the field again.
“When somebody makes a mistake, everybody wants to cancel them out and get rid of them,” Candle said. “When my kids make mistakes, I can’t trade my kids in. I Talk to my children and make sure they’re good, just like we’re going to talk to our players and make sure they understand the magnitude of their mistakes and that they fix them.”
In the second half, Boone had 109 yards and the game-winning touchdown, averaging more than eight yards per carry.
“That [fumble] was a low for me,” he said. “I knew it couldn’t affect me. The NIU game when I fumbled, it affected me in a big way. I just knew I had to bounce back and help the team.”
Ball State kicked a field goal to tie the score at 6 with 4:56 left in the fourth quarter. The Rockets — going into a gusty wind — took over at their own 28. Quarterback Dequan Finn set up the drive with a 32-yard pass to Jerjuan Newton on the first play. Boone followed with a 5-yard run, Finn threw an incomplete pass, and then Boone ran for 13, 10, and three yards in successive plays, the final carry resulting in an end zone plunge.
Boone shared a long embrace with running backs coach Nate Cole when he reached the sideline.
“Seeing him after that fumble, you could see his head was down,” Finn said. “I just told him, ‘You’re good, bro. Just be you. Let that go. We have a full game to play.’ He held his head high. You started seeing those runs — 6-yard gains, 7-yard gains — and then he was popping off one for 30 yards.”
The Cardinals had 1:27 and 80 yards to try and tie (or win) the game. Or some 50 yards to get into field-goal range, though coach Mike Neu opted to punt from similar territory throughout the day.
They got two yards on first down and, on the second play, running back Rico Barfield was five yards clear of the defense on a wheel route down the home sideline, but the pass hit his hands and then bounced off his facemask. Ball State didn’t gain another yard.
Maxen Hook intercepted a pass on 4th-and-8, Boone broke off a 48-yard run, and Finn took three knees, setting up a Mid-American Conference showdown next Saturday between the Rockets (6-1, 3-0) and Miami (6-1, 3-0).
“I had to be a little patient,” Finn said. “It was raining. It was slick out there. We had some players banged up. But we kept the main thing the main thing, and that’s getting a dub. I couldn’t be more satisfied with that.”
The same thought permeated through the locker room, as Toledo was able to muster a win with less than 400 yards of offense.
Finn completed 15 of 27 passes for 166 yards, and Boone rushed for 153 yards on 22 carries. Jacquez Stuart was injured in the second quarter, requiring the services of Willie Shaw III, who rushed for 35 yards on nine carries.
Opponents were only rushing for 112.8 yards against Ball State, which has the nation’s No. 31-ranked rush defense. The Rockets had 210.
“We tried to dissect the defense as best as we could,” Finn said. “Later on, we figured out it was the run game. Once we figured that out, it was over.”
The UT offensive line has not given up a sack since the San Jose State game on Sept. 16.
Ball State was limited to 205 total yards and 38 passing yards, the fewest Toledo has allowed since 2000.
“You can’t simulate adversity in practice,” Candle said. “You think you can, and you try to create it as best you can as a staff. But you can’t come close to moments like this.”
First Published October 14, 2023, 11:45 p.m.
