TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Northern Illinois fans who braved the elements and made the trip didn't have much collective voice left, but there was enough for 50 or so of them to chant Jordan Lynch's name as Lynch exited the field late Wednesday night at the Glass Bowl.
Lynch cracked a bit of a smile, but only a bit. He nodded to a few of them, then stopped to sign one autograph.
"We've been here before," Lynch said. "I was just kind of motoring along. I wanted to get back to my teammates."
He's all business, and on Wednesday night he was entirely too much for a talented Toledo team. A 35-17 Northern Illinois win clinched the Huskies' fourth-straight Mid-American Conference West Division title, and it gives them both a shot to win their third straight league title in two weeks and to crash the BCS for the second straight year.
No. 16 Northern Illinois extended its national-best road win streak to 15 and won its 24th straight MAC game by outscoring Toledo 28-7 in the second half, the backbreaker coming on a 15-play, 99-yard drive that started the fourth quarter and 5:18 later culminated in a short Lynch touchdown run, the last of 62 yards rushing he gained on the drive. Northern Illinois converted four fourth downs on the drive, three on Lynch runs, and took a 28-17 lead on Lynch's third touchdown run of the night.
He ran for 174 yards and threw for 202 on 17-of-22 passing. He stayed a step ahead of Toledo's defense for most of the night, sidestepped would-be tacklers when he didn't and gradually but forcefully knocked the wind out of a Toledo team that would have essentially clinched the MAC West via tiebreaker had it won the game.
A year after Lynch engineered drives of 99 and 97 yards in what became a 31-24 Northern Illinois win over this same Toledo team to clinch the same MAC West crown and stay on path for what became an Orange Bowl appearance, Lynch had to throw the ball away out of the back of his own end zone on first down Wednesday night to avoid a safety but two plays later turned a called pass into a seven-yard run to move the chains and start that 99-yard drive rolling.
"We practice that every day, 99-yard drives," Lynch said. "It's a dagger. We knew we were going to push it right out.
"That's how we run our ship around here. We never panic. We never flinch. We trust in the system, in our coaches, in ourselves."
Lynch looks like he's 30 and talks like he's 50. He runs like he's 22 -- and fast, and strong, and decisive.
"If I could have talked to you guys before that drive, I would have told you we were going to go score," Lynch said.
He's confident, too.
Lynch went over 100 yards rushing and scored a rushing touchdown for the sixth consecutive game. His top receiver, Tommylee Lewis, missed the game due to injury and his second-best receiver, Da'ron Brown, fresh off a 209-yard receiving performance last week, went down in the first quarter. Lynch still completed passes to eight different receiver, eight for 121 yards to Juwa Brescacin.
"I haven't seen anything (that can rattle Lynch)," Northern Illinois coach Rod Carey said. "He's doing a great job. I said it last week and I'll say it again. If he's not in the Heisman conversation, I don't know who should be in the country."
A possible invite to the Downtown Athletic Club awaits. It's far from a certainty with six quarterback-driven teams still unbeaten, but Lynch has been so good in big moments that he'll at least deserve consideration. There's one regular season game left, a likely laugher over struggling Western Michigan, then it's on to Detroit for the MAC Championship Game. If NIU is unbeaten and can finish ahead of Fresno State, it will be back to the BCS.
Wednesday marked another business trip, a short flight to play a seven-win Toledo team that hadn't lost at home this season and had only lost to Missouri, Florida and Ball State. The Rockets led, 10-7, at halftime after Northern Illinois missed three field goals and failed to score in the second quarter, marking just the second time in 42 quarters of the season that happened.
Toledo went up, 17-14, with 8:34 left in the third quarter. In the next three drives, Northern Illinois scored three times, racking up 240 yards on 30 plays and did it not without resistance, but without hesitation.
"I'd say this team is (better than last year's)," Lynch said. "We're undefeated. We're rolling. We have great senior leadership and a lot of young guys, but they don't play like that.
"We're a championship level football team. We're not afraid of anything. We've been here before."
