On the day after Halloween, Northern Illinois and Toledo gave viewers a chance to see the highest scoring non-overtime game in Mid-American Conference history. Northern Illinois scored on a 4-yard touchdown pass with 19 seconds to go to prevail over Toledo 63-60 in a game where both teams combined for 123 points, 1,124 yards from scrimmage, eight lead changes, and a remarkable 17 touchdowns.

Dave Lamont and former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown were the play-by-play announcers for the night and they did a great job and captured the excitement that occurred in Toledo, Ohio. College Football Primetime on Tuesday nights typically is reserved for small market, mid-major match-ups which don’t normally receive national exposure. It is their chance to be on ESPN. I personally enjoy watching MAC football games because of the small cities they come from and how the city is captured as part of the broadcasts. In the Halloween spirit, ESPN had cameras go in some haunted houses at the Lucas County fairgrounds and throughout the game viewers saw different footage of various Halloween themes.Lamont and Brown did a great job incorporating some Halloween words into game action.

For the majority of the game, the announcers’ primary player they featured was receiver Eric Page from Toledo, who was arguably the best player on the field. I think when viewers see a Tuesday night college football game on, they either watch because of a big-time matchup or a big-time player. Eric Page was the main reason people tuned in to watch NIU and Toledo. I did not see anything wrong with this because he was the most exciting and top player in the game. Tim Brown talked about Page’s ability to play in the NFL and whenever Page made a great play, he gave insight into why Page’s footwork, speed, or cutting ability was good enough for the NFL. I think one of the reasons Tim Brown was doing the broadcast was to give viewers his insight and expert opinion on Eric Page.

Dave Lamont really finished the broadcast of the game with some great lines that made you look back at the game. His final line of the night came after he rattled off the numbers from the game and finished with, “Goodnight from Toledo” which was a great way to end the broadcast for a Tuesday Night college football game, in my opinion.