No. 19 Toledo Rockets vs. Massachusetts Minutemen football recap: Rockets rebound hardcore, win 51-35

The No. 19 Toledo Rockets come back from a three-possession deficit at halftime, comeback to a 51-35 win against Massachusetts Minutemen on the road.

The Rockets looked real depressing-like in the first half. Going into the locker room at halftime, they were down by 18 to a team that's lost nine times already, including a 15-10 pooper against Kent State last week on Homecoming. Phillip Ely throws three interceptions in the first half, where the Minutemen would capitalized on the responsive drives.

But something must have been said in that locker room to fire them up. Something's usually said in the locker room, I assume, because it's hard to explain that they haven't allowed a single point in the third quarter all season otherwise. But they started holding UMass to three-n-outs with frequency and Ely cleaned up his own mess.

Ely ended the day 26-for-47 for 355 yards with five touchdown passes to four different players. That first half, Ely missed a pair of easy touchdown passes to Michael Roberts and Corey Jones but were overthrown, but battled back once he stopped turning the ball over in the second. And with Blake Frohnapfel on the other side, you're sort of in a pitchers' duel anyways.

But unlike Frohnapfel, the Rockets have a really good rushing attack. Terry Swanson led things with 118 yards on 21 handles and even had a score while Kareem Hunt carried the ball 20 times and picked up 90 yards on the ground. That, Alonzo Russell helped him out  and Cody Thompson had a big game too: both combined for 11 receptions, 212 yards and three touchdowns.

Tajae Sharpe's going to be missed. For a team that falls to 1-6, he was a fun watch against Toledo, as he's always been. 12 receptions (Frohnapfel had 27 completions), 159 yards, was just one yard shy for a third touchdown. Frohnapfel was 27-for-48 for the game, four touchdown and an non-harmful interception at the closing seconds of the first half.

The Rockets remain undefeated at 7-0 (4-0 Mid-American Conference) while UMass slips to 1-6 (0-3 MAC). Toledo will be off next weekend, but will be playing against Northern Illinois on Tuesday, November 3 at home. UMass will play a struggling Ball State team on the road on Saturday, October 31.