DETROIT -- Marcus Childers threw a touchdown pass -- his fourth of the game -- to D.J. Brown with 1:09 to go and Northern Illinois rallied from a 20-point, second-half deficit to take a 30-29 victory over Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference championship game on Friday night.
The 35-yard TD pass came on the eighth play of a 70-yard drive that took a little more than two minutes following a punt forced by Sutton Smith's sack of Bulls quarterback Tyree Jackson.
NIU's 2-point conversion failed and the Bulls (10-3) reached the Huskies' 41-yard line before an incomplete pass on fourth down with 21 seconds left ended Buffalo's hopes.