Thursday Night Delivered: North Texas Wins a Shootout, Troy Stuns James Madison in Overtime

Thursday night was supposed to be the warm-up act. Instead, college football's Week 10 undercard delivered the two best finishes of the week so far — a 1,167-yard shootout in Denton and an overtime stunner in Harrisonburg that ended one of the longest home winning streaks in the country.

Start in Texas. North Texas beat Florida Atlantic 48-41 on Thursday night at DATCU Stadium, in a game the Associated Press noted was the first in the FBS this season with two 400-yard passers. Tayven Jackson went 33-for-46 for 404 yards and four touchdowns for the Mean Green, according to the AP and North Texas athletics. Across the field, Florida Atlantic's Caden Veltkamp was somehow better in defeat: 37-for-56 for 452 yards and five touchdown passes, tying the program record he had already matched twice before, Florida Atlantic athletics reported.

A shootout with a record book attached

The numbers kept coming. Jahiem White rushed for 193 yards and two scores for North Texas, per the AP, while FAU's Easton Messer caught every single target thrown his way — 16 receptions, a school record, for 189 yards and three touchdowns, according to Florida Atlantic athletics. The teams combined for 1,167 yards of offense, and somehow the game was still in doubt in the fourth quarter.

What matters beyond the fireworks: North Texas is now 6-2 overall and 4-0 in the American Conference, and North Texas athletics noted it is the program's first 4-0 start in conference play since it was a Sun Belt program in 2004. The Mean Green have won five straight. Florida Atlantic falls to 5-3 and 2-2 in the league — a loss that will sting precisely because the Owls' offense did more than enough to win it. North Texas hosts Rice on Nov. 7; FAU hosts UTSA on Nov. 5.

There is a bigger frame for the Denton game, too. The American Conference race now runs through North Texas: the Mean Green sit alone at 4-0 in the league, and Thursday's game was billed by Florida Atlantic athletics as a battle between the top two offenses in the American Conference — which is exactly how it played out. Winning shootouts is not a sustainable identity, and North Texas has now allowed 500 yards in back-to-back games, per North Texas athletics. But in late October, style points matter less than the zero in the conference loss column, and the Mean Green are the only team in the American still holding one.

Troy walks into Bridgeforth and walks out with the win

If Denton was chaos with the volume up, Harrisonburg was a slow-motion heist. Troy rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to stun James Madison 24-21 in overtime, with Hayden Wolfe's 27-yard field goal winning it, Troy athletics reported. The win avenged last year's Sun Belt Championship Game and snapped the Dukes' 11-game home winning streak, which Troy noted was the sixth longest in the country.

The anatomy of the comeback is the story. James Madison scored on its first two drives and led 21-7. Then Troy's defense held the Dukes scoreless for the final 38 minutes and 41 seconds of game time, according to Troy athletics. In overtime, Troy won the toss, chose defense, and got the stop it needed — Keno Jones stuffed Seth Cromwell on fourth-and-1 from the 5-yard line — before pounding the ball on the ground to set up Wolfe's kick.

James Madison's own account pointed at the real culprit: five turnovers. The Dukes piled up 408 yards of offense, per James Madison athletics, and still lost — their second straight overtime defeat, dropping them to 7-2. Troy improves to 4-4 and 2-2 in the Sun Belt, and returns home Nov. 7 for Homecoming against Louisiana Tech. JMU goes back on the Thursday stage at Southern Miss on Nov. 5.

Friday keeps the lights on

The week does not pause. Friday night's slate, per the Action Network's preview of the Oct. 30 games, sends Tulane to Charlotte with the Green Wave at 3-4 and fighting to stay alive in the American race, Baylor to UCF, and Kent State to Sacramento State, with Harvard hosting Dartmouth on the FCS side. None of them will be mistaken for playoff games. All of them, after Thursday, deserve the benefit of the doubt.

And then Saturday arrives with the heavyweight card: No. 3 Georgia against Florida in Atlanta and Ohio State at USC in Los Angeles, both previewed by the desk here. Our full college football coverage lives on the sports front, and last week's elimination-day roundup is here.

The Sports Desk's read: Thursday night is where conference races quietly turn. North Texas now owns the inside track in the American, and James Madison — a team that looked like the Sun Belt's playoff hopeful — has lost two straight overtime games and given the ball away five times in the second one. November does not forgive either habit. — Previously Staff