Less than eight minutes into the Fall Classic, top-ranked Northwest Missouri had a 21-0 lead over No. 16 Pittsburg State.

Northwest was moving the ball with ease, while Pitt's first three drives ended with a fumble on their first play from scrimmage, a failed fake punt and a three-and-out.

But all of a sudden, Pitt was able to move the ball. They marched down the field and looked like they were ready to punch it into the end zone, but on a third and one, they ran up the middle and got stuffed, settling for a field goal.

I'm not going to lie. I was disgusted. Pitt was one-dimensional and ineffective. I'd call their first-half offense boring, but I feel like that might have been too complementative. Oh, sorry, they did try to go deep on consecutive plays on their second possession, but Zac Dickey's errant throws were nowhere near their targets.

Pitt was able to add another field goal, but a Jake Soy touchdown with a little over two minutes left in the half made it 28-6 going into intermission.

I remember saying just moments before the second half got underway, "If Pitt can open up with a score here, get a stop and score again, we got ourselves a ballgame, but that's a pretty big IF."

Well boy, did 'If' ever happen!? Watching that second half was some of the most fun I've had covering Division II football.

Zac Dickey found some accuracy and nailed Brown for a 49-yard touchdown, UNO transfer freshman Jason Peete returned a Blake Christopher interception 44 yards to paydirt and the Gorilla defense remembered there was a game going on.

Then when JuCo transfer Andrew Castaneda took a toss from Zac Dickey, ran toward the Pitt sideline, squared his feet and found Brown for a 56-yard touchdown strike, I knew we had ourselves a special game on our hands.

Five minutes later, Zac Dickey capped a 7-play, 60-yard drive with a one-yard TD run, giving the Gorillas 29 unanswered points and their first lead at 35-28.

The Bearcats finally answered with another touchdown, tying the game back up, but Dickey ended the game with an 11-play 72-yard drive that took the final 4:12 off the clock and culminated with the game-winning field goal as time expired.

After the game, Northwest coach Adam Dorrel was big on blaming himself for poor play-calling. He may have gotten a bit conservative, and he'll learn from that, but this game was about Pitt State, not Northwest.

The guts they showed, and Tim Beck talked about it at length in the postgame press conference, to not wittle up and die when they fell down so big so early was just amazing.

Dickey admitted they were "shell-shocked," but it didn't matter. They stuck with it, and I have to give Beck credit on a number of different levels.

First, when Pitt decided to defer to the second half, I thought 'dumb.' Northwest is going to come down and score, and right away, you're going to have to be playing from behind, something I didn't think Dickey was exactly suited for. I was right. The Bearcats did open with a score, three of them, and I thought I had proven myself right.

I wasn't a huge fan of the field goal attempt down 21-0 late in the first quarter, but Beck was right. Sometimes it's just good to get points on the board in situations like that. And those points ended up being the difference.

Lastly, HUGE props to Beck and the whole Pitt team for opening up the playbook. Remember when I called them boring just a minute ago? The second-half offense had a new life in them; Dickey was hitting his targets short (and the long pass to Brown) and the Castaneda-to-Brown play tricked everyone on the planet.

I wrote in my game preview column that those two had the ability to be difference makers, but it was up to Dickey to put them in the position. I was right and wrong. They were difference makers, but it was Beck who got them there with that play.

And Dickey! Whoa! That's the kind of play that takes a team deep into the playoffs. With 223 passing yards and another 102 on the ground, he well-outperformed my expecations of him coming into the game.

I'm still 'shell-shocked' by what transpired yesterday at Arrowhead Stadium. Like many fans on both sides of the sidelines, I'll never forget what happened, and that's just fine with me.

Other MIAA notes

I'm not leaving the other teams out of this.

Nothing else too major happened though. All the favorites won, thought maybe not in the fashion you might have expected. No. 9 Washburn outlasted Emporia 31-17, overcoming two early Dane Simoneau interceptions and shutting down the Hornets in the second half.

Fort Hays went up 14-0 early on Lincoln, but sputtered the rest of the way through their 24-14 victory over the Blue Tigers.

No. 18 Central Missouri got another great game out of quarterback Tommy Corwin and wide receiver Jamar Howard, which was enough to make up for taking a huge step backward in their running game (which only gained 47 yards on 29 carries).

Travis Partridge put out another 'bla' day through the air, but more than made up for it on the ground, rushing his way into the end zone twice to lift Missouri Western past Missouri Southern.

And Truman took care of business against D2 newcomer McKendree.

Feels kind of odd to NOT have Northwest on top of the conference standings, doesn't it? Anyway, check back later this week for my weekly High 5 power rankings and then previews of next week's games, including the big one - Northwest at Central.