There was a sense of shock around the Missouri State football program on Saturday evening.
The fact that the Bears lost to 13th-ranked Western Illinois wasn’t especially stunning.
Especially after the team came out and sleepwalked through a first half that saw them trail 17-7 at halftime.
But the way it ended, with the Bears storming back in the fourth quarter to take a 35-31 lead, only to lose it, left the players with a glassy-eyed look of shell shock on their faces.
“We started out slow, then came out in the second half firing,” senior quarterback Brodie Lambert said.