CONWAY, Ark. _ Four turnovers and a pounding rushing attack by Illinois State ended the season for the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Division I Playoffs at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

The Redbirds (10-4) rolled up 254 yards on the ground _ 210 from senior running back James Robinson _ intercepted three passes and recovered a fumble to advance to the quarterfinals against top-ranked North Dakota State next Saturday. The Bears (9-4), the eighth seed coming into the playoffs, were coming off a bye week and struggled offensively, putting up a season-low 256 total yards and giving the Redbirds four extra possessions. ISU had no turnovers for the second consecutive week.

"First of all, credit goes to Illinois State,' said UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "We knew they were going to be a tough opponent. They play in, you can argue it but probably not, the best conference in the FCS right now. I knew we were going to be in for a physical matchup, contradicting styles compared to what we're used to playing in the Southland Conference.

"We knew that coming in so it was not a surprise. It wasn't something that hit us off guard. But we missed some opportunities early, we turned the ball over too many times, didn't turn them over enough. We gave them too many opportunities, and when you're playing a good football team like they have, you've got no shot. Anytime you get to the second round of the playoffs and you're in the final 16, you give guys opportunities with turnovers, or not taking advantage of good field position like we didn't early in the game, you're not going to win those football games.' 
 

The Redbirds jumped out to a 21-7 halftime after amassing 230 yards of offense and holding the Bears to just 110. Robinson had 131 of ISU"s 155 rushing yards in the opening 20 minutes, including touchdown runs of 51 and 2 yards. UCA's first-half score came on a 2-yard run by senior tailback Carlos Blackman with 6:50 left in the second period. Blackman closed his career with 35 rushing yards and five receptions for 47 yards and ends up ranked seventh in career rushing at UCA with 2,870 yards.

"A lot of people don't understand this, but Carlos, he takes a lot of pressure off me,' said sophomore quarterback Breylin Smith. "If you look at the course of this game, whenever I was in trouble, I made sure to find him. He's just a special guy once he gets the ball and I trust him and I know he's going to make a play. I'm definitely going to miss him. I'm just lucky to be able to play with not only him, but all the seniors, him and Juan (Jackson), just this group of guys we had were special. You hate to see it end.' 

ISU's Robinson, an NFL prospect and the second leading rusher in the nation at the FCS level, finished with his second straight 200+ rushing game in the playoffs and now has 1,823 yards for the season. 

"He's an extremely patient runner, and we knew that going in,' said Brown. "He's almost like a Leveon Bell. He has big guys in front of him and he kind of hides behind them and waits and sets up his blocks. Just impressive, an impressive young man. He did a great job within their scheme making yards.'
 

The Bears, who recorded 11 tackles for loss and three sacks, trailed 24-7 late in the fourth quarter but put together an eight-play, 61-yard scoring drive, capped by a 1-yard pass from Smith to senior tight end Luke Ross with 1:32 to play. A perfectly executed onside kick by sophomore Hayden Ray was recovered by senior safety Juan Jackson at the UCA 49. But on UCA's third play, Smith was intercepted by Clayton Isbell at the ISU 48 to end the game.

"I thought defensively, we played winning football today,' said Brown, whose team held ISU to 329 total yards of offense. "If you take away a couple of long runs and you hold a good team to 24 points, and if we do anything on offense early in the game, it's probably a different football game.' 

Smith, who set the UCA single-season passing record two weeks ago, completed 24 of 33 passes for 198 yards and a touchdown, but also three interceptions, tying a season high. The other three interception game came in UCA's other lopsided loss, to Southeastern Louisiana in November.

"It's just tough to win the football game when you turn it over four times,' said Smith, who tied the school single-season record with his 32nd touchdown pass on Saturday. "I can't do that, I know that. That just makes it tough to win. You turn the ball over and you can't expect to win games against a good team like that.'

UCA's leading receiver, true freshman Tyler Hudson, was held to three catches for 36 yards. ISU quarterback Bryce Jefferson completed only 6 of 11 passes for 75 yards as the Redbirds stuck to the ground game for the second straight week. Robinson rushed 41 times for 297 yards in last week's first-round road victory over Southeast Missouri.
 

UCA, which beat ISU 31-24 in their last meeting in the 2016 playoffs, finished the season with at least nine wins for the third time in the past four seasons, including an FBS win over Western Kentucky. The Bears made their fifth overall appearance in the FCS Playoffs and third in the past four years and earned its second national seed. 

"We've got a young football team and we've done a lot of good things this year,' said Brown, in his second season as head coach of his alma mater. "I was looking in that huddle at the end of the game and 85 percent of our roster is back for next year. And that's what is encouraging. So there are a lot of bright spots from this season, but Illinois State played the better football game tonight and I give them a ton of credit.'