"Embarrassing" Chippewas Fall to Rival Ball St. - alifeincomplete's Dynasty

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"Embarrassing" Chippewas Fall to Rival Ball St.

Posted on November 2, 2013 at 04:57 PM.

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"Embarrassing" Chippewas Fall to Rival Ball St.
Adam B. Fictitious | OSPN FBS Correspondent | November 2, 2013

Muncie, IN -- After two consecutive bye weeks following their comeback upset victory over Northern Illinois, the Central Michigan Chippewas (5-3; 3-1) headed down to Indiana to take on MAC rival Ball State (4-5; 2-3). The result is surely turning a lot of heads around the conference. Favored by ten points, CMU failed to produce all evening on the field and fell victim to a fearsome defensive effort that left the team without answers.

Ball State's pass rush blasted QB Cody Kater for five sacks, numerous hurries and knockdowns, and resulted in one interception on an ill-conceived cross-body throw as Kater scrambled for his life. The Cardinals offense lit up CMU's conference-leading defense, hanging 417 total yards on the Chippewas in a demoralizing 35-21 defeat.

"We didn't have a solution out there this afternoon. It was on every front ... thoroughly outplayed, outperformed, out-coached," Coach Boyd said following the loss that dropped the Chippewas to 5-4 on the season and 3-2 in MAC play.

"We made a lot of mistakes," Kater said in his brief interview. "I made a lot of mistakes out there. It wasn't a... it was a bad game. Not really a lot of different ways to put it."

While the score seems close on paper, it can be easily argued that it is a deceptive outcome. The game was never really close in observation; Ball State jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Their offense, powered by sophomore RB Jahwan Edwards, played high-tempo, mistake-free football. Edwards accounted for the lion's share of play, 194 yards on the ground, including a game-opening 69 yard long on their first play, and two rushing touchdowns. He also caught 7 balls for 58 yards.

On CMU's opening drive, everything seemed to click as it did against NIU. They once again adopted a no-huddle, run-first scheme that featured a healthy dosage of RBs Zurlon Tipton and Saylor Lavallii. But the wheels came off in the red zone, where CMU failed to punch it in and then missed the subsequent field goal. A second drive met the same result -- a missed 43-yarder -- and the Cardinals capitalized to go ahead 14-0. With the running game contained, CMU turned to Kater to lead their comeback through the air. While he produced solid numbers on the stat line (27/45 330 yards 2 TDs, 1 INT), BSU's constant pressure broke the Chippewas' momentum often and resulted in multiple dead-end drives.

"It was frustrating," Kater said.

His coach echoed that sentiment: "Whenever we found some success in the passing game, we were shut down. We never got that consistency that you need to win football games against good teams. We couldn't do it out there today."

On his team's season-worst defensive showing? "Embarrassing," Coach Boyd said.

The loss may not affect the Chippewas too much in the long-run, assuming they can win out at least. The MAC West is by far the weaker division this year. If the season ended today, Central Michigan would play Kent State (8-1; 4-0) in the MAC Championship.

CMU has another tough test ahead next week as they take on their hated rival, Western Michigan, in Kalamazoo.