Mistakes, missed opportunities plague CMU in 24-21 loss against Florida Atlantic
Brian ManzulloDETROIT - A season full of promise ended in disappointment Friday at the Motor City Bowl.
A little more than one month ago, at 8-2, the CMU football team was looking at winning its third consecutive Mid-American Conference championship and earning its first-ever Top 25 ranking.
It instead ends the 2008 season with three consecutive losses. Damaging penalties and missed opportunities plagued the Chippewas yet again, much like they did against Ball State and Eastern Michigan, resulting in a 24-21 loss to Florida Atlantic of the Sun Belt Conference.
The loss is CMU's second consecutive in the Motor City Bowl and leaves the team at 8-5 overall this season.
"We just didn't make the plays that needed to be made," said coach Butch Jones. "I thought we played well defensively, well enough to win, but offensively I was really disappointed with our performance.
"The problem I had is we didn't even execute the base stuff on offense. We felt like we left a lot of opportunities out there. We'll take a look at it and we'll get it corrected."
Although the team committed just five penalties in the game, several of them severely hampered CMU in the second half.
In the third quarter, after FAU quarterback Rusty Smith threw an incomplete pass on third down, junior defensive end Larry Knight was flagged for roughing the passer, resulting in 15 yards and an automatic first down.
On the next play, Smith found receiver Chris Bonner deep for a 52-yard touchdown pass to give the Owls a 17-10 lead.
After making it 17-13 on a 33-yard field goal by Andrew Aguila, CMU looked primed to retake the lead when sophomore wide receiver Antonio Brown took a reverse play 72 yards for a touchdown. However, sophomore wide receiver Kito Poblah's facemask penalty downfield offset an FAU offside penalty, forcing Central to replay the down at its 28-yard line.
"We get the big play with Antonio, and then it gets called back," Jones said. "That hurt us and took away some momentum."
The drive ended in a punt four plays later, setting up a 9-play, 70-yard touchdown drive for FAU (7-6 overall) to extend the lead to 24-13.
The Chippewas prepared for a comeback the following drive, going as far as FAU's 1-yard line before falling short on fourth down at the 6-yard line.
Instead of kicking a field goal and making it an 8-point game, Jones kept the offense on the field to go for the touchdown. Junior quarterback Dan LeFevour's pass to Brown was deflected, leaving CMU with zero points on the drive with 5:34 remaining.
"I knew if we kicked the field goal, we'd get it to eight," Jones said. "I felt we had a good football play, and I knew if we stopped them, three-and-out, we'd get good field position. . I had confidence in my offense that we'd get the job done."
Central regained the ball with 4:18 remaining and scored on LeFevour's 15-yard touchdown pass to Brown. LeFevour then found Poblah in the end zone for the two-point conversion.
With two timeouts, the Chippewas chose the onside kick, but failed to regain possession, allowing the Owls to run the clock out.
"It's very disappointing for us," said LeFevour, who finished 28-for-40 for 253 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. "The sad part is we don't have another opportunity this year. Hopefully that will make us hungrier next year."
Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger now is 6-0 in bowl games throughout his coaching career, which included stints with Miami (Fl.) and Louisville. He led FAU to a 44-27 win over Memphis in the New Orleans Bowl last season.
CMU, meanwhile, enters the offseason with a more sour feeling.
"Were not going to forget this," Jones said. "This will be something we'll carry on through winter conditioning and spring ball.
"I'm just extremely upset for our seniors that have meant so much to this family. We wanted to send them out with a victory and that didn't happen."
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