Central Michigan can’t overcome 21-point deficit, falls to Toledo in midweek thriller
In a game littered with gif-worthy moments that began with three unanswered Toledo Rocket touchdowns, it was a Cooper Rush interception with five seconds to go that ended the game Tuesday, 28-23.
Central Michigan football (5-5, 4-2 Mid-American Conference) had three chances to take a late lead after its stout defense slowed the surging Rocket offense.
“Coming out, they were passing all over us and that was opening up the run,” said senior safety Kavon Frazier. “Coach Colby was able to make a couple adjustments up front to stop the run like some movements, but other than that, our (defensive backs) just wanted to play man, so we manned up, and I think that helped.”
Frazier said Toledo’s no-huddle offense didn’t allow for the CMU defense to make substitutions, causing early problems for the defense.
“I think they caught us on one of them, we were just trying to get somebody off the field, we had 12 men on the field and we had to call a timeout,” Frazier said. “It’s definitely exhausting and definitely a pain to get everybody on and off the field.”
The Chippewas used two of their three second-half timeouts in the third quarter, which punished the team when Toledo was attempting to run out the clock with under two minutes to go.
“You always wish you have timeouts when you had to use them because you were out of position on defense or a play goes in late offensively,” said Head Coach John Bonamego. “That’s on us, two of those are on the coaches.”
Rush finished the day 33-for-52 for 349 yards and a pair of touchdowns before the interception on his final throw of the game.
“No timeouts is tough,” Rush said. “You start launching and hopefully something good happens.”
Rush’s two touchdowns give him 64 career passing scores, passing Ryan Radcliff for the second-most in program history. Dan LeFevour has the most with 102 passing touchdowns.
The Rockets had multiple chances to put the game out of reach, but missed a pair of field goals, including a 21-yarder and a 33-yarder. The attempt from the 4-yard line came a couple plays after the referees called a snap infraction on the marching band and cheerleaders.
The missed field goal resulted in a chorus of boos, a reinvigorated crowd of 13,490 and an animated Bonamego in the third quarter with CMU trailing 21-17.
“I never did get an explanation on that one," Bonamego said on the snap infraction call. "I tried to get their attention to come over but no one ever came over.”
The Chippewas took the ball all the way to the 2-yard line, but a pass interference call on first-and-goal and a sack pushed CMU back and junior kicker Brian Eavey couldn't convert on a 51-yard field goal attempt.
“I thought our student section in particular was outstanding,” Bonamego said. “I really appreciate it and want to thank them. I’m just sorry we came up a little bit short this time.”
While CMU falls from the MAC title race, the Chippewas can clinch bowl eligibility next Wednesday on the road at Kent State.
“I think it shows the character of our team to be down 21 points like that and still fight, crawl and scratch our way back into the football game,” Bonamego said. “There are a lot of football teams out there that would have packed it in. That could have ended up being a fifty-something to nothing football game. I just think we’ve got a lot of character and a lot of fight in our locker room.”
