Herds win not so Thundering
Terrence Jackson’s reemergence was not enough to overcome a 20-point deficit as CMU dropped its fifth consecutive game, losing 23-18 to Marshall Saturday.
Jackson ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns. The junior runningback’s first big game of the season was overmatched by Thundering Herd quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Byron Leftwich.
Leftwich finished 29-42 with 374 yards. He threw two touchdown passes and was intercepted once.
“You’re looking at a guy who I think is going to light up the NFL,” said Head Coach Mike DeBord. “When you have a player like that, they are hard to stop.”
Leftwich’s TD passes moved him out of a tie for 15th all-time in NCAA Division-IA touchdown passes with Stanford’s John Elway and Syracuse’s Donavon McNabb. Both players went on to become NFL superstars. Leftwich also moved up to third in MAC passing yards, surpassing Bowling Green’s Brian McClure. He also moved above the 10,000 career yards mark, with 10,322.
The Thundering Herd moved into the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll at the 25 spot with the win. This is the second time this season that a team has used its win over CMU to move into those polls.
“You got to be able to do that. When you don’t play your best, and still get away with a win, I give Central Michigan a lot of credit. Those kids played hard and with a lot of energy,” said Marshall Head Coach Bob Pruett.
MAC East-leading Marshall is now 6-1 and 4-0 in MAC play.
CMU is 3-5, 1-3 after winning their first three games.
Marshall got out to a 20-0 lead in the second quarter after two Curtis Head field goals and two Leftwich touchdown passes. CMU outscored them 18-3 the rest of the game.
The game appeared to be all but over after Leftwich connected with Darius Watts on a third-and-28 pass play in Central territory late in the fourth. Three plays later, safety junior Jon Nelson intercepted a deflected pass, giving CMU the ball at their own 17 with 2:52 to go.
Two completions from Derrick Vickers to Rob Turner brought Central to the Marshall 46, but a fourth down pass to Turner fell incomplete and sealed the Marshall victory. Turner finished with six catches for 82 yards.
Marshall was called for 11 penalties for 77 yards.
“Too many penalties,” Leftwich said. “But it’s when they came. There were so many third and longs.”
Leftwich is now 366 yards behind former teammate Chad Pennington for second all-time in the conference and first in school history. Former Western Michigan QB Tim Lester is first all-time in conference history, still 977 yards ahead of Leftwich.
“He is just the top quarterback in the MAC and all week we were practicing how to defend him. We just had to go hard and make sure he did not have all day in the pocket,” said senior linebacker Jovan Clarke, who compiled 12 tackles.
Jackson ran well, showing little effect from a training camp ankle sprain that has kept him out most of the season.
“I was prepared this week mentally and physically,” Jackson said. He said that he’s not 100 percent, but is close to being fully recovered from the injury.
Senior Robbie Mixon also rushed for 95 yards for CMU.
Up next for the Chippewas is the 3-5 Eastern Michigan Eagles Saturday. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. in Ypsilanti.
