CMU marred by breakdowns on defense, missed tackling
When the clocked reached zero Wednesday night and the scoreboard showed a comfortable 44-24 Ball State win over Central Michigan, a quick look at the box score would indicate it was just another night for the high-powered Cardinals offense.
And it was, led by quarterback Keith Wenning, whose 299 yards passing and four touchdowns were nothing new to the sparse midweek crowd at Scheumann Stadium. In fact, Ball State's 549 yards of total offense was below its per-game average of 575.
It was the way it happened that was most disturbing. Throughout the night, receivers were left wide open and running backs found large holes. When CMU defenders could get their hands on BSU's red jerseys, tackles were missed.
"They pretty much dominated us," senior safety Avery Cunningham said. "(We had) blown coverages and doing things that we weren't supposed to do."
It started from the very beginning, with Ball State on its first drive marching 75 yards on nine plays to take a 7-0 lead. Later in the first quarter, during the Cardinals third drive of the game, it only took them three plays to move 96 yards and go up 14-0.
The next drive? Six plays, 82 yards. Touchdown Ball State, 21-0. It looked too easy.
"They played very tentatively and that really hurt us," Enos said. "When you're on your heels against a good team like that it's tough to make that up."
The two teams traded field goals before the Cardinals added another touchdown before. The second half, while more scaled down offensively, proved to be more of the same.
With BSU leading 34-10 and with a third-and-2 at its own 20-yard line, Wenning found tight end Zake Fakes wide open up the middle who scampered for 51 yards virtually untouched. Earlier in the quarter, running back Jahwan Edwards busted out a 13-yard rush after breaking three consecutive tackles.
All game the 4-2-5 defense designed to prevent big plays from happening allowed them, and short-yardage plays turned into big plays due to a lack of tackling. The Cardinals averaged nearly 6 yards per carry and another 15 yards per catch.
"We had a long layoff, and you can't tackle every practice. You're going to get people hurt," Enos said. "We tried to simulate and do things early in our bye week, but it looks like we're going to have to go back and tackle more in practice. It's a fine line as a coach, you want to be physical and practice those things but then you can't anyone hurt in Week 10 of the season because you need everybody."
When reminded of the more physical practices the week leading to the Miami game, requested by the players, Enos insisted that it continued during the 17-day layoff.
"We did that and carried it on all the way," he said. "And we did it even this week, but it didn't translate."
Contact Aaron McMann: aaron.mcmann@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @AaronMcMann.
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