Zeitler: Chippewa offense succumbs to prepared WMU defense
Central Michigan tight end Tony Poljan is tackled by Western Michigan defenders Sept. 28 at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo.
The Central Michigan football team was unable to bring home the Victory Cannon on Saturday, losing to Western Michigan by a score of 31-15.
The Chippewas (2-3, 1-1 Mid-American Conference) didn’t get a score until the fourth quarter, by which point the Broncos had built a commanding 24-0 lead.
That being said, the offense actually moved the ball fairly well for pretty much the whole game. Junior quarterback David Moore had 330 yards in the air on 33-of-48 passing and Jonathan Ward rushed 19 times for 107 yards.
On each of the Chippewas’ opening three possessions, CMU put together promising drives that resulted in a total of zero points.
The first drive ended on a bobbled interception, the second on a turnover on downs in the red zone, and the third on a sack for a loss of ten that took the Chippewas out of field goal range.
My initial post-game thought was that CMU butchered things when it came to play-calling. I was critical of the fact that sophomore wideout Kalil Pimpleton and junior tight end Tony Poljan weren’t used more in the game.
Western Michigan coach Tim Lester mentioned one specific play in the game’s final minutes where 5-foot-10, 185-pound sophomore cornerback Patrick Lupro was in a solo matchup against Poljan’s athletic 6-foot-7, 255-pound frame.
“(Poljan is) one of the biggest human beings I’ve ever seen, and we had little Lupro covering him and we had man (defense),” Lester said. “Thank God (Moore) threw the other direction because they had a natural advantage there.”
When an opportunity like that presents itself, you simply can’t pass it up. I have no idea whether that was an oversight on the part of the coaching staff or Moore, but either way, Poljan will thrive when isolated against corners that rarely come within half a foot and 50 pounds of his dimensions.
He’s a matchup nightmare, and he should be used as such.
I was also frustrated in the coaching staff’s decision-making on a few of the most crucial offensive snaps of the afternoon.
Much of the focus in CMU’s loss was on the controversy around the failed fourth-down conversions -- and rightfully so.
The Chippewas were stuffed trying to go for it on fourth down on multiple occasions, each of which was within field goal range for senior kicker Ryan Tice, who is as reliable as any kicker in college football as far as I’m concerned.
“Hindsight’s pretty good; you take the points,” coach Jim McElwain said of the botched fourth-down attempts. “Ultimately, we know going in that’s what we’re gonna do. We didn’t execute. It’s that simple.”
Two of those failed conversions came on fourth-and-1. Though I was confused in the press box as to why the Chippewas wouldn’t just kick it, I guess I can understand where McElwain was coming from: you’re down by multiple scores on the road, you need some momentum going into the break, and you only have to gain three feet, which in concept should easily be done on a given play.
McElwain took the responsibility upon himself for the fourth-down failures, but if you think about it, he makes a fair point. This is the biggest rivalry of the year; shouldn’t there be enough motivation to get a small forward push for a huge first down that would give you a better chance to win?
“If you can’t get a yard, you don’t deserve to win a game,” McElwain said.
In contrast, Lester was happy to see his defense stand tall on those game-changing fourth-down attempts.
“When crunch time came, our guys stepped up,” Lester said.
After having the chance to listen to McElwain and Lester, then look through the full stat sheet of the game, I reconsidered my opinion on the offensive plan as a whole.
It wasn’t so much that CMU had a poor performance on offense, it’s just that the WMU defense came into the game with fantastic preparation and then went out on the field and executed it.
For instance, Poljan was targeted eight times, hauling in a half-dozen catches for 50 yards. Pimpleton had an almost identical stat line: eight targets, six receptions, 51 yards.
I hadn’t realized the pair had combined for 12 touches and 101 yards on the afternoon, probably because WMU minimized their chances to turn upfield and get yards after the catch.
Lester and his defensive staff did a stellar job scouting the Chippewas and developing a plan to shut down the big gains from Poljan and Pimpleton, along with the rest of CMU’s offensive weapons.
With a relatively depleted room of cornerbacks, the Broncos came out in a zone defense and challenged the Chippewas to move the chains by completing short passes.
“The thing about zone coverage is you’re gonna give up some things, but you have a lot of eyes on the ball,” Lester said.
CMU took what it could get on short slants, digs and hitches, but WMU kept everything in front and put on an absolute clinic in open-field tackling.
Of the Chippewa receivers, JaCorey Sullivan had the most productive day, catching the ball all five times he was targeted and scoring on a 34-yard connection with Moore in the final four minutes of the game. Redshirt freshman Tyrone Scott, arguably CMU’s best deep threat, had six receptions on 11 targets for 81 yards.
On one quick-hitting post route by Scott, WMU senior safety Justin Tranquill broke quickly on the ball and came away with an interception, the Broncos' second of the day.
Tranquill contributed the pick to the drills hammered into him by the WMU coaching staff throughout the week.
"The moment I see him break, I'm just driving right where's he's at," Tranquill said while describing his thought process on the play. "I didn't even see the quarterback; I was watching (Scott) the whole time. The moment I look, I see the ball coming and I was like 'Oh, sweet'."
Overall, it had to be a pretty sweet feeling to be a part of the Bronco defense against CMU on Saturday – no points allowed through three full quarters despite allowing a lot of short passes over the course of the game.
What I’m getting at is this: the CMU offense looked mostly fluid and moved the ball just fine, but the Broncos’ defense asserted control of Chippewa drives because of their pre-game preparations and stiffened in big moments while CMU failed to rise to the challenge.
The Chippewas have one week to bounce back in time for another rivalry game: Eastern Michigan (3-1, 0-0 MAC) rolls in for a 3 p.m. game at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Oct. 5.
Let’s see if the offense can flip the switch quickly and take a turn imposing their will against the Eagles.
