Central Michigan leaders recognize road woes, hope to change through consistency
Central Michigan wide receiver JaCorey Sullivan catches a pass against New Mexico State Oct. 12 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Winning, either at home or on the road, takes practice and focus. In Jim McElwain's opinion, it also takes consistency.
Central Michigan has been able to win four times at home in McElwain's first season at the helm of the program.
However, in three games away from Kelly/Shorts Stadium, the Chippewas are winless.
In Week 2, CMU dropped a 61-0 game at Wisconsin. Then, in Week 4, CMU lost, 17-12, to Miami (Florida) in a game that was winnable until the final moments. Finally, in Week 5, the Chippewas lost to rival Western Michigan, 31-15.
This year, CMU had been a double-digit underdog in each road game — 35 points against Wisconsin, 30 against the Hurricanes and 17 against Western Michigan.
However, McElwain's group is a 10-point favorite on the road Saturday against Bowling Green.
The Chippewas are coming off two impressive home wins over Eastern Michigan and New Mexico State where they scored 42 points in each game. Already in the eighth game of the season, CMU travels to Bowling Green for the first time since 2009 to face the 2-4 Falcons.
McElwain said that finding success on the road takes a lot of poise, and his team is not quite where it needs to be heading into its matchup with the Falcons.
"This team's still in the discovery phase," McElwain said. "They're seeing every day what it takes to be successful; the consistency is what it takes. To be able to go on the road and win against a good football team in a tough environment, you have to be consistent with everything you do. Any mistake you make is magnified.
"It's something we need to learn, and we'll find out."
The Chippewas have turned the ball over 14 times this season and are minus-5 in the turnover margin. They have forced nine takeaways. Bowling Green has forced six turnovers and given the ball away seven times.
McElwain said that not making mistakes in this game will be imperative. He added that the Falcons are playing at a similar level as CMU.
"The execution piece and being able to sustain drives," McElwain said. "You can take some of the passion from the fans and the momentum of the game by not having a bunch of three-and-outs. That's got to be huge for us."
From a player perspective, hitting the road is difficult because of the hostility that the other team's crowd brings, making it tough to escape in a stadium of people wanting to see the opposition fail.
"You're in another person's backyard on their turf, and you have a lot of hostility behind you," said defensive end Sean Adesanya. "So, you're playing a team on their turf on top of their fans, that's what makes away games very difficult to win."
While the atmosphere of the game presents challenges, junior wide receiver JaCorey Sullivan said other parts of a road game are difficult, too.
"You go to a different place, and there's a lot of different people, and it's a different feel sometimes," Sullivan said. "You just have to lock-in.
"We're going to go in there and do our job. Hopefully, we come out on top."
The Chippewas and Falcons square off at 2 p.m. Saturday in Doyt L. Perry Stadium in Bowling Green, Ohio.
