Flagged on film: Undisciplined Chippewa defense exploited for easy yards
Defensive Coordinator Robb Akey speaks with Central Michigan's defense after a Western Michigan touchdown Sept. 28 at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo.
True freshman Jacques Bristol lowered into his stance at defensive tackle. He waited eagerly for the snap, every muscle of his 6-foot-1, 295-pound frame ready to explode off the ball and wreak havoc in the backfield.
Western Michigan quarterback Jon Wassink began his cadence, barking out a call. Bristol craved another chance to launch himself forward and stop the Broncos from tacking on to their 17-0 lead midway through the third quarter.
Bristol’s anticipation of the snap only increased as Wassink continued his cadence – until Bristol heard what he was waiting for.
“GO!”
Wassink’s short and urgent shout was loud enough to be heard from the WMU press box, and Bristol lunged forward at the sound of the call.
But he’d been fooled. The ball had not moved from the hands of Luke Juriga, WMU’s veteran center.
Almost immediately, Bristol recognized his mistake and tried to pull back in time, but it was too late: the official’s yellow flag was up in the air.
Before the play was even blown dead, Bristol turned away from the Bronco offensive line and began beating at the faded green turf with an open hand, his frustration spilling over into rage.
Bristol’s open display of agitation was the result of a buildup of mental errors on the part of Central Michigan throughout the game to that point. The offsides penalty called against Bristol was his third of the game and the team’s sixth such infraction of the day, an outrageous number at any level of football.
“These guys saw us jumping offsides and did a good job of taking advantage of it,” head coach Jim McElwain said. “They just went on dummy counts -- nothing that you didn’t do back in peewee ball.”
The Broncos did their homework coming into the rivalry game and noticed that CMU was susceptible to being drawn offsides, and that knowledge certainly came in handy for WMU.
“Sitting in our film room, we saw video evidence of offsides, so we planned on going on multiple cadences a lot,” head coach Tim Lester said. “I didn’t know if it’d work.”
It worked a whopping seven times against the Chippewas’ defensive front. In addition to Bristol’s three offsides penalties, Troy Hairston, Jr. jumped early twice while Sean Adesanya and Joshuwa Eldridge had one apiece.
“It’s pretty ridiculous, to be honest with you,” McElwain said of the many offside penalties committed by the Chippewas. “But that goes back to discipline as well.”
CMU struggled with discipline outside of jumping offsides, too. In total, the Chippewas racked up 15 penalties that gave the Broncos 95 free yards on the afternoon.
Most of those 15 flags ended up hurting CMU in a big way. For example, Bristol’s third offsides penalty on the afternoon took WMU from a first-and-10 situation to a first-and-5, which allowed WMU to be more daring in their choice of play. Following the penalty, Wassink completed a quick-hitter for 6 yards and a fresh set of downs.
WMU ended up pushing across another touchdown on the drive to make it a 24-0 game with 2:34 to play in the third quarter. The Broncos finished the deal from there, coming away with a 31-15 win to retain the Victory Cannon for another year.
The loss dropped CMU’s record to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference this season while WMU improved to 3-2 and 1-0 in MAC play.
The Chippewas are keen to rebound from the loss at the hands of their arch-rival, and they have the perfect opportunity to get the bitter taste of defeat out of their mouths this Saturday.
CMU’s other in-state rival, Eastern Michigan (3-1, 0-0), will make the journey to Mount Pleasant for a 3 p.m. game at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Oct. 5. If the Chippewas plan to pull out a win against the Eagles, the level of discipline on the defensive front has to pick it up several notches.
Undoubtedly, EMU took note of the Chippewas’ seven offsides penalties and 15 total flags on the day. The Eagles would be silly not to try replicating the “dummy counts” and other tactics employed by the Broncos to force CMU into dumb mistakes for free yards.
