CMU football loses to BGSU, offense continues to struggle
Central Michigan senior linebacker Justin Whiteside tackles Bowling Green junior wide receiver Rahkeem Smith on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. Whiteside made six tackles in the game. (CM-Life | Mark Hoover)
With the rain pouring down on Kelly/Shorts Stadium, Central Michigan football faced a two-point deficit against Bowling Green State University coming out of the half.
The Chippewas couldn’t capitalize on their opening possession to the third quarter due to a fumble on the first play out of halftime by redshirt freshman quarterback Tyler Jefferson, giving BGSU the ball back.
The turnover gave the Falcons all the momentum they needed as they handed CMU its fourth-straight loss, 23-13 on Tuesday.
“It’s hard going into that locker room, I know what they put into it, (and) how much they care,” head coach Jim McElwain said. “(We) played good enough on defense… (We) couldn’t get the ball in the end zone.”
The Chippewas move to 3-6 overall and 1-4 in Mid-American Conference play.
Injuries continue to hurt CMU, playing without quarterbacks Joe Labas and Bert Emanuel Jr. along with receiving yards leader Evan Boyd.
After having only 62 yards passing against Miami (Ohio) the week before, the passing game continued to struggle, only securing 63 passing yards against the Falcons.
BGSU quarterback Connor Bazelak started the game out efficiently, going 4-for-6 with 47 yards on the opening drive. However, the Chippewa defense came up with a red zone stop to hold the Falcons to a field goal.
Bazelak ended the game going 19-for-30 with 207 yards passing and one touchdown.
The CMU offense struggled to get anything going in the first quarter, only securing 20 yards which all came on the ground.
Even with the offensive struggles, BGSU was unable to build a solid lead. That was due to the CMU defense stepping up, holding the Falcons to nine points in the first half.
“They did enough,” McElwain said about the defensive effort. “They held them to field goals, and that’s what you want.”
The Chippewa offense finally found some life with just under two minutes left in the first half after quarterback Tyler Jefferson broke off for a 44-yard run to put CMU in Falcons territory.
After a pass interference call put the Chippewas in the red zone, Jefferson secured a 1-yard rushing touchdown to put CMU down two with just over 30 seconds remaining in the half.
Jefferson ended the game with only six passing yards and 65 yards rushing with one touchdown.
The Falcons dominated the time of possession in the first half, keeping possession for 19:12 compared to CMU’s 10:48.
On the first play to open the second half, Jefferson turned it over to give the Falcons the ball in CMU territory. BGSU made the most of its field position when Bazelak found Levi Gazerak for a nine-yard touchdown pass, extending its lead 16-7.
The Falcons started to march down the field, looking to extend the lead. However, junior defensive tackle Jonah Pace stopped the momentum, blocking a field goal attempt by BGSU to give CMU the ball back late in the third quarter.
In desperate need of a score, the Chippewas made a change at quarterback, putting in true freshman Jadyn Glasser. The change came late in the third quarter as CMU only had six total passing yards in the game.
“At the end of the day when you got six yards passing, that makes it tough,” McElwain said.
However, the change in quarterback didn’t lead to any points on the offensive side while the Falcons added another touchdown with just over five minutes remaining in the game to push the lead to 23-7.
CMU found some life after the Falcon touchdown with Glasser showing off his arm, going 5-for-7 with 57 passing yards on the drive. The drive ended with Glasser running it in for a 1-yard rushing touchdown, marking his first career touchdown for the Chippewas and cutting BGSU’s lead to 10.
However, the score came too late for CMU as BGSU ran down the clock on the next drive to secure the victory.
The rushing attack found some success for the Chippewas with senior running back Marion Lukes leading the way. He ended the game with 72 rushing yards.
“The guy’s got such passion for the game,” McElwain said about Lukes. “He really cares about the program, cares about the people around him. He’s a guy that means a lot for me.”
On the defensive side, the Chippewas were led by senior defensive back Da’Raun McKinney who had a career high 14 tackles and three pass breakups.
Central Michigan will head on the road to face off against Toledo at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We can’t change what happened,” McKinney said. “We can’t change the past, but we can change what we can do in the future. We are just going to fight.”
