Chippewas Fall Short to Toledo

Tuesday, November 10

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

8:00 PM

Central Michigan University

5-5 , 4-2

No. 20/nr Toledo

8-1 , 5-1

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Toledo	14	7	0	7	28
Central Michigan	0	10	7	6	23

11/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

Nov. 11, 2015

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. â€" An early deficit proved to be too much to overcome for the Central Michigan football team.

Toledo raced to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter, then held off the Chippewas in the second half Tuesday as the Rockets ended CMU's three-game win streak, 28-23, before 13,490 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

"Very disappointed, we had a chance to win," CMU coach John Bonamego said. "The bottom line is Toledo made more plays than we did and we hurt ourselves with a few mistakes.

"But I'm proud of the effort and I'm proud of the fight in our team. I still believe we're a very good football team and I think brighter days are ahead for CMU football."

The loss effectively ended CMU's hopes of a MAC West title and a spot in the league championship game. The Chippewas are 5-5 overall, 4-2 MAC. They trail first-place Western Michigan by two games in the loss column with two league games remaining.

Phillip Ely threw for 322 yards and two touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt ran for 113 yards and scored twice to lead the Rockets, 8-1, 5-1, who built a three-score lead less than two minutes in to the second quarter and looked ready to run the Chippewas out of their own stadium.

But the Chippewas slowly pulled themselves back into the game behind quarterback Cooper Rush and an ever-stiffening defense.

Rush, a junior, completed 33 of 52 pass attempts for 349 yards and two touchdowns, the second of which went for 23 yards to Corey Willis and drew the Chippewas to 21-17 midway through the third quarter.

At that point, the Chippewas had the momentum and, when they had a first down at the Toledo 2-yard line with about a minute to play in the third quarter, appeared poised to do the improbable: Take the lead after being flattened by a Toledo barrage in the first quarter.

"We just needed to settle down offensively, find some rhythm, which we did," Bonamego said. "Then defensively I thought we did a very good job of getting (Toledo) off the field.

"That's a very good offensive football team, if you look at the amount of points they've put up all year against people. I think it shows the character of our team, to be down 21 points like that and then still fight, scratch and claw to get back into the football game.

"There are a lot of football teams out there that would've packed it in and that thing could've ended up being a 50-something to nothing football game. I just think we have a lot of fight and a lot of character in our locker room."

An offensive pass interference call in the end zone and a sack left the Chippewas at the 33. Back-to-back incompletions relegated a once-promising scoring opportunity to a 51-yard field goal attempt.

It fell just short of the crossbar.

"Yeah there was a very unfortunate set of events there," Bonamego said. "We ended up kicking a 51-yard field goal and you don't expect to be in that situation when you're first-and-goal on the 2.

"I haven't seen (the pass interference) yet. I'll look at it tomorrow. It's rare that call gets called in that situation, especially for a ball that was thrown that far out of the end-zone, so we'll just have to look at it."

Still, CMU had another chance when, still trailing 21-17, faced a fourth-and-4 at the Toledo 41 early in the fourth quarter. Rush's fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

Toledo took control and drove 64 yards in 10 plays with Hunt finishing it with a 3-yard TD run to extend the lead to 28-17.

Rush found Anthony Rice for a 5-yard TD pass with 3:35 left, but the two-point conversion failed and the Chippewas failed to cover the ensuing onside kick.

Both of CMU's two MAC losses have been by less than a touchdown and have gone down to the wire. They were also in all three of their early season losses to Power 5 opponents, including unbeaten Oklahoma State and once-beaten Michigan State.

"It is frustrating, everything we do we try to put an emphasis on finishing, and that's something we couldn't do today and in all the other close games," said senior safety Kavon Frazier, who led CMU with 12 tackles including nine solos. "When we get down that much in the first half it is hard to get back in. We dug a big hole for ourselves."