CMU defensive end Troy Hairston II (13) battles an EMU offensive lineman on Friday in the Chippewas' 31-23 victory.
Chippewa Notebook: Nichols, Lewis Star In Comeback Win
11/28/2020 9:14:00 AM | Football
YPSILANTI, Mich. – Friday's 31-23 victory at Eastern Michigan will go down in Central Michigan football lore as one of the program's greatest comebacks.
Down 20-6 in the fourth quarter, the Chippewas scored 25 points to surge past the Eagles for a 31-23 Mid-American Conference victory.
Key to victory was the run game, with Lew Nichols and Kobe Lewis at the forefront.
Nichols, a redshirt freshman from Detroit, rushed for 196 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries; Lewis, a junior from Americus, Ga., ran for 106 yards and a TD on 18 attempts. He also caught seven passes for 36 yards.
All three CMU touchdowns came in the fourth quarter when the Chippewas (3-1) finally broke through after three quarters of snake bit football.
Four times on their first eight possessions of the game, the Chippewas drove to at least the Eastern 11-yard line. Yet all they could muster were two field goals.
CMU committed two-first half turnovers, the first a fumble by Nichols at the goal line. Early in the third quarter, a Chippewa drive ended with a fumble by quarterback Daniel Richardson at the Eastern 11. Richardson was injured on the play and did not return.
That's when Nichols and Lewis stepped up. Nichols rushed for 66 of his yards in the fourth quarter, while Lewis had 58 of his.
"The fumble, I was just trying to do too much," Nichols said. "I should have just bailed forward; I tried to stick it out there at the last minute and as soon as I stuck it out there (a defender) hit it. That was a good job by them.
"Second half we just stuck to the game plan. Run the ball and fall forward. That's about it."
Nichols shattered his previous career highs in both rushing yardage and attempts, and it marked the first time as a collegian he had scored twice in a game. His previous bests were 12 carries for 91 yards, both in a 40-10 victory at Northern Illinois two weeks ago.
His 196 yards marks the highest rush total for a Chippewa since Thomas Rawls rolled through and over Northern Illinois for 270 yards on Oct. 11, 2014.
"For Lew, he's a great kid, that fumble hurt him," McElwain said. "He takes pride in his performance. I'm sure he carried a little of that with him in the second half."
It was Lewis' third 100-yard game of the season and the eighth of his career. His seven catches were a career high.
The Chippewas rushed for 317 yards and totaled 553, by far their season high in both categories.
"I thought there were times, with both backs, that they tried to hit home runs instead of taking it where it's supposed to be and putting your foot in the ground and going," McElwain said. "I thought they did a much better job of that in the second half."
Out of the Bullpen
Richardson was injured on a play in which he ran for a 7-yard gain early in the third quarter. He fumbled and Eastern, leading 17-6, recovered at its own 11-yard line.
Ty Brock took over at quarterback for the Chippewas. The junior, who is in his first year at CMU after transferring from Football Championship Subdivision Sam Houston State, has appeared briefly in two games this season, attempting one pass (an incompletion) and running twice for seven yards.
"Go run the team, and he did that," McElwain said of his message to Brock. "I didn't see any panic; I thought he had great command, I thought he took what they gave him for the most part. It's hard sometimes coming in when you haven't gotten all of the reps. He did a great job of handling the offense and sticking it in the end zone when we needed to."
With Brock taking snaps, the Chippewas scored 25 of their fourth-quarter points. He completed nine of 15 pass attempts for 62 yards and he ran five times for 18. His longest completion went for 10 yards.
"I think Ty did an outstanding job," Nichols said. "As soon as he got in, I told him that I had faith in him; this is his show now and he's just got to manage the game, get the ball to the athletes, just play ball like he always does in practice. I have a ton of confidence in Ty."
McElwain did not have an immediate report on the nature or severity of the injury to Richardson, a redshirt freshmen.
Defense Steps Up
The CMU defense came to life in the second half, doing its part in holding the Eagles to a pair of field goals. That proved critical as the Chippewa offense mounted the fourth-quarter comeback.
CMU forced five turnovers, three of which came on Eastern's final three possessions.
"We understand that the game of football is four quarters," said senior defensive end Troy Hairston, who led the Chippewas with 11 tackles. "Just because (EMU) put up so many points in the first half doesn't mean the game is over. That's who we are, that's part of our culture, we fight. We're not going to just back down.
"If you do beat us, you're not going to take it easy. We just fought and fought and made sure we stayed together, stayed up."
Hairston's fumble recovery was pivotal. It came just after CMU scored a TD to cut Eastern's lead to 23-21 with 4:30 to play. The Eagles faced a second-and-7 on their own 13-yard line and quarterback Preston Hutchinson ran an option play, pitching to running back Samson Evans. Evans dropped the ball, and Hairston pounced on it at the 7-yard line.
Four plays later, the Chippewas had the lead courtesy of a 21-yard Marshall Meeder field goal.
Hairston's defense of the option was textbook. He stepped toward Hutchinson to force the pitch but didn't fully commit, and he was able to turn immediately to Evans.
"As soon as I forced him to pitch, I got my eyes toward the running back and I see him drop the ball," Hairston said. "As soon as I see it come out of his hands, I take the dive, it takes a bounce and it hits me right in the chest. It was what we needed at the time."
On Eastern's next snap, safety Devonni Reed intercepted Hutchinson, giving the Chippewas the ball at the EMU 47 with 2:26 to play. Three plays later – all Lewis runs – CMU was in the end zone again, and the lead was 31-23.
Donte Kent and Willie Reid also had interceptions while Alonzo McCoy added a fumble recovery. Kent's came with under a minute to play and iced the game.
"We trusted our offense; our offense trusted us," Hairston said.
McCoy added 10 tackles, a career high, while lineman Mohamed Diallo had two sacks among his 3.5 tackles-for-loss. Diallo finished with a career-best six tackles.
National Publicity
Reed's interception, the first of his career, was particularly memorable and made Friday night's ESPN Sports Center Must SC.
The ball from Hutchinson went in and out of an Eastern receiver's hands, bounced up and hit off the top of Kent's helmet as Kent covered the falling receiver from behind. Reed dove over both Kent and the EMU receiver and corralled the ball.
Sports Center anchor Michael Eaves said over the highlight: "Somehow Devonni Reed picks it off? We need to see this a couple more times."
Meeder Money
Freshman placekicker Marshall Meeder booted three field goals in the game, including a career-best 51-yarder in the first half. He has made all five of his attempts this season, and two of those field goals have put the Chippewas ahead for good in two of their wins.
His 21-yarder on Friday gave CMU a 24-23 lead, and his 22-yarder in the fourth quarter in the Chippewas' 30-27 season-opening win over Ohio proved to be the difference in the game.
"What about our guy Marshall Meeder?" McElwain said. "That was pretty cool for the young kid to go in there and bang one home like that."
Second-half Team
The Chippewas have outscored their four opponents this season, 56-20, in the fourth quarter and 87-44 in the second half.
Bouncing Back
Friday's win was important on several levels, not the least of which that it came one week after the Chippewas their only loss of the season, 52-44, to rival Western Michigan.
"This is a huge game for us coming off of a loss," Hairston said. "We needed something like this to push us forward … It's a momentum builder; we needed a win coming off of a game we're really not proud of."
CMU is 62-30-6 against the Eagles, including 27-15-4 in games played in Ypsilanti. The Chippewas have won nine of the last 12 meetings.
Mission Accomplished
McElwain said before the game that CMU had to improve its third-down conversion percentage. The Chippewas were good on eight of 17 opportunities (47 percent) against the Eagles.
They converted just 23.1 percent in their first three games, ranking 11th in the MAC and 123rd nationally in that category.
Next
The Chippewas play host to Ball State on Saturday, Dec. 5. It is CMU's final home game of the season. The Cardinals are 2-1, 1-1 MAC. They defeated Northern Illinois, 31-25, last week and are scheduled to play at Toledo on Saturday (noon).
Down 20-6 in the fourth quarter, the Chippewas scored 25 points to surge past the Eagles for a 31-23 Mid-American Conference victory.
Key to victory was the run game, with Lew Nichols and Kobe Lewis at the forefront.
Nichols, a redshirt freshman from Detroit, rushed for 196 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries; Lewis, a junior from Americus, Ga., ran for 106 yards and a TD on 18 attempts. He also caught seven passes for 36 yards.
All three CMU touchdowns came in the fourth quarter when the Chippewas (3-1) finally broke through after three quarters of snake bit football.
Four times on their first eight possessions of the game, the Chippewas drove to at least the Eastern 11-yard line. Yet all they could muster were two field goals.
CMU committed two-first half turnovers, the first a fumble by Nichols at the goal line. Early in the third quarter, a Chippewa drive ended with a fumble by quarterback Daniel Richardson at the Eastern 11. Richardson was injured on the play and did not return.
That's when Nichols and Lewis stepped up. Nichols rushed for 66 of his yards in the fourth quarter, while Lewis had 58 of his.
"The fumble, I was just trying to do too much," Nichols said. "I should have just bailed forward; I tried to stick it out there at the last minute and as soon as I stuck it out there (a defender) hit it. That was a good job by them.
"Second half we just stuck to the game plan. Run the ball and fall forward. That's about it."
Nichols shattered his previous career highs in both rushing yardage and attempts, and it marked the first time as a collegian he had scored twice in a game. His previous bests were 12 carries for 91 yards, both in a 40-10 victory at Northern Illinois two weeks ago.
His 196 yards marks the highest rush total for a Chippewa since Thomas Rawls rolled through and over Northern Illinois for 270 yards on Oct. 11, 2014.
"For Lew, he's a great kid, that fumble hurt him," McElwain said. "He takes pride in his performance. I'm sure he carried a little of that with him in the second half."
It was Lewis' third 100-yard game of the season and the eighth of his career. His seven catches were a career high.
The Chippewas rushed for 317 yards and totaled 553, by far their season high in both categories.
"I thought there were times, with both backs, that they tried to hit home runs instead of taking it where it's supposed to be and putting your foot in the ground and going," McElwain said. "I thought they did a much better job of that in the second half."
Out of the Bullpen
Richardson was injured on a play in which he ran for a 7-yard gain early in the third quarter. He fumbled and Eastern, leading 17-6, recovered at its own 11-yard line.
Ty Brock took over at quarterback for the Chippewas. The junior, who is in his first year at CMU after transferring from Football Championship Subdivision Sam Houston State, has appeared briefly in two games this season, attempting one pass (an incompletion) and running twice for seven yards.
"Go run the team, and he did that," McElwain said of his message to Brock. "I didn't see any panic; I thought he had great command, I thought he took what they gave him for the most part. It's hard sometimes coming in when you haven't gotten all of the reps. He did a great job of handling the offense and sticking it in the end zone when we needed to."
With Brock taking snaps, the Chippewas scored 25 of their fourth-quarter points. He completed nine of 15 pass attempts for 62 yards and he ran five times for 18. His longest completion went for 10 yards.
"I think Ty did an outstanding job," Nichols said. "As soon as he got in, I told him that I had faith in him; this is his show now and he's just got to manage the game, get the ball to the athletes, just play ball like he always does in practice. I have a ton of confidence in Ty."
McElwain did not have an immediate report on the nature or severity of the injury to Richardson, a redshirt freshmen.
Defense Steps Up
The CMU defense came to life in the second half, doing its part in holding the Eagles to a pair of field goals. That proved critical as the Chippewa offense mounted the fourth-quarter comeback.
CMU forced five turnovers, three of which came on Eastern's final three possessions.
"We understand that the game of football is four quarters," said senior defensive end Troy Hairston, who led the Chippewas with 11 tackles. "Just because (EMU) put up so many points in the first half doesn't mean the game is over. That's who we are, that's part of our culture, we fight. We're not going to just back down.
"If you do beat us, you're not going to take it easy. We just fought and fought and made sure we stayed together, stayed up."
Hairston's fumble recovery was pivotal. It came just after CMU scored a TD to cut Eastern's lead to 23-21 with 4:30 to play. The Eagles faced a second-and-7 on their own 13-yard line and quarterback Preston Hutchinson ran an option play, pitching to running back Samson Evans. Evans dropped the ball, and Hairston pounced on it at the 7-yard line.
Four plays later, the Chippewas had the lead courtesy of a 21-yard Marshall Meeder field goal.
Hairston's defense of the option was textbook. He stepped toward Hutchinson to force the pitch but didn't fully commit, and he was able to turn immediately to Evans.
"As soon as I forced him to pitch, I got my eyes toward the running back and I see him drop the ball," Hairston said. "As soon as I see it come out of his hands, I take the dive, it takes a bounce and it hits me right in the chest. It was what we needed at the time."
On Eastern's next snap, safety Devonni Reed intercepted Hutchinson, giving the Chippewas the ball at the EMU 47 with 2:26 to play. Three plays later – all Lewis runs – CMU was in the end zone again, and the lead was 31-23.
Donte Kent and Willie Reid also had interceptions while Alonzo McCoy added a fumble recovery. Kent's came with under a minute to play and iced the game.
"We trusted our offense; our offense trusted us," Hairston said.
McCoy added 10 tackles, a career high, while lineman Mohamed Diallo had two sacks among his 3.5 tackles-for-loss. Diallo finished with a career-best six tackles.
National Publicity
Reed's interception, the first of his career, was particularly memorable and made Friday night's ESPN Sports Center Must SC.
The ball from Hutchinson went in and out of an Eastern receiver's hands, bounced up and hit off the top of Kent's helmet as Kent covered the falling receiver from behind. Reed dove over both Kent and the EMU receiver and corralled the ball.
Sports Center anchor Michael Eaves said over the highlight: "Somehow Devonni Reed picks it off? We need to see this a couple more times."
Meeder Money
Freshman placekicker Marshall Meeder booted three field goals in the game, including a career-best 51-yarder in the first half. He has made all five of his attempts this season, and two of those field goals have put the Chippewas ahead for good in two of their wins.
His 21-yarder on Friday gave CMU a 24-23 lead, and his 22-yarder in the fourth quarter in the Chippewas' 30-27 season-opening win over Ohio proved to be the difference in the game.
"What about our guy Marshall Meeder?" McElwain said. "That was pretty cool for the young kid to go in there and bang one home like that."
Second-half Team
The Chippewas have outscored their four opponents this season, 56-20, in the fourth quarter and 87-44 in the second half.
Bouncing Back
Friday's win was important on several levels, not the least of which that it came one week after the Chippewas their only loss of the season, 52-44, to rival Western Michigan.
"This is a huge game for us coming off of a loss," Hairston said. "We needed something like this to push us forward … It's a momentum builder; we needed a win coming off of a game we're really not proud of."
CMU is 62-30-6 against the Eagles, including 27-15-4 in games played in Ypsilanti. The Chippewas have won nine of the last 12 meetings.
Mission Accomplished
McElwain said before the game that CMU had to improve its third-down conversion percentage. The Chippewas were good on eight of 17 opportunities (47 percent) against the Eagles.
They converted just 23.1 percent in their first three games, ranking 11th in the MAC and 123rd nationally in that category.
Next
The Chippewas play host to Ball State on Saturday, Dec. 5. It is CMU's final home game of the season. The Cardinals are 2-1, 1-1 MAC. They defeated Northern Illinois, 31-25, last week and are scheduled to play at Toledo on Saturday (noon).
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