It still wasn't quite the complete 60-minute effort head coachBrady Hoke is looking for, but it was plenty close. And mostimportantly, it was a winning effort.
Behind a stellar defensive effort and an offense that saw itsrunning game awaken, Ball State improved to 2-2 with a 27-14 winover Central Michigan (2-2). It was the Cardinals' first win intheir Mid-American Conference opener since 1995.
"It's been too long since we've sung the fight song," said Hoke,referring to his team's post-victory tradition. "We don't singwell, but it was nice to sing it. We took a major step today as faras playing 60 minutes. We hadn't done that the past few weeks."
Senior Talmadge Hill fired three touchdown passes to sophomoreDante Ridgeway, and junior Scott Blair ran for a career-high 127yards on 19 carries as the Cards piled up 206 yards rushing -- morethan double their season-best. In the fourth quarter Blair rippedoff runs of 44 and 32 yards as the CMU defense started to tire.
"We did a much better job at the point of attack, particularlyin the later stages of the game, and that was critical," Hoke said."The game wears on you, and that happened to their defense. I thinkScott also made a couple nice cuts that helped."
What also helped was a Ball State defense that clamped down onthe Chippewa attack, particularly on later plays. Central convertedjust 5 of 17 third downs and had just 263 yards of offense. Its 121yards rushing were less than half its season average.
"I thought this was a game of third downs," CMU head coach MikeDeBord said. DeBord worked with Hoke as a Michigan assistant from1995-99. "We knew going in that their third-down defense packagewas really good. Brady brought the Michigan defensive package here,and it's very complex. It gave us trouble, and they did a good jobof converting on third down (8 of 19).
"I think it's a credit to their staff to come in here and justin spring practice and training camp to have such a complex systemin."
Hill's first scoring pass didn't come on a third down, but itgave Ball State the lead for good (10-7) with 6:16 left in thesecond period. He danced around in the pocket for several secondsbefore finding a leaping Ridgeway behind a pair of CMUdefenders.
After Quentin Manley intercepted Central quarterback Jeff Perrytwo possessions later, Hill drove the Cards 60 yards in exactly oneminute. He scrambled 20 yards to the 22, then hit Ridgeway for a14-yard TD 39 seconds before halftime.
Perry threw 72 yards to Jacob Brown for Central's firsttouchdown and bootlegged 3 yards for the second one, bringing theChippewas within 17-14 in the third.
Hill's final touchdown to Ridgeway came from three yards outwith 9:30 left in the game, capping a 13-play, 86-yard drive. BrianJackson tacked on his second field goal of the game -- 43- and38-yarders -- with 31 seconds left.
The senior quarterback said the offensive balance helpedtremendously, as the Cardinals possessed the ball nearly 14 minutesmore than the Chippewas.
"I thought the offensive line did a great job," Hill said. "Nooffense can succeed just doing one thing. You've got to keep thedefense off balance."
For Ball State's defense, Hoke said a key was having playersversatile enough to handle the Chippewas' multiple looks out of theno-huddle offense.
"We challenged our defensive line and linebackers to play morephysical, playing downhill," Hoke said. "I think (defensivecoordinator) Mark (Smith) had a nice plan that we weren't going tolet their substitution patterns and the pace of their offensedictate what we were going to run. Whatever we had in, we wanted tomatch their personnel groups."
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