KALAMAZOO, Mich. – With less than a minute left on the clock Saturday afternoon, Ball State found itself with a fourth-and-goal from the Western Michigan five-yard line, down 10 points. Needing a touchdown and a field goal to send the game into overtime, coach Pete Lembo elected to keep the offense on the field and go for the touchdown first.
Quarterback Keith Wenning took the snap and was flushed out of the pocket to his right. Seeing no one immediately open, he pulled the ball down and tried run the ball into the end zone himself. Three yards short of the goal line, Wenning was hit and he fumbled. Though the Cardinals (5-4, 3-2) recovered it in the end zone, fumble on fourth down cannot be advanced by rule.
"I got flushed out of the pocket and tried to make a play," Wenning said. "But it didn't happen."
The ball went to Western Michigan and, with just 32 seconds on the clock and no timeouts left for Ball State, so did the game. The Broncos took a knee and made their 45-35 victory official. The game had turned into a shootout in the second quarter, when the two teams scored a combined 49 points. The game's nature forced Lembo to abandon some of the conservative decision making he employed in the first eight weeks as Ball State tried to overcome a deficit that peaked at 21 points in the second quarter.
"Quite frankly, I felt like we needed to be aggressive and take some shots to keep drives alive and come away with seven points because we were having trouble slowing them down," Lembo said.
Ball State went for it on fourth down four times Saturday, converting once. In eight previous games, the Cardinals had attempted five fourth-down conversions, which had placed them among the nation's most conservative teams.
But Lembo felt he had little choice Saturday. Western Michigan tore through Ball State's defense for 610 yards, the most it had allowed against a Mid-American Conference team since 2007. Though the Cardinals forced four turnovers, it had little effect on the Broncos, who forced two crucial turnovers of their own.
Wenning said it felt good that Lembo had confidence in the offense to go for it so often on fourth down, even if the results weren't as good as the Cardinals would have liked.
"A couple plays we just couldn't execute on the fourth and shorts," Wenning said. "We wish we had them back."
Of all the fourth down failures, the biggest might have Western Michigan stopping running back Jahwan Edwards for no gain on fourth-and-one from the Broncos' eight-yard line in the second quarter. Western Michigan then took the ball 92 yards in five plays to take a 35-14 point lead, a deficit Ball State was unable to ever overcome.
"You feel like you're in a track meet," Lembo said. "You've got to try and come away with some touchdowns when you're down in that close."
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