The Broncos gained 711 yards on the Cardinals, including 300-plus yard performances through the air and on the ground. This was the most yards Ball State's defense has given up all season, the closest performance was on Oct. 10 in its 59-41 loss at Northern Illinois, when they gave up 636 yards.
Ball State's defense got beat in both aspects of the game, and the offense also struggled throughout, finishing with 152 yards total.
"It was a poor performance, in all three phases, by the end of the night," head coach Pete Lembo said. "That's my responsibility to get them ready, and I thought despite the short week, we had a decent week of preparation, but obviously it didn't show out there tonight."
Freshman quarterback Riley Neal led the Cardinals in both passing yards, with 78, and rushing yards, with 38. Senior wide receiver Jordan Williams led Ball State's receiving attack once again with 43 yards and the lone touchdown on the day.
Western Michigan's quarterback, Zach Terrell, finished 16-22 for 324 yards and three touchdowns. He had 289 yards and had his three passing touchdowns at halftime. He left the game after the last possession in the third quarter, when the score was 47-7 in favor of the Broncos.
Ball State's secondary was on the field for more than two-thirds of the game. They have also given up more yards than Terrell's total. They allowed 363 yards and two touchdowns to Northern Illinois' Drew Hare and 412 yards and a touchdown to Georgia State's Nick Arbuckle in previous games.
At halftime, Western Michigan held a 30-0 lead over the Cardinals, while controlling the total yardage battle 412-57.
"I think we lost our composure out there a little bit tonight," Lembo said. "We fell behind and we lost our composure at times, and some guys blew some circuits on some things that they normally do."
Ball State was 2-13 while converting third downs. On the season, they have only converted 65-165, with the game against Western Michigan dropping them below the 40-percent rate. Meanwhile, the Broncos converted 8-15 on third down.
Ball State's third down defense has stopped only 51.6 percent of conversions on the season.
"We had one blown coverage for sure on the third-and-20," Lembo said. "I would say on a couple other third and longs we just didn't generate enough pass rush to hurry or disrupt enough throws."
After the 47-point victory, the Broncos moved to 6-3 (5-0) as Ball State fell to 3-7 (2-4).
"It's certainly a tough pill to swallow" Lembo said. "I'm disappointed in myself, and I'm gonna keep working hard with these guys to try to get them back on track here."
The Cardinals will regroup with a bye week coming up and will continue play when they travel to Ohio (5-4, 2-3) on Nov. 17.
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