For nearly the first 30 minutes of football in Ball State's 31-27 win over Central Michigan, the Cardinal's offense struggled to get points even with decent field positions. Quarterback Keith Wenning threw an interception in the red zone and the leader rusher in the first half was kicker Scott Secor who ran for 28 yards on a fake punt.
The first half performance even left coach Pete Lembo without words.
"I don't quite an explanation for the first half," he said. "I know exactly what happened in the first half. I know we missed a lot of tackles and had a lot of different guys take their turn with some technique issues in pass defense."
Lembo was even more surprised at how his team only scored three points in the first half despite the amount of plays it made on special teams. To open the game, Jamill Smith returned the opening kickoff to the Ball State 49-yard line. In the second quarter, Smith returned another kickoff to the Ball State 45-yard line. Both possessions ended with no points.
Central Michigan quarterback Ryan Radcliff picked apart the Ball State defense, throwing for 248 yards and two touchdown passes to tight end David Blackburn.
Even as his team struggled and faced a 17-point deficit early in the second quarter, Lembo said he never felt his team become deflated like it had earlier in the season. A 25-yard field goal as the first half ended gave Ball State momentum going into the locker room.
In the second half, it was Central Michigan that struggled while Ball State's offense exploded for 28 points. Central Michigan was held to 10 points and committed three turnovers, two fumbles and an interception, in the second half.
"The big thing was our mindset going into the second half," Wenning said. "The first half we knew as an offense that wasn't us. The big thing was just executing play-by-play."
The Cardinals took advantage of a Central Michigan fumble in its own territory in the third quarter. Four plays later, Ball State scored its second touchdown in 88 seconds.
"Anytime that you can get the ball to your offense and get them on the field, it's a big deal," linebacker Travis Freeman said.
Lembo called the game a roller coaster as the teams traded the lead twice in the fourth quarter before Ball State held on for its fifth win of the season.
"We tweaked a couple things in the run game that helped us," Lembo said. "We had some bullets left in the gun in terms of explosive plays that we were able to use in the second half that kept the drive alive."
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