Nick Bellore said his defense will have two decisive advantages over the Ball State offense tonight – experience and crowd noise.

Bellore said CMU’s familiarity with close games this season should help his defense contain tailback MiQuale Lewis, quarterback Nate Davis and the No. 14 Cardinals, which face the Chippewas at 7 p.m. today at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t. Every game seems to be coming down to the wire and most of the time we’ve come out on top,” Bellore said. “That’ll help us, but we just have to make sure we play our game throughout.”

Whereas CMU (8-2, 6-0 Mid-American Conference) has had its last eight games decided by 10 points or fewer, the closest game Ball State (10-0, 6-0 MAC) played was a 35-23 victory against Navy on Sept. 5.

In addition, CMU is going for a third straight MAC West championship, while Ball State has not won a MAC Championship since 1996.

Part of the reason of the Cardinals’ rather one-sided box scores is the play Davis and Lewis, both juniors. Davis is first in the conference with a 168.0 pass-efficiency rating, while Lewis’ 1,273 rushing yards and 17 rushing touchdowns both are conference bests.

CMU junior defensive end Frank Zombo is one player the Chippewas are counting on to contain BSU’s vaunted offense. Zombo leads the MAC with eight sacks this season, but the Cardinals have allowed just eight sacks all season, first in the MAC.

Nevertheless, Zombo believes his presence in the backfield can disrupt the BSU offense.

“Nate Davis hasn’t really been hit all year,” Zombo said. “Their O-line is really good, so it’s a great challenge for our D-line. We’re just going to give it everything we got and try to get after the quarterback.”

Referees have not flagged the Cardinals for a penalty since their 24-7 win against Western Kentucky on Oct. 11.

Bellore is hoping crowd noise can rattle the BSU offense.

“We need everybody to come out for the game, I just can’t stress it enough. We always seem to have a great atmosphere, but we need that much more for this game,” Bellore said. “It’s the biggest game we’ve had in a long time.”

sports@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: Justin Berndt