CMU defense stifles Akron offense on Saturday

After the first play of the Mid-American Conference schedule, the Chippewas looked like they might be in trouble.

Akron senior wide receiver Dashan Miller took the opening kickoff from his own goal line and returned it 67 yards to the Central Michigan 33-yard line before CMU senior kicker Andrew Aguila tackled him.

But CMU’s defense halted any offensive threat, forcing the Zips to attempt a field goal after three plays resulted in four yards. Akron was still primed to score on the drive as kicker Igor Iveljic lined up for a 46-yard field goal.

But off the edge came junior cornerback Vince Agnew, blocking the kick for senior cornerback Kirkston Edwards to recover.

“I thought that was a big start to the game,” said coach Butch Jones. “We talked about wanting to start fast.”
Jones said the field goal block set the tempo with the defense maintained the tone the rest of the way. It held Akron to 196 total yards in the game, most of which came after the first string was taken out and the game was out of reach.

“Anytime you can force a team to go three-and-out and give you great field position, you feed off of each other and I thought (the defense) gave a great effort today,” he said.

Getting off the field

With little time left before the half, CMU’s defense found itself deep in its own territory. Akron faced a fourth-and-one at the CMU 34-yard line with just more than five minutes remaining in the half, down 27-7.

The Chippewas won the battle at the line of scrimmage and stopped the short rush for a loss, giving the offense the ball. The ensuing drive resulted in a 9-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Dan LeFevour to junior wide receiver Antonio Brown.

“Our defensive line did a tremendous job on the inside,” said junior linebacker Matt Berning. “With those guys digging hard and playing with great effort, it made it easy for (junior linebacker Nick Bellore) and I to stand free and clean up, if there is anything to clean up.”

Berning said it was a point of emphasis in the week leading up to Saturday to establish the run defense early.

The team took it further by holding Akron to 85 yards of total offense before the CMU starters were pulled with 10 minutes remaining.

CMU allowed just one third down conversion, stopping the Zips on 11-of-12 attempts.

It did, however, allow two touchdowns when the first string was in. Both touchdowns came when Akron started the possession inside CMU territory.

“I can’t say enough about our defense,” Jones said. “They were flying around and running to the ball, and that’s critical. Akron’s a very good football team.”