UPDATE: Late interceptions lead to 50-35 loss to Toledo
By Matt Thompson on October 6, 2012 6:29 pm / 10 comments
TOLEDO – Central Michigan quarterback Ryan Radcliff tried to throw a short out-route to pick up the first down on third–and–one with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game down 34–28.
Toledo senior safety Mark Singer jumped the pass for an interception and returned it 43 yards for a touchdown as the Rockets beat CMU 50-35 at the Glass Bowl Saturday afternoon.
“The defender made a good play, honestly,” wide receiver Cody Wilson said. “It was an out route by Titus (Davis). He had a choice to slant it; they played man coverage; he did the right thing. Ryan threw the ball in the right place, the guy just undercut it. Good play by him.”
CMU had a final chance to tie the game with 50 seconds left to play down eight points, but Radcliff threw his second interception returned for a touchdown of the fourth quarter.
Two punt returns from Bernard Reed propelled the Toledo scoring. The first of the game for Reed went for 53 yards to set up an easy opening field goal.
“Bernard Reed is special player because he comes to practice and competes and excells in practice,” Toledo head coach Matt Campbell said. “(He) did a great job; he had a great second half.”
Reed cut back on the CMU coverage team for a 66-yard touchdown on his first return of the second. The special teams’ score gave Toledo its first lead of the second half, 24-21.
Radcliff finished his second–straight game of 300-yards passing. He was 28-of-44 for 327 yards with two interceptions and tied a career-high four touchdowns.
“Besides those two interceptions, I thought Ryan played really well,” Wilson said. “Little bit like last week, we hurt ourselves. If we want to beat good teams, we can’t do that.”
Toledo quarterback Terrance Owens rushed for two touchdowns, but also threw his first interception of the season to defensive back Anthony Young.
The Rockets turned the ball over three times in the first half, allowing CMU to take a 21-17 halftime lead. Owens finished with 233 passing yards and 81 rushing yards.
After the Toledo lead ballooned to 10 in the third quarter, sophomore Courtney Williams made a diving catch, barely keeping his feet in bounds for a three–yard touchdown pass from Radcliff – his first of the season.
Williams caught another touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter, recording his first two–touchdown games of his career.
First half
Toledo struck first after a 53-yard punt return following the opening CMU drive put them in field-goal position. After a three-and-out Jeremiah Detmer made a 33-yard field goal.
On the Rockets second possession, two CMU true freshmen defensive players forced a turnover. Jabari Dean, making is first start on the defensive line, stripped the ball out, and Brando Greer recovered it.
CMU junior running back Zurlon Tipton scored on an 11-yard rush on the very next play. The run put the Chippewas up 7-3. Tipton has 12 rushes for 57 yards.
“What I was most dissappinted in was our inconsistently running the ball,” CMU head coach Dan Enos said. “I think that forced us to throw too much in the second half.”
Two fourth-down conversions, including a one-yard plunge to score, helped the Rockets score their first touchdown and reclaim the lead at 10-7.
Davis scored his fourth touchdown in three games for CMU on a corner-post route 23 yards out from Radcliff. On the next CMU possession, the senior quarterback hooked up with sophomore Deon Butler on a slant to make it a 21-10 CMU lead midway through the second quarter.
The Rockets cut CMU’s lead to 21-17 just before halftime on Owens’ 11-yard touchdown run with 13 seconds left in the half.
Although CMU allowed 50 points in the game, only 26 of those points were scored against the Chippewa defense. Toledo added points on a punt return touchdown and two interceptions.
“(The defense) put us in a position where we had a good chance to win,” Wilson said. “And as an offense, we have to make plays and put points on the board when we have that chance.”
For Toledo, it was its fifth–straight win after losing to Arizona in overtime during its season opener. CMU lost its second consecutive MAC game, slipping to 2-3 overall.
Friday, Navy will come to Mount Pleasant to face the Chippewas in the final non-conference game of the regular season.
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10 Comments
How many times has Radcliff thrown pick six’s to lose a game for us? Bench him and throw in Niznak or Rush. Damn!
Niznak is third string. Sit down
OK Heeke, when are you going to admit you made a mistake and get rid of Enos? The loss to MSU was bad enough but allowing Toledo to score 50 points? Enough is enough! Time to hire another Butch Jones – no matter the cost Derek Vandenmeer!
Enos isn’t going anywhere. Heeke is going to stay with him for another couple years. Heeke is like the 40 percent of Americans who think Obama is doing a great job. Both Enos and Obama are doing a poor job at their respective jobs. Both should be fired this fall. But, Enos is here to stay, folks. Get use to 3-9 CMU football teams. As long as we have Heeke, it’s Enos and 3-9.
I don’t see us beating weak Ball State, Akron, Western teams up coming.
Butch Jones and Brian Kelly are UNDEFEATED at their respective schools, Cincinnati and Notre Dame.
Remember when we had good coaches here. Didn’t they run the spread offense?
Way to bring politics into sports, not necessary. However, I do agree with your comments regarding the Chips. For some reason, Heeke believes in Enos and we will have to suffer through at least 1 or 2 more terrible losing seasons before one of them is fired. I really do not understand it and why Heeke is so in love with Enos and his coaching and play calling abilities. Enos has shown that he cannot manage a once successful program and his system at the MAC level does not work. Why is that? Well actually it is very simple for anyone that actually follows college football. You cannot recruit the type of players that he needs for a pro style because the majority go to bigger schools which is why spread offenses are much more successful in smaller conferences. To be honest, Enos has had only 2 good wins in his whole career (not too many wins to pick from actually) and that is beating WMU his first year here and the win over Iowa. So, I am clueless as to how this guy is still the head football coach. I’m sure Enos’ excuse will be that we are playing Toledo and they are the best team in the MAC, but hey aren’t we competing for the MAC Championship!? You keep saying that that is our goal, but we still keep losing to MAC Championship caliber teams. This program has fallen so far. Stop donating. I know I have
Radcliff has not improved in all the years he has been here. Once he looks at a receiver he stays locked-in on that guy. That makes him very easy to intercept and that fact the he continues to play is why I will not be visiting Mt P until he is gone. Five of my buddies and I planned on going to the Navy game this week, but we decided yesterday not to support this team as long as Enos and Radcliff are in charge. That is 6 less tickets sold.
CMU’s current self esteem starts at the top. If you don’t demand excellence, you surely won’t get it. The Ross-Heeke-Enos connection is what it is. Do we see a pattern here/? Someone please call the board of trustees and tell them the University is burning.
Indefensible! Average opponent score over the last 2.5 years:
2010: 26
2011: 33
2012: 41 (thru five games)
What are you NOT SEEING, Mr. Heeke?!
Central has had a couple of chances to validate the Iowa win and has failed to do so. This was an upsetting performance due to the fact that it was a winnable game just sitting there. But when your special teams allow a TD and your offense gives up two TDs, it makes what is a winnable game into another weekend of grief. You can’t win games when other units besides your defense is allowing 21 points to the opposition.
Just like with the Detroit Lions, special teams are killing the Chips the last couple of weeks. Gosh, fake field goals, returns for TDs, whatever. All anyone hopes is that your special teams rates no worse than a D so that the other units (offense and defense) can determine the outcome of the game. That’s not happening. The special teams have been so putrid, they are determining the negative outcome of these games. And it certainly doesn’t help when your QB scores 14 points for the opposition as well. Radcliffe will finish with good raw numbers when his career is over, but the fact is that’s a product of today’s game. With the way teams attack through the passing game and with the efficient passes they use, you better be among the school leaders of all time if you are a three-year starting QB. Chances are there may be one to two QBs in your school’s history that was lucky enough to have the same benefits. Beyond the raw numbers, anyone who has seen him with any degree of consistency isn’t going to be scared by what Radcliffe can do against a defense. He’s had his occasional good game, but more often than not you just hope he can manage a game, but usually fails in doing that task. For example, if he was just adequate on Saturday, the Chippewas probably win that game even with all the other issues. He wasn’t. He was the worst player on the field during that second half. Consequently, the Chippewas lose. We’ve seen it before. We’ll probably see it again before this year’s up.
4.7 yards per carry from our starting running back….. what about that is inconsistent. Give him a chance to win ball games for us, hes proved that he is probably our second if not first most productive player with Wilson