Explosive plays key in Chippewas attempt to break losing streak
Titus Davis said he was feeling "90 percent” after Saturday’s loss to Toledo.
Davis tallied six catches for 128 yards during Saturday’s game. As the Chippewas (2-3, 0-1 MAC) attempt to cut off their three-game losing streak against Ohio (3-2, 1-0 MAC).
But the senior senior wide receiver remains a large part of CMU’s ability to stretch the defense and attain the big play.
“I think as he gets going and feels stronger you’ll see him play more big plays,” said Head Coach Dan Enos. “I think you’ll be able to see some very, very explosive plays out of him. Those are still to come.”
CMU failed to move the ball more than 40 yards on a single play against Toledo. Sophomore quarterback Cooper Rush said he and the Chippewas’ offensive unit spent the week dissecting exactly what went wrong.
“We were a little too stagnant in the first half,” Rush said. If we can run the ball and just get open like we did in that second half, we can definitely be successful.”
The emergence of junior wide receiver Jesse Kroll and the likely return of redshirt freshman wide receiver Mark Chapman gives Rush other options if the Ohio secondary decides to focus primarily on Davis and is big-play ability.
“I don’t want (Rush) to force-feed the ball to Titus just because he’s back,” Enos said. “That’s one thing we really tried to talk to (Rush) about last week. It can’t become a number 84 show where that’s all we do.”
Last season, Rush led the Chippewas to a 26-23 upset victory over the Bobcats without Davis in the lineup due to injury. Rush’s touchdown pass to wide receiver Courtney Williams with 22 seconds to play sealed the road win for CMU.
“We had some success against them last year,” Rush said. “It was a good game, they battled. We know we’re going to be in for a fight this year.”
The Chippewas have won five out of their last six games against the Bobcats and are 22-5-2 all time in the series against their interstate rivals.
While the Bobcats 24.1 points per game allowed on defense is more than three points better than CMU’s defense per game, Enos said he believes the Chippewas can and will take advantage of Ohio’s pressure-heavy defense.
“They press the corners a lot,” he said. “Titus likes to be pressed. They do a good job, though. When people press you consistently like that, the wide outs have to have the ability to get behind them and make plays. Certainly we’re going to try to do that.”
Ohio’s most accomplished quarterback in program history Tyler Tettleton graduated last season.
The Bobcats have just three returning starters on offense, presenting an opportunity to pick on the youth for CMU’s defense, which gave up nearly 600 total yards of offense last week
“We’ve got something to prove,” said junior defensive back Kavon Frazier. “We’ve got a lot of energy, we’re trying to come off strong and throw the first punch.”
Even more crucial after Ohio, the Chippewas will travel to Northern Illinois and then host Ball State.
CMU is 1-7 against NIU and BSU since 2009.
Senior defensive back Jason Wilson said he thinks his team can beat anybody.
“Every team you put on the schedule for me is a beatable team,” Wilson said. “They could put the Lions on there and I’d say it’s a beatable team, to be honest. No matter who we play, we feel like we can win. That’s why we play this sport. We play the sport to win.”
The Chippewas enter the game as four-point favorites.
