2014 Week 10

The Chippewas entered the game poised to dominate the Toledo Rockets, but Toledo had other plans in this hard fought game. The Chippewas struggled to get their offense going, but found themselves with a 14-3 lead entering halftime. The Rockets were able to answer back in the 3rd quarter scoring 11 unanswered points to tie the game at 14-14 entering the final quarter. Central could not find the endzone and had to settle for two FG's in the 4th quarter to take the lead 20-14 with less than 4 minutes to play. Needing a touchdown to win the game, the Rockets put together their best possession of the half, driving inside CMU's 15 yard line. Shortly after, the Rockets were faced with a 4th and 1 inside of the 10 yard line and had to convert to give themselves a chance to win. The Rockets decided to test the nation's #1 rush defense in the country, but CMU was up to the task, tackling the Toledo RB for a loss of one yard and forcing a turnover on downs. "Just a huge play by our defense," said Carlson. "We pride ourselves on being able to stop the run and we're ranked #1 in the nation because of that, but Toledo had some success on the ground before that play. We challenged our guys to step up and make a stop and they did it."

Offensively, CMU could never get the pass game going and it kept them from putting points on the board. Carlson wasn't pleased with the offensive performance against Toledo. "We weren't very good offensively and we turned it over two times. Luckily, the defense was able to pick up the slack today. We've won a lot of games, but this isn't going to be a cake walk for us. We have a target on our backs and teams want to knock us off." Cooper Rush struggled passing, completing 17 of 31 passes for 208 yards and 2 INT's. The Rocket defense was able to keep WR Titus Davis under 100 yards receiving for the first time in five games. Davis caught 6 passes for 82 yards. RB Saylor Lavallii accounted for two CMU TD's on the ground. He carried the ball 21 times for 106 yards. Lavallii also caught 3 passes for 31 yards.

Central Michigan improves to 9-0 (5-0) and will head into next weeks game ranked #6 in the nation. The Chippewas travel to Athens, OH to face the Bobcats.