2014 Week 16

The Chippewas made the short trip from Mt. Pleasant to Detroit looking to capture their 2nd consecutive MAC Championship. The Bulls entered the game looking for some revenge for last season's lost, unfortunately for them, history repeated itself again.

The Bulls were able to move the ball against the CMU defense all game, but consistently ran out of steam in CMU territory. CMU jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Buffalo could only manage to put three FG's on the board in the first half as CMU entered halftime with a 21-9 lead. Buffalo would score the first TD of the the 3rd quarter to cut the lead to 21-16. That was as close as Buffalo would get. CMU would answer with a TD of their own to increase their lead back to 12 at 28-16. The Chippewas added two 4th quarter FG's to bump their lead to 34-16. The Chippewa defense took over the 4th quarter shutting Buffalo down and securing the 34-16 win and the 2nd consecutive MAC Championship for Central Michigan. "I'm just extremely happy for the guys," said Carlson. "Our goal was to finish the season undefeated, win the MAC Championship and play for a National Championship. We have accomplished two of those goals, we will have to wait and see about the third one."

Offensively, the Chippewas were led by Cooper Rush who completed 14/19 passes for 252 yards, 2 TD's and 2 INT's. Rush's favorite target, Titus Davis, caught 7 passes for 147 yards and 1 TD. Saylor Lavallii led all rushers with 75 yards on 17 carries and scored 2 TD's.

The win improved Carlson's record to 24-3 and his team has now won 19 games in a row. There is no doubt that he will be a hot commodity in the coaching carousel, but he refused to talk about that after the win. "I don't have a lot to say about any of that stuff right now. There will always be rumors, but I have stated many times my goal is to win a National Championship at CMU. We were close this year, but it doesn't seem like that will happen. I'm going to enjoy this win with my team and look forward to whatever BCS game we end up in." The BCS projections currently have CMU playing the winner of the ACC Championship game between Georgia Tech and Florida State.

The #5 Chippewas will enter their BCS game with a 13-0 (9-0) record. This will be the first ever appearance for CMU in a BCS game and only the 2nd appearance for the Mid-American Conference. Northern Illinois lost to Florida State in the 2013 Orange Bowl.