2015 Week 9

The #6 Chippewas used their home crowd to take control of the game against Northern Illinois. CMU jumped out to a 21-0 lead before a late 2nd quarter pass cut their lead to 21-7. A big kick return by the Chippewas allowed them to get into FG range with a few seconds remaining in the half to increase their lead to 24-7 at halftime. Neither team could add to the scoreboard in the 3rd quarter. An early 4th quarter NIU TD cut CMU's lead down to 24-14. CMU used a long drive of their own to milk some clock and later found the endzone to push their lead back to 17 at 31-14. CMU would find the endzone one more time en route to the 38-14 win.

Coach Carlson was pleased with his teams performance against NIU. "I thought we played a pretty good game overall. NIU was able to move the ball, but we really buckled down on defense when we needed to. These no huddle offenses are hard on a defense, but our guys played tough and only let them score 14 points. Offensively, we did exactly what we game planned. We're a pass first team, but we don't ignore the run. Cooper has really taken a step forward this season and his stats reflect that. We're 8-0, but we still have a lot of games left to play."

The aforementioned Rush completed 24 of 31 passes for 302 yards, 2 TD's and 1 INT. Rush is averaging nearly 300 yards passing per game this season, throwing for 2,370 yards, 24 TD's and 5 INT's. Andrew Flory led all receivers once again, catching 8 passes for 118 yards and 1 TD. RB Saylor Lavallii fell just short of 100 yards carrying the ball 21 times for 98 yards and 2 TD's. Lavallii also caught 3 passes for 39 yards.

The Chippewas improved their record to 8-0 (4-0). They will travel to Bowling Green next weekend for their first MAC crossover game. The game against Bowling Green will be the first meeting for the teams since 2010. BGSU leads the all-time series 22-18.