Central Michigan Suffers a Huge Road Loss To NC State

With three interceptions thrown by Cooper Rush, the Chippewas took a huge 48-14 loss to the NC State Wolfpack Saturday.

After being down 7-0 through the first quarter (thanks to a Rush INT that was returned for a score), the Chippewas let up four touchdowns in the second quarter, including a couple long rushing touchdowns by Shadrach Thornton and Matt Dayes. The third NC State score in the quarter came from Rashard Smith, who took a punt return to the house for 67 yards.

The Chips held the Wolfpack to a lone field goal in the third quarter to give NC State the 38-0 edge going into the final quarter of the ball game.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Rush threw a touchdown to Titus Davis (yes, his own teammate) for Central's first score of the game. Not even five minutes later, Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore took in a 38-yard run to make it a 38-14 game.

It would end up being a 48-14 final score when everything was said and done. It was pretty obvious that this team just looked highly undisciplined and, naturally, was out coached. Even though there were only four CMU penalties, there were too many bad passes by Rush and the defense just took bad route after bad route after whoever the ball carrier was. The Chips' defense allowed nearly 500 yards to an offense that hadn't put up big numbers all year.

The Wolfpack were the superior team Saturday, but CMU wasn't even competitive. The offensive line failed to gain any moment, which lead to a stagnant running game, and Rush's continued mistakes put the game out of reach before it began. Five games into the season and the Chippewas continue to slide further backwards.

Central now falls to a 1-5 record and will travel to Oxford, Ohio next week for an in-conference match up with the awful Miami RedHawks. As bad as Miami is though, if Rush and CMU can't stop making mistakes, CMU could be heading home with another loss.