At the 3:58 mark of the second quarter, Conor Hundley ran in a touchdown to give Akron a 21-6 lead. In the end, that turned out to be the final score of the day for the Zips as Ball State went on to score the next 29 points to lock up a 35-21 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Tommy Woodson showed once again that he is not ready to have success at this level of football. This time his poor performance can not be blamed on dropped passes even though a couple of big plays were dropped. Woodson's day started off nearly flawless as he was 14-17 through the air with a touchdown. After that he went 7-22 with four interceptions. That will not cut it in a pass-first offense.
The Akron running game had a nice day with 125 yards on the ground. Conor Hundley led the ground attack again picking up 72 yards on 14 carries for a five yard average. Combined with Woodson's two hundred yards through the air, the Zips gained just 325 yards of total offense.
Akron had the lead for most of the day, but gave it up for good with 11:45 remaining in the game on a Jack Milas touchdown run that followed a huge fumbled punt by Akron's Imani Davis. The next Akron drive stalled and Zach Paul had his punt blocked by the Cardinals and it rolled out of bounds at the Akron 27. Ball State then took its time to drive the ball into the end-zone on a carry by Jahwan Edwards with 6:55 remaining to make it 32-21 Cardinals. That touchdown locked up the game.
The Ball State Cardinals scored 29 unanswered points after trailing 21-6 in the first half. The Cardinal defense shutout the Akron offense in the second half by forcing five turnovers and a blocked punt. The Ball State offense continued to take care of the ball as they did not turn the ball over. It's hard to lose when you have a +5 turnover margin.
The offense was primarily lead by the best Ball State back in history, Jahwan Edwards. Edwards averaged five yards on 24 carries for 121 yards and a touchdown. Milas and KeVonn Mabon each added rushing touchdowns of their own. Milas was okay through the air today as he went 18 of 36 for 225 yards. He was nothing special, but got the job done.
The Cardinals only had 380 total yards despite lighting up the scoreboard for 35 points. You can thank the five second half Akron turnovers for the great field position. Scott Secor also had a big day despite two missed field goals. He went 5 of 7 on field goals and 2-2 on extra points for 17 total points. Not bad for one game.
The Akron Zips (4-4, 2-2) look to bounce back from this two-game skid as they host the first place Bowling Green Falcons for midweek MACtion on Tuesday, November 4. Ball State (3-5, 2-2) looks to keep its championship hopes alive as they host Northern Illinois on Wednesday, November 5 for some more midweek MACtion.