The offense is running well under Brian Brunner. The senior quarterback is 12-for-18 for 176 yards and a touchdown, and his lone interception came on a jump ball in the end zone to end the half. Although junior Dan LeFevour, nursing a right ankle injury, looks fine on the sideline, I'm not sure if he will get a chance to play today if Brunner's doing well.
The pass defense is a different story. A lot of teams give up around 288 passing yards per game, but CMU did it in one half of play. Junior Tim Hiller, who is 23-for-27 already, is making good throws all around the field, mainly because no pressure is getting to him. Wide receiver Jamarko Simmons (9 catches, 79 yards) is having a great game. So is Juan Nunez (5 catches, 92 yards), who caught a couple deep balls already this game. To put it short, the Chippewas absolutely have to stop Hiller the next half if they want to keep the lead and win.
Bryan Schroeder's the player of the game so far. The true freshman running back would've seen playing time earlier this year if he hadn't been injured, but now that he's healthy again, he's performing very well. He leads all rushes with 72 yards on 13 carries. Schroeder looks like a physical runner with his build, but his cutback speed is impressive, better than I've seen all year from Central running backs. He's been critical in the flow of the offense.
The stadium's packed. Kelly/Shorts is easily pushing 30,000, although I'm still not sure if it's a recorded sell-out. People are sitting on the hills at the north side of the stadium and tons more are lining the outside of the bleachers, standing. Easily the biggest crowd I've seen here since I began reporting for team last year. It's only going to get noisier in the second half.
The run defense is doing well, although the poor pass defense is overshadowing that. WMU running back Brandon West, despite a 21-yard run to begin the game, has 23 yards on 10 carries since. Central just has to get better pressure on Hiller if it wants to hang on and win against the Broncos.
Check back at cm-life.com and this blog for real-time updates and postgame analysis!
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