Central/Western: Postgame Notes

CENTRAL MICHIGAN 38, WESTERN MICHIGAN 28

Today, despite also being the Mid-American Conference's biggest rivalry (at least right now), was a first in a lot of different ways.

Quarterback Brian Brunner won his first career start. Running back Bryan Schroeder scored his first two career touchdowns. Receiver Kito Poblah had a career-high 81 receiving yards. CMU now has won three consecutive over WMU since 1989-91. WMU quarterback Tim Hiller had a career-high 471 yards passing. Three WMU receivers topped 100 yards (Jamarko Simmons, Juan Nunez, Schneider Julien). Junior receiver Bryan Anderson passed Reggie Allen for first in school history with 194 career catches. The list goes on.

To me, the story was the Brian Brunner and Bryan Schroeder connection. It's pretty safe to say that nobody was expecting these two to start in the big rivalry game, and they put up incredible performances for the Chippewas. Brunner was 20-for-28 for 346 yards and a touchdown, while Schroeder led all runners with 106 yards on 25 carries. Brunner's throws were spot-on today and Schroeder displayed excellent cutback speed to elude WMU defenders. Having that balance was huge for CMU to stay ahead in this game.

Obviously, with Hiller throwing for 471 yards, the pass defense was a little off. Coach Butch Jones indicated it had a lot to do with the pass rush, and he was right: Hiller had too much time to sit in the pocket, and when you have guys like Simmons and Nunez who can get open, that's going to cause problems. And it did early on.

But here's the key stat for the defense: 2-for-5 on fourth down conversions. All three stops were critical, considering that the first two were inside CMU's red zone and the third was WMU's last-ditch effort to get within three points with just seconds left. Collectively, those plays made all the difference- that's how you give up 520 yards, yet only give up 28 points and help your team win.

That'll do it for postgame notes... next up is a three-game road trip, starting with Toledo on Saturday. Keep checking back on this blog for updates, check the Web site for even more updates and check out our coverage of this game and beyond in the paper Monday!