CMU-BSU salivating, but NIU stands in the way

From Friday's edition of CM Life:

Wednesday was the first night in which I could finally see what the fuss was all about in Muncie, Ind.

That is the home of the No. 16 ranked Ball State Cardinals, a MAC West rival that not only beat their first eight opponents — they dismantled them. Being a football beat writer that has to focus on one team, my only connection with Ball State games this season consisted of cell phone updates and ticker scores.

The Cardinals hosted Northern Illinois on ESPN2 in what looked like a promising defensive showdown between two of the Mid-American Conference's best. First-year coach Jerry Kill had NIU (5-4, 4-2 MAC) in every game this season just one year removed from a 2-10 record.

That is, until he ran into Ball State (9-0, 5-0 MAC).

And after watching Ball State crush NIU 45-17, it is safe to say that team is every bit as good as its ranking suggests. It is for real.

Quarterback Nate Davis looked nothing like the guy I saw in last season's 58-38 loss to CMU. In that game, he missed wide-open receivers, overthrew others and found himself constantly running out of the pocket and scrambling to make a play.

On Wednesday, this guy was the football equivalent of Superman. He sat in the pocket with absolute ease and torched the vaunted Huskies secondary, going 18-for-22 for 300 yards and four touchdowns.

The man in the backfield, MiQuale Lewis, entered the game the MAC's leading rusher and it showed. He cut through NIU's defensive line like paper with 119 yards on just 19 carries.

Receiver Louis Johnson had a 71-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter called back because his left foot went out of bounds at the 37-yard line. What does he do the very next play? Catch a 22-yard touchdown pass (a 15-yard NIU facemask penalty was enforced).

Let’s put it this way: Northern Illinois entered the game giving up 8.2 points per game. Ball State scored six times that, all of it in three quarters and one minute.

In short, this Cardinals team, carrying the newfound demeanor of a quintessential winning team, picked apart the MAC’s best defense and looks just about unstoppable. Chances are, it is going to do the same next week at Miami University and enter Mount Pleasant on Nov. 19 with a 10-0 record and a top-15 ranking.

That will set up arguably the MAC’s biggest game since the days of Marshall and Toledo a few years ago. The ranked, undefeated favorites against the veteran two-time defending conference champions fighting for the MAC West title.

But there is one catch. As Chippewas coach Butch Jones and his players will tell you, they are not even thinking about Nov. 19 yet. They have Northern Illinois to deal with first on Wednesday, a matchup that has all the makings of a trap game.

Okay, so it is a bit tough to talk up a team that just got shellacked on national television. But that is the point.

The Huskies are going to come back refocused. They get CMU at Huskie Stadium, in one of the most difficult MAC environments. They are still the same grind-it-out force that thrives on physicality and beating teams no matter what the conditions are like.

Yeah, they looked pretty bad against the Cardinals. But so did Indiana and Toledo, both of which gave CMU fits in later games.

The next two weeks have more significance to them than just Wednesday games. They not only decide CMU's three-peat bid - they decide CMU's Top 25 bid. The latter game has all the makings of Kelly/Shorts Stadium's biggest showdown in years.

But one game on Nov. 12 in DeKalb, Ill., stands in the way.

sports@cm-life.com