The Ball State Cardinals won a tough game at Western Michigan last night, 22-17. BSU got on the board early, taking a 13-0 lead thirty seconds into the second quarter. The next two quarters were not as kind to the Cards. After the touchdown, Ball State had 8 drives that totaled 22 plays for only 32 yards. They did get a field goal out of one of those drives due to an interception, but overall it was not a good day for the offense. The defense, however, played great when they needed to. BSU gave up 463 yards on offense, but caused 5 turnovers. NFL prospect Tim Hiller threw 4 interceptions, two to Sean Baker and one each to Travis Freeman and Jason Pinkston. Drew Duffin recovered a Hiller fumble in the first half.
The big story of the game was special teams. With the Cards down 17-16 with 7:57 left in the fourth quarter, punt returner Charlie Todd took a punt return 87 yards for the winning touchdown. Todd also had 8 tackles on the night to lead the team. Kicker Ian McGarvey got back on track, kicking field goals of 31, 45, and a career-best tying 48 yards. It was good to see the seniors go out with a win after a struggling season. However, most of this team returns next year, and if they stay healthy they could be a force in the MAC.
The MAC bowl picture looks a little funny. With 5 teams having a strong possibility to get to a bowl game, you would think that the conference would be happy. However, depending on which conferences will not have enough teams to fill their spots and all of the contingency contracts, the MAC could have 4 teams that would play each other in bowl games. The GMAC bowl and the Motor City Bowl may have MAC rematches, unless a UCLA or a Notre Dame would take one of those spots. Of course, this is all assuming that Bowling Green beats Toledo and gets to 7 wins. Either way, there will be at least one bowl game that will have two MAC teams.
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