Fantastic, Functional, Forgettable: CMU, UM bounce back as EMU, MSU rolled on road

Plenty to sift through out of a weekend of meaningful results.

Fantastic, Functional, Forgettable: CMU, UM bounce back as EMU, MSU rolled on road
(Rachel Leggett/Mitten Football)

Fantastic, Functional, Forgettable is back for another week, this time on a Monday morning for a change of pace.

From Central Michigan beating Bowling Green with a service academy-esque game script to Eastern Michigan getting rolled over by Miami (OH), and Michigan State unable to keep up with Indiana to Michigan blanketing Washington, there is lots to learn from this weekend.

And to take a broader look, here's where all the teams stand both record and conference standing-wise.

  • Central Michigan: 4-3, 2-1, tied for second place in the MAC
  • Eastern Michigan: 2-6, 1-3, fifth place in the MAC
  • Michigan: 5-2, 3-1, tied for second place in the Big Ten
  • Michigan State: 3-4, 0-4, tied for last place in the Big Ten
  • Western Michigan: 4-3, 3-0, tied for first place in the MAC

So, lets dig in.

Fantastic

Central Michigan’s run game and Angel Flores: Central Michigan beat up on Bowling Green, 27-6, and attempted five passes in the entire game, and still gained 76 yards on the three completions. How’s that for efficiency? Offensive coordinator Jim Chapin called a fantastic game as the Chippewas hammered the Falcons with a diverse, well-executed running game. The end result: 46 carries for 203 yards and three touchdowns, all scored by quarterback Angel Flores. With redshirt freshman Jadyn Glasser down for the year with a knee injury and surgery, Flores has become the engine of Central Michigan’s QB run game, and shined on Saturday with 18 carries for 72 yards and the trio of scores. 

Jordan Marshall: From afar, tackling Marshall seems to be about as pleasant as riding a bike into a fire hydrant. And against Washington on Saturday, he bullied and bruised his way to 133 yards on 25 carries, both career highs, and punched in a go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter. With Justice Haynes sitting out as a game-time decision, unable to go due to a lingering injury to his rib-area, the Michigan run game might have had a tad less explosion, but made up for it with punishing runs. And this new complexion looked good on Saturday, as Marshall kept the Michigan offense moving. 

Michigan’s defense: A tip of the cap to Wink Martindale and the Wolverines defense for taking a look in the mirror and not repeating the bad performance against USC. Michigan had a few lapses in the secondary with Rod Moore sitting with some game-time knee issues and Brandyn Hillman also not playing, but the effort on the whole was a turn-the-page type of performance. Three interceptions, containing Demond Williams Jr. as a scrambler and giving up 40 rushing yards is always a good day, and it was a necessary one at a necessary time for the Wolverines defense.

Harold Mack: Eastern Michigan lost, yes, but a true freshman wideout going for 179 yards and two touchdowns on six catches will land basically anyone in this category no matter the result. And along with his pair of scores, Mack was on the receiving end of a somewhat miraculous catch on a ball that slipped past a defender and fell into his arms on the sideline, setting up a touchdown. His emergence is also welcome as EMU has been without top wideout Terry Lockett Jr. due to injury. 

Central Michigan’s defense: The Chippewas buried Bowling Green as Lucian Anderson III made his second career start at quarterback for the Falcons. CMU forced two interceptions and gave up six points on a pair of first-half field goals. The defensive front lived in the backfield with three sacks and eight tackles for loss. Sean Cronin’s defense has been a thorny unit to play against this season, and showed it again on Saturday. 

Michigan’s passing offense and Chip Lindsey: Lindsey said this past week that the coaching staff needed to do a better job of putting players in positions to excel. And the Michigan offensive staff seemed to live up to it, calling a diverse, decisive offensive game as Michigan scored 24, put up more than 400 yards, and Bryce Underwood had the best game of his career as a passer. Michigan also did this without Justice Haynes, Marlin Klein or Hogan Hansen healthy, and with left tackle Evan Link leaving with an injury in the first half. The Donaven McCulley heat check on a reverse pass might’ve been too deep in it, but Michigan’s OC got in his bag on Saturday.

Functional

Michigan’s offensive depth: As mentioned just above, Michigan had a handful of notable injuries on offense to deal with. Along with those, guard Brady Norton remains out, though Jake Guarnera has played well in his absence. But even with all these pieces out, the Michigan offense found a balanced form, as tight end Zack Marshall stepped up alongside Jordan Marshall in the backfield, and Deakon Tonielli added some production at the tight end position, too. Jasper Parker got more snaps at tailback to spell Marshall. And Blake Frazier stepped in for Link at left tackle and played well. The Wolverines want to get healthy — though it sounds like Link’s injury could be long term — but seeing some depth pieces play well in expanded roles is always a good outcome. 

Aidan Chiles: After leaving the game against UCLA banged up, Chiles looked fairly healthy as he accounted for the majority of Michigan State’s offense on Saturday, throwing for 243 yards and running for a net of 48 yards. He had a 64 yarder, but the sack yardage cut into his ultimate tally. In general, he avoided mistakes and played on schedule, but the Spartans kept the ball coming out of his hands quickly with the calls behind a makeshift offensive line. He only had six incompletions, but an efficient quick game wasn’t enough to keep pace with the Hoosiers. 

Eastern Michigan’s passing offense, receiver depth: With Mack’s emergence as Lockett remains out, the Eagles now have a few more receivers to feel good about, as Nick Devereaux has come along and he and Mack complement Porter Rooks and Benson Prosper. The Eagles hope to get Lockett back soon and tight end Josh Long has grown into a real threat in the passing game. And the passing offense had a good down-to-down performance, producing 309 yards and four touchdowns. The Eagles passing offense has been the most prolific in the MAC and kept out in front with a high-volume performance trying to keep pace with Miami (OH) in a 44-30 loss. 

Central Michigan’s bowl path: After losing to Akron to fall to 3-3, the Chippewas weren’t in dire straits, but the road to a bowl game would’ve been easy to see at 4-2. Following the win at Bowling Green in which the Chippewas looked once more like the team Matt Drinkall has wanted to build, CMU is 4-3 and games against UMass and Kent State present an evident pathway to postseason eligibility. Games against Buffalo and Western Michigan will be difficult but both teams have looked beatable at points in MAC play, and Toledo in the finale has been a mixed bag. But winning two out of five to end the year seems manageable for the Chippewas. 

Forgettable

Michigan State’s pass rush, coverage: Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza may have begun workshopping a Heisman acceptance speech on some of his dropbacks on Saturday, so unbothered was he by the Michigan State pass rush. Mendoza didn’t get sacked and, sans disruption to the pocket, carved up the suspect back seven of the Spartan defense to the tune of 332 yards and four touchdowns while completing 24-of-28, or 86% of his passes. And with time to stand in the pocket, Mendoza and the Hoosiers attacked all levels of the field, with eight passes of 15-plus yards, going for a total of 218 yards. On either end of the passing defense, the Spartans struggled. 

Eastern Michigan’s run defense: The Eagles have struggled to defend the run and put missed tackles behind them and Saturday saw the group take a step in the wrong direction. The Redhawks rushed for 295 yards at a 5.4 yard per carry clip and punched in four rushing touchdowns. The result is especially disappointing as it came on the heels of the Eagles holding strong against Northern Illinois’ dedicated rushing attack mostly in check in a win. The issues defending the run need to get fixed for this team to get back in the win column. 

Noah Kim’s two interceptions: Kim played a generally solid game and his ability to sling the ball around has kept the Eagles in a lot of games. But he also threw a pair of fairly brutal interceptions on Saturday, one that appeared to be a throwaway that he didn’t get out of bounds and one that came after a throw to a target with multiple defenders covering. Eastern Michigan trailed and he needed to be aggressive to throw his team back into the game, but the two giveaways proved costly in a game his team lost by 14.

Semaj Morgan’s drop: It’s one play, yet the “Are you kidding me?” vibe felt in Michigan Stadium after Morgan dropped a fourth down throw that Bryce Underwood put on the money was unmistakable. Morgan made some nice plays later in the game and has been a lot steadier as a punt returner of late, but he’s struggled with catching the ball consistently this year and his latest blunder proved to be especially frustrating in the moment. Morgan is one of Michigan’s most explosive offensive playmakers with the ball in his hands, especially with Haynes banged up, but that’s not worth as much if the ball can’t stay in his hands consistently.

Michigan State’s non-Chiles rush offense: The offensive line as a whole struggled, which isn’t a surprise with the rash of injuries up front for the Spartans. But even with all the problems on the line, Michigan State’s run offense outside of Chiles didn’t provide any meaningful production. The non-Chiles rushers had 16 carries for 26 yards. Remove backup QB Alessio Milivojevic’s two carries for nine yards and it goes to 14 carries for 17 yards by the trio of Michigan State backs. That’s untenable. And be it scheme, better health or just better play by the offensive linemen who are playing and the tailbacks, Michigan State needs more rushing production that’s not coming from the quarterback.