By Matt Josephs for Steve Merril Sports

The MAC conference has posted some success this year in non-conference games and one of those teams bringing them strong victories is Central Michigan. Last year the Chips were the MAC champions and lost a close game with Purdue in the Motor City Bowl 51-48. Now CMU enters a key game on Wednesday night versus Northern Illinois and the question arises: Are the Chippewas for real?

Any discussion about this team begins with QB Dan LeFevour who is 18th in the nation in total offense averaging 278 yards per game by himself. The issue with LeFevour is his health which has caused him to miss two of the past three games versus Western Michigan and Indiana. The future is bright for them as Brian Brunner has performed more than admirably for the Chips winning at Indiana while throwing for 485 yards in that game. The team rushes the ball well with Onterio Sneed and LeFevour combining for 651 yards this season, but the team’s bread and butter is the pass. They rank 14th in the nation in this category and they get most of their work from Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson both of whom rank in the top 60 in receiving yards per game and have combined for 1,293 receiving yards this season.

Defense has never been a strong suit for this school. They are ranked 98th overall with the 104th pass efficiency defense. Teams have been able to move up and down the field on CMU, but their offense has managed to hide this weakness so far. One star on this unit is Frank Zombo who averages almost a sack per game this season and is tied for 16th overall in that category. The team does rank 22nd overall in sacks, but their secondary gets gashed for yardage if they can’t get to the quarterback on the blitz.

Schedule-wise, CMU has been tested playing Georgia, Purdue and Indiana in non-conference games. While they were blown off the field by the Bulldogs, they lost a close one at Purdue, and pulled out a shootout in Bloomington over the Hoosiers. Central Michigan has shown the ability to win the close game as they have won four games by a field goal or less this year. Granted, they were against Ohio, Buffalo, Toledo and Indiana and none of them outside of the Bulls will be sniffing the postseason. The remaining schedule is tough beginning with Northern Illinois and then Ball State at home before wrapping up with Eastern Michigan. If the Chippewas can beat Ball State then they may get a decent bowl this year. A more likely scenario is that Central Michigan’s defense will continue to be their downfall and a nice bowl game in Canada is probably in their future.

Matt Josephs is a producer for ESPN Radio in Richmond Virginia.

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