Western Michigan football in driver’s seat in MAC traffic jam

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Western Michigan football in driver's seat in MAC traffic jam

For Western Michigan football, this week is all about finishing what it started.

Then again, Lance Taylor would be just fine if his Broncos started a little bit better, too, when they play at Eastern Michigan on Tuesday night, with a spot in the Mid-American Conference championship game up for grabs.

Western Michigan (7-4) is 6-1 in the MAC and has a full game lead heading into the final week of the regular season, so win and the Broncos are in the MAC championship game for the first time since 2016. But WMU has trailed in six of its seven MAC games this season, including the last three weeks, including a fourth-quarter comebacks against rival Central Michigan and Ohio. Last week, WMU trailed Northern Illinois, 13-0, before winning, 35-19.

“We have to start fast. We can’t waste any plays or possessions,” Taylor, the third-year head coach at Western, said last week, repeating the message he had delivered to his players. “We have to maximize every play and possession, come out of the tunnel and get ready to play fast and physical. … We have not done that very well.

“You can’t start down, 13-0. That’s not a winning formula.”

Especially in a rivalry game, in front of a national TV audience (ESPN2), with so much at stake ― namely, a ticket for the Broncos to the MAC championship game at Ford Field in Detroit on Dec. 6. The last time WMU was in the MAC title game, P.J. Fleck was still the head coach.

Western Michigan (7-4, 6-1) faces an Eastern Michigan team (4-7, 3-4) that had higher expectations than another year without a bowl game, but the Eagles, led by senior quarterback Noah Kim, formerly of Michigan State, have won their last two games, after barely losing to an Ohio team that remains alive in the five-team MAC championship race.

EMU’s last win was the 200th for EMU head coach Chris Creighton. EMU’s next win will be the program’s 500th.

“You want it all for those guys,” said Creighton, who’s led Eastern Michigan to six bowl games in his 12 seasons, but none in the last two years. “It should be a meaningful night.”

Of Western Michigan, which has won the last two in the series, Creighton said: “They’re good. They’re having a really good year. They’ve earned their victories. They’re playing really good football. They were down (against Northern Illinois) … it didn’t look like they wavered at all, and just had a confidence and played through that.”

The Broncos have leaned heavily on a defense that is second in the MAC in points allowed, at 13.6 points a game ― behind only Toledo (10 points), which remains in the MAC hunt and plays at Central Michigan, also still alive for a championship-game spot, on Saturday in Mount Pleasant.

The 259.3 yards allowed by the Broncos also are second in the MAC, behind Toledo (233.6), which lost to the Broncos, 14-13, in the MAC opener back in September. The WMU defense is led by graduate-student linebacker James Camden (team-high 66 tackles) and graduate-student safety Tate Hallock (47 tackles, two interceptions, fumble recovery) from Grand Rapids, among a host of others.

Offensively, WMU is a ground attack, and it starts with its quarterback, former Indiana player Broc Lowry, who leads the team with 783 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns (to go with seven passing TDs, to just two interceptions). Last game, WMU had three runners over 100 yards, including redshirt junior Jalen Buckley and senior Devin Miles.

Creighton was asked specifically last week about Lowry, a redshirt sophomore who in spring ball and training camp this year, demanded defenders be allowed to hit him even on days where they weren’t supposed to.

“He’s definitely a weapon for them, there’s no doubt,” Creighton said. “He’s a powerful runner. … You’re gonna have to squeeze tight and get more than one person to the ball when you’re bringing him down.”

Lowry, as much as anybody at WMU this season, embodies the word Taylor perhaps preaches the most ― grit. On the podium at his press conference late last week, Taylor had a tumbler that read: “GRITNESS ACADEMY.”

The Broncos have taken that to heart, hence all the comebacks, including the 24-21 victory over Central Michigan in Kalamazoo on Nov. 1, when WMU never led until under 2 minutes to go, when Lowry threw a fourth-down touchdown.

That really was the game that shifted the balance of power in the MAC race, as WMU stands alone on top, and four other teams ― Central Michigan, Toledo, Ohio and Miami, who all play Saturday ― all are one game back, at 5-2 in conference play, sending reporters scrambling to figure out the many, many tiebreaker scenarios.

It’s less complex for Western Michigan, of course. It could get to Ford Field with a loss to Eastern Michigan on Tuesday, but it will get to Ford Field with a win Tuesday. The Broncos want to finish what they’ve started, and, sure, starting faster might go a long way toward that goal. And if they get behind early again, well, we know they won’t freak out.

“When they’ve been challenged,” said Taylor, “they respond.”

Western Michigan’s nine years without appearing in the MAC championship game is the fourth-longest active drought in the conference, behind Bowling Green (2015) and Eastern Michigan and UMass, who have never played in the game, which has been held at Ford Field since 2004. UMass joined the conference this season.