Cardinals ’19 MAC Start Has Roots in ’18 Win over Western Michigan

Game 9
Ball State (4-4, 3-1 MAC) at Western Michigan (5-4, 3-2 MAC)
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 5
Kickoff: 8:05 p.m.
Location: Kalamazoo, Mich. (Waldo Stadium)
Watch: ESPN2 | Listen: WLBC 104.1 FM | Live Stats
Social: @BallStateFB, @BallStateSports, #ChirpChirp, #WeFly, #OTM
Game Notes: Ball State | Western Michigan

The Ball State football team has just been different since that cold November night a year ago against Western Michigan.

More belief. More swagger.

Ball State proved something to itself in the nationally-televised, overtime win over the Broncos, and it has been a confident program moving forward. The Cardinals enter Tuesday's rematch in Kalamazoo as a contender instead of a spoiler.

"I know a lot of people say that was a turning point," BSU quarterback Drew Plitt said. "I think it was just more a realization that we can do anything we put our minds to in this league."

Ball State didn't play the perfect game in last year's 42-41 victory. Far from it. And it wasn't easy. It rarely is, despite how that 52-14 smashing of Toledo a couple weeks ago may have made it look.

But the Cardinals don't have to be perfect to win football games these days. Like shaking off a turnover on their first play from scrimmage at Northern Illinois or a fumble that put them in an early hole at Eastern Michigan.

The ability to overcome those things may have its roots in that Western Michigan game a year ago. Plitt threw a pair of interceptions, but he wasn't shattered. The BSU defense was on the field for 42 minutes and 96 snaps, but wasn't discouraged.

"It was a very resilient effort from both sides of the ball," safety Bryce Cosby said. "There were times where we were down. We sort of kept at it. Sort of the 'bend but don't break' theme was the case for the entire game from what I remember."

19883 — **It was a cold but celebratory kind of night last year as the Cardinals defeated Western Michigan.**

Cosby made a career-high 17 tackles that night, but the biggest stop didn't even show up in the stats.

After a back-and-forth battle of more than three and a half hours in temperatures below 30 degrees, the outcome of the game rested on a single snap when Western Michigan opted for a two-point conversion in overtime.

WMU running back Levante Bellamy had already rushed for more than 200 yards on the night, and the Broncos must have been confident putting the ball in his hands one final time. But he didn't get close. Jimmy Daw broke through the line to trip him up, and Cosby finished him off.

The Cardinals had willed themselves to a course-correcting victory. They stormed the field as though they had won the MAC championship. The way they approach things, they must have felt like they did. Head coach Mike Neu preaches treating every game like a championship game. The win provided validation for that attitude.

"It was a big hurdle for the whole program in general to win a close game like that," Cosby said. "To be able to pull that one out in dramatic fashion in overtime was definitely satisfying as a team. I think it gave us some confidence … that we can compete with the best in the conference if we lock in and do what we're capable of doing."

The Cardinals entered last year's Western Michigan game with three wins in their previous 22 league contests. Starting with that night, they have won four of their past six and enter the second half of this year's conference schedule with real championship aspirations.

The one outlier for Ball State this MAC season came last week against Ohio. The Bobcats controlled the game on the ground and handled the sloppy conditions better in a downpour at Scheumann Stadium.

The Cardinals' run defense, which still ranks among the top third in the league, will need to return to form this week. Bellamy is back and better than ever for Western Michigan, ranking third in the country with more than 1,000 yards on the ground.

And it promises to be another cold night, with temperatures likely in the 30s at kickoff. But this 2019 version of the Cardinals is ready for whatever challenge lies ahead. There is a new mindset, and it started nearly a year ago on a cold night in Muncie.

Cardinals ’19 MAC Start Has Roots in ’18 Win over Western Michigan

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Players Mentioned

Bryce Cosby

Jimmy Daw

Drew Plitt