Lopsided loss offers lesson for Central Michigan: ‘Just gotta be really good, high-level execution’
Central Michigan failed to execute and got beat badly in the first half, and head coach Matt Drinkall wants to nip these spells of slow starts and sloppy play in the bud.
Against Akron last year, at New Mexico to open this season, and now in a 31-0 loss to Ohio on Saturday in Athens, Ohio, Central Michigan has failed wholesale, for at least some notable portion of the game, to execute.
All three of those games, all eventual losses for CMU, saw head coach Matt Drinkall squarely take the blame for not having the team dialed in and prepared to execute at a high clip out of the gate. Central Michigan, in all three of those games, managed to level out the game and play quality football eventually, but only well after their early-game doldrums dug far too deep a hole.
Taking the heat is Drinkall's job, as is heading up the solutions that will stop him from feeling that heat. And while there might not be a silver bullet solution to this problem — which keeps cropping up on the road, specifically — it’s evident Central Michigan (3-3, 1-1 MAC) needs to learn an important lesson in early-game execution before these first half hiccups and lulls grow into a troubling trend as this coaching regime winds through Year 2.
