Football Preview: Chippewas Need a Win in Motor City MACtion with Eastern

- No denying it and no sugar coating it: Central Michigan needs a win when it takes on Eastern Michigan in Motor City MACtion on Wednesday (7:30 p. ) in a Mid-American Conference game at Ford Field.

"For both programs, it's a must-win game," CMU coach Matt Drinkall said. The Chippewas are 3-5, 1-3 MAC; Eastern is 4-5, 3-2.

Realistic hopes of a trip to the MAC Championship Game are remote for the Chippewas, but bowl eligibility is still very much on the radar as is the broader-picture focus of program building under Drinkall, who is in his second season in charge of the program. CMU has lost three consecutive games, capped by last week's 28-27 heartbreaker at home to Miami (Ohio).

The first of those three losses came at Ohio and the second came at home to rival Western Michigan. "Where we really shifted our focus a little bit before the Western game was to stop worrying about anything other than what we're doing right now and the next thing, whether it's good, bad, or whatever," Drinkall said.

"And that's been much more of our workmanlike, narrow focus. So even though we have acknowledged and talked about what we still can accomplish, none of it matters if we don't do a great job today (in practice) because if we don't, we won't beat Eastern.

That the Chippewas have played increasingly better over the past month is encouraging, and they can hang their hat on the fact that they had ample opportunity to beat Miami, one of the MAC's elite programs, last week. Quarterback Jadyn Glasser performed well in the loss, completing 18 of 31 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown.

is now QB1 after a season-ending injury to starter Angel Flores late in the loss to Western Michigan. He did all the things that we asked him to do, and it was enough to have the team (in position to) win," Drinkall said.

"He did a great job executing the game against a really good defense. He didn't try to do too much, and he didn't put the team in a bad spot or try to create a big play and turn it over.

With Flores behind center, the Chippewa offense was run heavy. With Glasser, it's much more balanced."