By DOUG ZALESKI

dzaleski@muncie.gannett.com

Ball State will play its final home football game of the season tonight, hosting Central Michigan. Here are some key points about the matchup:

1. MAC-tastic LeFevour
QB Dan LeFevour averages 241 yards passing and 65 yards rushing in Central Michigan’s eight wins, and 130 yards passing and 22 rushing in its two losses. But here’s the catch: the losses were to Arizona and Boston College and six of the eight wins were against MAC teams. Ball State absolutely has to somehow limit him to have a chance to win.

2. Can they defend it?
Perhaps the Cardinals can take away the running game from the Chippewas and force them to be one-dimensional with the pass. Ball State has limited opponents to an average of 114 yards on the ground in the past six games, including a season low in a MAC game of 134 by Northern Illinois last week. But be careful what you wish for here. If the Cardinals force the Chippewas to throw more, they’ll be asking their pass defense to do something it rarely has done this year: give a credible showing in limiting an aerial attack.

3. Shrink the spread
Take a trip with me, all the way back to the season-opener against North Texas. The Mean Green kept Ball State off balance and a half-step behind the action most of the game with their spread offense. Toledo piled up 422 passing yards with the spread against Ball State in October. Central Michigan runs the same offense, but it executes it a whole lot better than North Texas and Toledo. So have the Cardinals improved enough from those experiences not to get embarrassed by the Chippewas? They better hope so.

4. Let’s get funky
It is highly unlikely that Ball State can line up and battle Central Michigan toe to toe for 60 minutes and win. The matchups simply don’t favor the Cardinals in that endeavor. So they have to find a way to tip the scales in their favor. A good way to start is by extending some drives on offense to keep the ball away from the Chippewas. A few turnovers wouldn’t hurt. How about a punt, kickoff or interception return for a TD? The more weird the Cardinals can make the game, the better chance they have.

5. The skinny
It would be hard to argue against Central Michigan as the best team in the MAC this season. The Chippewas started the year losing only 19-6 at Arizona, then won 29-27 at Michigan State in their next game — and they’ve improved since then. The Chippewas are averaging 45 points against teams with losing MAC records, and it’s unlikely that trend will end tonight.
Prediction: Central Michigan 49, Ball State 10