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The Ball State Cardinals football team will host the Toledo Rockets in MAC play at Scheumann Stadium on Saturday.
The game (2 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch it live right here on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that includes multiple MAC football games every week, other college football and live sports, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch Toledo vs Ball State live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Toledo vs Ball State Preview
The Rockets snapped a four-game winning streak last week, falling to the Bowling Green Falcons 20-7 on the road to slip to 1-1 in MAC play and 4-2 overall.
Toledo came up empty on two drives in which they moved the ball across Bowling Green’s 10-yard line in the first half: senior quarterback Mitchell Guadagni lost a fumble at the 9-yard line on the Rockets’ first drive, and freshman kicker had a 23-yard field goal blocked as the second quarter expired.
The Rockets also muffed two kickoffs to leave themselves on their own 1-yard line and had a punt blocked.
“We killed ourselves not fielding kickoffs, a blocked punt, missed assignments, dropped balls — just things that you can’t overcome in a college football game,” Toledo head coach Jason Candle said, according to The Blade. “It doesn’t matter who your opponent is. You can’t overcome that when you make that many mistakes. That’s where we lost it.”
He added: “Statistically it’s really hard to overcome and win a football game when you give up a blocked punt. Really hard to do. Two kickoffs where we had to start drives on the 1-yard line twice. The success rate on 99-yard drives is not very high. [Special teams] is a big part of the game. It’s an equal phase and has been a catalyst for us to have great wins and today it wasn’t our best effort. We have to address it and fix it.”
The Cardinals are riding a two-game winning streak, having bested the Northern Illinois Huskies and Eastern Michigan Eagles to get out to a 2-0 start in conference play and improve to 3-3 overall.
Junior running back Caleb Huntley rushed for more than 150 yards in each of those two victories.
“It feels great,” Huntley said after his 152-yard performance in a 29-23 victory over Eagles last week, according to The Star Press. “I just owe it all to my o-line, (redshirt junior fullback) Cody Rudy, tight ends, all of them. [Quarterback Drew Plitt] gives me great handoffs. It’s a team effort. It’s not about me. I’m just glad that we got the win.”
Huntley’s rushed for 592 yards on the year, ranking fourth among MAC players.
“It all starts with the guys up front, and they’ve done such a good job of being consistent every week,” Ball State head coach Mike Neu said, according to The Ball State Daily News. “It’s a very strong unit all the way across the board. When it’s a run play called and it’s an obvious run situation where we know we got to put the ball in their hands and put the play in their hands, we feel very good about it.”