Miami (OH) Edges Central Michigan 28-27 on D'Shawntae Jones' Late Touchdown

Caleb Heavner got folded in half early in the third quarter, the kind of shot that usually sends a quarterback to the medical tent. He did not miss a snap. A few minutes later he was dragging Central Michigan defenders into the end zone, and by the final two minutes he was steering the drive that won the game.

Miami (OH) beat Central Michigan 28-27 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Saturday, and it took every one of the 60 minutes. There were seven lead changes. Neither team ever led by more than six. Miami trailed at some point in all four quarters and still left Mount Pleasant with its third straight win, a 5-3 record and a 3-1 mark in the MAC. Central Michigan, playing on Senior Day in front of 13,269, fell to 3-5 and 1-3 and has now lost three in a row.

Trading punches

Caden VanHuis put Central Michigan up 3-0 with a 23-yard field goal at the end of an 11-play drive. Miami answered with a grinding 13-play, 70-yard march that turned on a fourth-and-1 conversion by D'Shawntae Jones at the CMU 28. Three plays later, Rodney Nelson scored from six yards out.

Central Michigan took the lead back with 3:41 left in the half when Nick Woodford capped a 10-play, 88-yard drive with a 5-yard run. Miami answered right away, a habit it kept all afternoon. Heavner converted a third-and-10 with a 23-yard throw to Maleek Huggins, who spun out of two tacklers and got to the CMU 27. A pass interference flag in the final minute set up first-and-goal at the 7.

Heavner then lofted a fade to Damarion Witten, who goes by "Toe," and Witten reached up with one hand and pulled it in with 20 seconds left. Miami took a 14-10 lead into the locker room.

"I thought he overthrew it," Miami coach Chuck Martin admitted. Heavner had a simpler review. "He's very fun to throw to," he said. "He makes me look good a lot!"

The hit, and the response

The second half started about as badly as it could for the RedHawks. Just 1:36 in, Central Michigan safety Justin Taylor jumped a Heavner throw and returned it 46 yards for a touchdown. It was 17-14 Chippewas, and around that stretch, Heavner took the hit that left him slow to get up.

He stayed in. And on the next drive, Miami went 3-for-3 on third-and-long, including a Scoop Smith receiver screen and a pair of Heavner scrambles. The second one went 27 yards. Heavner absorbed contact at the 5 and kept churning through bodies until he crossed the goal line for a 21-17 lead.

"I've never stayed down ever on a football field," Heavner said. "It was a good shot, but…unless they're like, 'You absolutely can't play,' I'm going to do everything I can to play."

Central Michigan did not fold. In the final minute of the third quarter, Jadyn Glasser found Langston Lewis for a 9-yard touchdown and a 24-21 lead.

The turning point was a field goal

This one might have been decided one drive before the winning touchdown. Central Michigan had a chance to go up two scores, but Miami's defense held twice and forced VanHuis to settle for a 22-yard field goal with 4:17 left. That made it 27-21, a one-possession game with plenty of clock.

"Not the last drive, which obviously won the game, but the drive before," Martin said. "If they score a touchdown [it's a two-score game]. We stopped them twice…forcing them into a field goal."

Eight plays, 75 yards

Miami needed a touchdown, and it got there in eight plays. Huggins and Smith made catches to get into Central Michigan territory. Huggins then hauled in a 27-yarder that moved the ball to the CMU 10. From there, the flags took over: two straight pass interference calls in the red zone, both on Central Michigan's JaJuan Jones, put the ball at the doorstep. D'Shawntae Jones walked it in from two yards with 1:41 to play, and Kellan McLaughlin's extra point made it 28-27.

Miami's defense then stopped the Chippewas on four straight plays, with Ben Minich in coverage on the final fourth down, and the RedHawks picked up one more first down on the ground to end it.

Who carried it

Heavner finished 18-of-33 for a season-high 221 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, and he added 58 rushing yards and a score on 15 carries. That was a real step forward for a quarterback who had thrown for 160 yards combined across his previous two starts.

"He took a giant step forward throwing the football today," Martin said.

Huggins was the engine, with seven catches for 122 yards, his second 100-yard game of the season.

On defense, Roosevelt Andrews III had 1.5 sacks and two of Miami's five tackles for loss, pushing his season sack total to 4.5. Linebacker CJ Young led the RedHawks with nine solo tackles.

For Central Michigan, Glasser, stepping in for Angel Flores, who is out for the season after surgery on a broken right ankle, went 18-of-31 for 221 yards and a touchdown, career highs in yards and completions. Lewis caught 10 passes for 163 yards, the first 150-yard receiving game by a Chippewa since Titus Davis had 181 against Ohio on Oct. 4, 2014. Taylor had six tackles and the pick-six.

The numbers that mattered

Miami outgained Central Michigan 360-285, and nearly all of that gap came on the ground: 139 rushing yards for the RedHawks, 64 for the Chippewas. Miami also piled up 25 first downs to 16 and held the ball for 31:12.

Central Michigan coach Matt Drinkall knew where the soft spot was. "They're number one in the league against the run … and they were 13th out of 13 against the pass," he said. So the Chippewas threw it, and the passing yards finished dead even at 221 apiece.

The other number is the one Central Michigan will stew on. The Chippewas were flagged 10 times for 83 yards, and four of those penalties came in the final stretch as Miami drove for the win. Both programs posted recaps, from Miami (opens in a new tab) and from Central Michigan (opens in a new tab), and the full box score (opens in a new tab) tells the rest.

What it means

For Miami, a 3-1 conference record keeps the RedHawks squarely in the MAC race, and the win had a little history attached. It was Martin's 77th victory at Miami, tying Doyt Perry for the sixth-most by any coach in MAC history. Miami starts its midweek slate on Tuesday, Nov. 3, hosting Buffalo at Yager Stadium.

"We've taken more hits and played more close games than probably anybody in the country," Martin said. "But we're hanging in there."

For Central Michigan, this wrapped up a brutal three-game stretch against the top three teams from last year's MAC standings, and it came out of it 0-3. The Chippewas get 10 days off before facing in-state rival Eastern Michigan at Ford Field in Detroit on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

"It's not the officiating," Drinkall said. Taylor put it plainly. "Their best was better than ours today," he said.

The last word

Drinkall summed up the Central Michigan side in one line. "Being close stinks, we need to get over the hump and it's my job to figure out how to do that," he said.

Miami's side came from the guy who got knocked down and got back up.

"It was a great team win," Heavner said. "That's our season so far: it's come down to the wire a bunch, and we've got to be able to come through and win those games."

"You get hit, you get knocked down, but then you get back up and finish."

That is the RedHawks' season in one sentence, and it is how you steal a one-point road win in the MAC.

Sources: Miami Athletics and Central Michigan Athletics recaps, Miami's official box score, The Associated Press, Central Michigan Life, The Miami Student, ESPN, FOX Sports and theScore. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Miami University Athletics.