Central Michigan's season splits cleanly by location. At Kelly/Shorts the Chippewas are 2-0, beating Colgate 13-10 and Wyoming 24-10. Away from home they lost 38-7 at New Mexico and 52-3 at No. 6 Miami. The Miami loss came on Saturday, September 26, so they're 1 week removed from a beating in South Florida. Coming back home helps, and so does the schedule.
The real question for Central Michigan is scoring. Through 4 games the Chippewas have 47 points total, and 13 of them came against an FCS opponent. When Flores gets going on the ground, the offense can control a game, like it did against Wyoming. When he doesn't, they've struggled to score at all. Akron's defense doesn't need to be great, just good enough to make someone besides Flores beat it.
The weather shouldn't matter. The forecast calls for 62 degrees, clear skies, 6 mph of wind and a 6% chance of rain. That's a normal early-October afternoon in central Michigan, so there's no weather excuse for either offense. A team that runs as much as Central Michigan should like those conditions.
One month in, the MAC standings reset to zero, and both teams get a clean start. Central Michigan has the home crowd and the quarterback who has made this offense work. Akron has a team that went through a tougher non-conference schedule and an opponent that has struggled to score whenever Flores is contained. The first conference Saturday should show which of those matters more.