FoSat Week One MAC Football Recap: The MAC Took One on the Chin, but Everything’s Probably Fine

NIU and Ohio struggled in their openers, but will be just fine. Kent State didn’t struggle and Ball State and Eastern Michigan took care of business.

What Happened?

• Ball State did what it had to do, handling Central Connecticut State at home 42–6. Welcome to the scene Yo’Heinz Tyler, who caught two touchdown passes including this one:

• Western Michigan trailed 34–7 at halftime against Syracuse, but roared back in the third quarter to make it a game. WMU found its offense and reminded everyone that Dee Eskridge and LeVante Bellamy are capital F Fast. Syracuse won 55–42 anyway.
• Welcome to the MAC Tyler Wiegers! The Iowa transfer made his Eastern Michigan debut by going 18/21 for 238 yards and two touchdowns against Monmouth. I know we all miss Brogan Roback, but it’s nice to see EMU make an easy transition under center. The Eagles rolled 51–17 at the Factory.
• Kent State has a newcomer of their own at quarterback, and he’s given Flashes fans a lot to get excited about this season. Woody Barrett, an Auburn transfer, threw 41 passes, completed 28 of them for 272 yards and scored twice, though he did throw two interceptions. Barrett also led the team in rushing with 117 yards and a touchdown. While Illinois isn’t top dog in the Big Ten by any stretch, Kent State led for a significant portion of the game though ultimately falling to the Illini 31–24
• Ohio struggled against Howard at home, pulling out a 38–32 win. Nathan Rourke was bad and was relieved by Quinton Maxwell, who wasn’t.
• Thing’s went pretty well Saturday for Central Michigan, all things considered. Chippewa fans should walk away feeling pretty good about the team’s 35–20 loss to Kentucky. The defense played well and even scored with a Devonni Reed fumble recovery for a touchdown.
• Northern Illinois lost 33–7 at Iowa. The Huskies were a trendy upset pick all week, but the Hawkeyes showed that yeah, there’s still a gap between the Power Five and Group of Five.
• 35% of passes thrown by Tyree Jackson on Saturday ended up in the end zone. That’s about all you need to know about Buffalo’s 48–10 victory over Delaware State.
• You’re not going to believe this but, uh, Miami lost another close game. Marshall beat the RedHawks 35–28 in Oxford on Saturday, even though they tried like hell to give Gus Ragland and company a last chance:

• Toledo beat VMI 66–3. But who cares? Watch this:

• If Bowling Green were, say, favored to win the MAC, you’d say Saturday’s 58–24 loss to Oregon was a disaster. But they aren’t, and it wasn’t. 58 points is brutal, but the Falcons remained competitive in the early parts of the game. A 30 point second quarter by the Ducks did them in, but there’s plenty to get excited about in Bowling Green for a change.
• Oh, and Akron didn’t play. But they will probably still get paid.

What We Think We Know After Week One

Northern Illinois is Fine, and so is Ohio (Probably).

There’s a Pablo Torre tweet I think about quite a bit, usually during basketball season, that I think sums up the NIU experience:

The fact that Saturday is considered a big failure is exactly why NIU’s constantly given the benefit of the doubt. How many other MAC programs would leave Iowa City with a 33–7 loss in any given year and consider it a massive underachievement?

It’s pretty tired just saying NIU will be fine because it’s NIU, however true it might be. The truth is (brace yourself) NIU doesn’t suck. It played a bad game at Iowa that had more to do with Iowa’s defense than anything else. The Huskie defense was fine. Iowa only averaged 4.4 yards per carry. It averaged less than six yards per pass! If anyone tells you with a straight face that they’re worried about NIU’s defense going forward you should immediately stop listening to them.

The offense was definitely underwhelming. Marcus Childers averaged 4.2 yards per pass attempt which won’t cut it against most defenses, and neither will 2.8 yards per rush as a team. Iowa isn’t most defenses. I doubt the Huskies will be sweating when they travel to Kalamazoo in November with a likely shot at the MAC West crown on the line.

More concerning, but still probably fine, is Ohio. Howard is famously led by Cam Newton’s little brother Caylin, and he threw for 439 yards and three touchdowns against the Bobcats. Ohio can be forgiven for allowing some big plays from the talented quarterback. Regardless, the Bobcats shouldn’t struggle at home against Howard the way they did. Nathan Rourke was a no show, getting benched after a horrid start to his season. It’s not clear if Rourke is dealing with injury or not, but the Bobcats ceiling is significantly lower if he isn’t playing well.

The good news is that Quinton Maxwell is a former starter that is a more than adequate replacement. He’s not as dynamic, but he’s experienced and was locked in on Saturday completing 68 percent of his passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Ohio should be a little concerned it couldn’t run the ball effectively against an FCS school, but the Bobcats tend to start a little slow — they lost to Texas State to open the 2016 season and won the MAC East anyway — usually figuring it out along the way. The issue is this is a team that shouldn’t be asking many questions after week one, and here we are questioning everything.

Miami Has to Find a Way to Tilt the Scale

Down 28–14 with 2:19 left in the third quarter, the RedHawks found themselves with a first down at the Marshall four yard line. Two run plays later it was third down from the two. Two pass plays later it was Marshall football, still 28–14.

Miami feels like it’s constantly on the wrong end of a coin flip. But it isn’t just having rotten luck, it’s making it. I’m not sure what the answer is for Miami, but a good place to start might be the rushing attack. Even if you remove sacks and kneel downs from the RedHawks’ total, they still rushed for less than four yards per carry (94 yards on 24 attempts), a half yard less than Marshall.

Miami doesn’t need to improve running the ball for time of possession, Gus Ragland is accurate and can take care of that on his own through the air, rather it needs to have the confidence it can hand the ball off and get what it needs in most situations. Right now, it doesn’t have that confidence. It’s why Miami threw late against Cincinnati in 2017 when most teams would run. It’s why one year later it couldn’t score to begin the fourth quarter against Marshall. There could be another way to supplement the running game, but Miami has to try something different lest it be damned to losing coin flips the rest of the year.

What to Look Out for Next Week

• Eastern Michigan travels to Purdue. The Boilermakers are much improved, but EMU looks to have kept its form on offense, albeit against FCS competition. If Weigers is up to the challenge, this game could get interesting.
• Central Michigan and Buffalo both host FBS teams that took FCS losses last week. Kansas (lost to Nicholls) visits Mount Pleasant while Temple (lost to Villanova) visits Buffalo. The Chips and Bulls have different expectations for 2018, but losses here would be not great
• Akron gets to play!
• NIU hosts Utah and Miami plays Cincinnati at Paul Brown Stadium. The Utes and Bearcats are coming off wins, the latter picking one up in the Rose Bowl against Chip Kelly’s UCLA team.