parity and injuries should lead to some crazy stuff in the mac the next few weeks.
northwestern/emichigan
it will be like looking in the mirror for these two. genyk spent 12 years at northwestern before taking the job at eastern michigan. formations and offensive philosophy are nearly identical. while some teams are jekly and hyde from week to week, emich has an amazing ability to be jekyl and hyde within the same game. jones is one of the most electric players in the conference at qb for emu, but he's young and erratic sometimes (not to mention trying to play through a nagging shoulder injury). right now the emu defense is awful. northwestern looks to be in a spot to 'get well' after an embarrassing loss, but emu is capable of putting a major scare into them .... or laying down and losing 42-14.
kent state/miami
very few teams are able to fu.ck up a good thing like kent state can. in the first two weeks, kent has had the ball inside the opponents 5 yards line three times and come away with zero points (goal line fumble and two FG misses from essentially extra point distance). they also fumbled in overtime against army when they had all the momentum and a good chance to win outright. one concern is that the coaching staff looked scared with their play calling against army. they have terrific receivers on the perimeter but for some reason refused to let edelman take chances down the field last week. to be fair, kent self-destructed and had 6 turnovers against minny in week one but theyre not going to beat miami trying to put edelman in the shotgun and run quarterback draws on 1/10 and 2/8 all game. martin cant change his stripes overnight as a head coach. his strength is his aggressiveness as an offensive coach. miami is very beatable this year, but kent has taken it on the chin in this series. redhawks coming off an OT game where they finally showed some life offensively in the 2h.
ball state/purdue
could be a huge letdown game for ball state. they were on the brink of a breakthrough win for their program against indy at home last week but couldnt hold on to a 23-7 halftime lead and lost 24-23. lynch had 200+ yards passing at halftime but bsu did nothing in the second half (5 drives in the second half -- 9 plays, 4 plays, 3 plays, 3 plays, 3 plays). purdue's defense has given up a lot of pts and yds through two weeks, but ball state is playing b2b gms against big 10 teams and was dismal on the road last year.
bowling green/fiu
offensive philosophy has done a 180 for bowling green this year, primarily because of personnel. falcons still have a potent offense but their strength is in the running game. that wasnt the case for the last 3 or 4 years. but with turner at qb and barnes in a 'slash' role, they are among the best in the country through two weeks on the ground. a cursory glance at their scores might lead many to think their defense is atrocious but thats really not the case. their special teams are absolutely killing them. they were bad last year. theyre worse this year. already through two weeks, they have missed two extra points, had two punts blocked and returned for touchdowns, and also had a kickoff returned for a touchdown against them. on paper this looks like an easy win. but mac teams were never good when they traveled down to central florida when ucf was part of the conference. if the falcons treat this as a vacation, they could find themselves in a ballgame. you get the sense this is either a 14+ point bowling green win ... or an outright loss. the 1st quarter of this game will tell the story.
northwestern/emichigan
it will be like looking in the mirror for these two. genyk spent 12 years at northwestern before taking the job at eastern michigan. formations and offensive philosophy are nearly identical. while some teams are jekly and hyde from week to week, emich has an amazing ability to be jekyl and hyde within the same game. jones is one of the most electric players in the conference at qb for emu, but he's young and erratic sometimes (not to mention trying to play through a nagging shoulder injury). right now the emu defense is awful. northwestern looks to be in a spot to 'get well' after an embarrassing loss, but emu is capable of putting a major scare into them .... or laying down and losing 42-14.
kent state/miami
very few teams are able to fu.ck up a good thing like kent state can. in the first two weeks, kent has had the ball inside the opponents 5 yards line three times and come away with zero points (goal line fumble and two FG misses from essentially extra point distance). they also fumbled in overtime against army when they had all the momentum and a good chance to win outright. one concern is that the coaching staff looked scared with their play calling against army. they have terrific receivers on the perimeter but for some reason refused to let edelman take chances down the field last week. to be fair, kent self-destructed and had 6 turnovers against minny in week one but theyre not going to beat miami trying to put edelman in the shotgun and run quarterback draws on 1/10 and 2/8 all game. martin cant change his stripes overnight as a head coach. his strength is his aggressiveness as an offensive coach. miami is very beatable this year, but kent has taken it on the chin in this series. redhawks coming off an OT game where they finally showed some life offensively in the 2h.
ball state/purdue
could be a huge letdown game for ball state. they were on the brink of a breakthrough win for their program against indy at home last week but couldnt hold on to a 23-7 halftime lead and lost 24-23. lynch had 200+ yards passing at halftime but bsu did nothing in the second half (5 drives in the second half -- 9 plays, 4 plays, 3 plays, 3 plays, 3 plays). purdue's defense has given up a lot of pts and yds through two weeks, but ball state is playing b2b gms against big 10 teams and was dismal on the road last year.
bowling green/fiu
offensive philosophy has done a 180 for bowling green this year, primarily because of personnel. falcons still have a potent offense but their strength is in the running game. that wasnt the case for the last 3 or 4 years. but with turner at qb and barnes in a 'slash' role, they are among the best in the country through two weeks on the ground. a cursory glance at their scores might lead many to think their defense is atrocious but thats really not the case. their special teams are absolutely killing them. they were bad last year. theyre worse this year. already through two weeks, they have missed two extra points, had two punts blocked and returned for touchdowns, and also had a kickoff returned for a touchdown against them. on paper this looks like an easy win. but mac teams were never good when they traveled down to central florida when ucf was part of the conference. if the falcons treat this as a vacation, they could find themselves in a ballgame. you get the sense this is either a 14+ point bowling green win ... or an outright loss. the 1st quarter of this game will tell the story.
