Week 2 MACtion Power Rankings & '50-Tortas'
Week 2 MACtion Power Rankings & '50-Tortas'
Jesus Gomez had a 'monster game' at Washington with his fifth and sixth career field goals of 50 yards or more.
A ‘50-burger’ is when a team puts up 50-plus points on the board. It’s a phrase only used in terms of team success, but I think I’d like to help that pivot its way onto the field goal units.
To do so, I’ve got to come up with a different name.
After Jesus Gomez’s pair of school records made at Washington, I think I know exactly what to title it: the 50-torta.
Coming into the Washington game, Gomez was 26-for-33 over the last two seasons, and two of those kicks tie the school’s previously-set records of 55-yarders done by Dylan Muller (2015) and Chad Ryland (2021). But on yesterday, to get EMU on the board in the first quarter, Gomez served up the biggest torta in school history: 57 yards.
Gomez’s initial booming kick wasn’t where things peaked for him in Big Ten country.
In the fourth quarter, Gomez came out for his third field goal try of the game, and booted another torta from 50 yards exactly — the first time in EMU history somebody had two tortas on the same day.
Of course, head coach Chris Creighton was the least-surprised person to see Gomez have “a monster game.”
He’s super talented, he’s made of all the right stuff, and he got his opportunities today and nailed them,” Creighton said of Gomez, who is now 31/38 on his career field goal tries. “He was banged up for most of the offseason and I think our plan, kudos to our training staff and to our special teams coaches, and to Jesus obviously, I think we were just really wise with how he handled kicking and the entire offseason all the way in the spring, through the summer and camp. He feels really good right now and obviously confident, and had a monster game today.”
Gomez was responsible for all of EMU’s scoring yesterday as Washington’s defense has yet to allow a touchdown through its first two games. So far this season he’s 5/5 on field goals with two makes from 20 and 31 yards out in the season opener at UMass.
CAREER ‘50-TORTAS’ MADE BY JESUS GOMEZ
55 yards at Ball State (10/22/22)
51 yards vs. San Jose State, Idaho Potato Bowl (12/20/22)
55 yards at Central Michigan (9/30/23)
53 yards vs. Ball State (10/7/23)
57 yards at Washington (9/7/24)
50 yards at Washington (9/7/24)
MAC Football Power Rankings through Week 2
Northern Illinois (2-0 overall | Last week’s rank: 7) — You pull off the nation’s biggest upset of the young season, you shoot right up to the top spot. First top-10 win in school history came against #5 Notre Dame.
Toledo (2-0 | LW: 1) — Nobody else on the list the rest of the way matters. After NIU, there’s no clear win on anybody’s schedule that screams “WE DESERVE TO BE UP TOP TOO!”, so to some degree we’re still left with our prior assumptions about everybody. That said, I didn’t expect UMass to cover here.
Bowling Green (1-1 | LW: 5) — Solid FCS win? Cool. Scare the bejesus out of Penn State on the road? That’s some good stuff right there.
Miami (1-0 | LW: 2) — No game this week, and played in a low-scoring affair last week against Northwestern.
Western Michigan (0-2 | LW: 3) — Maybe inflating the okayness seen from the Broncos last week at Wisconsin here, bc WMU got skunked by the same team that let Akron at least go home with 6 points. Ah well. WMU might still be a fine MAC squad this year.
Ohio (1-1 | LW: 8) — Beat South Alabama and actually played fine against Syracuse last week, which just beat Georgia Tech.
Eastern Michigan (1-1 | LW: 4) — The Washington loss was certainly disappointing, but it wasn’t a complete trainwreck for EMU, despite scoring zero touchdowns.
Central Michigan (1-1 | LW: 6) — Pitbull must be so proud of how team’s home opener.
Buffalo (1-1 | LW: 10) — If there’s any one team that’s playing exactly as expected through two weeks of the season, it’s the Bulls. Beat, but didn’t dominate, an FCS squad last week. Now they get goose-egged by Missouri, which features somebody that might end up being the #1 overall draft pick next spring (who’s to say?).
Akron (0-2 | LW: 11) — Giving up a 40 burger to Rutgers? I knew Rutgers was going to be more promising this year, but I also thought Akron’s defense would’ve sold out against the run better. Rutgers didn’t exactly need good field position to score; 5 of its 7 scoring drives were for 74 yards or longer.
Ball State (1-0 | LW: 12) — You know a final score you don’t want to see after beating an FCS squad in your delayed season opener? Ball State’s over Missouri State, 42-34.
Kent State (0-2 | LW: 9) — Kent State is one of three FBS teams to fall to FCS this year, and for that they must be punished.
