Week 4 MACtion Power Rankings & Lightning striking in the same place twice
Week 4 MACtion Power Rankings & Lightning striking in the same place twice
A 98-yard score from David Carter? When have we seen this before?
If you’re a visiting opponent of Eastern Michigan’s, heed my warning. An updated gray turf was installed at Rynearson Stadium over the summer and that thing might be slightly cursed. If you’re a visiting opponent of EMU’s, let me be the one to tell you that there’s probably one spot on that football field that your team might want to avoid.
If you’re a visiting team on offense and you find yourself driving towards the North end zone, you might not want to take a snap within the two-yard line on the right hash.
Maybe half-jokingly, Chris Creighton and company are already calling that spot on the field ‘sacred ground.’
“We were just talking about whether that was the exact same spot [as] last week with the errant snap,” Creighton said after the game. “But it's kind of sacred ground right now. But to turn that long drive down to the one or two-yard line into a 98 or 99[-yard] touchdown. You know, fumble recovery trouble for a touchdown was pretty awesome.”
During last week’s double-overtime victory, the first on the new Maxx Crosby Field, the Gamecocks almost stole the game in extra time when its offense made a quick drive to the 1-yard line before the unthinkable happened. JSU’s center snapped the ball way over his quarterback’s head, and caused them to lose 27 yards and later settled for a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown to end the game.
Yesterday against St. Francis, which came closer to scoring an offensive touchdown in the first half yesterday than EMU's offense, the Red Flash used a first-time college quarterback and made just enough effort plays to drive his team to EMU's 2-yard line.
Then what happened? The converted wide receiver went under center to take the SFU snap and never had control of the ball. SFU fumbled the ball, and EMU safety and fifth-year senior David Carter Jr. made a big play on the loose ball, going down to his knees in an attempt for an initial hit, then getting off his knees to pick up the ball and run the length of the field with no interruptions.
“Everybody wants a touchdown. I wish I could get a touchdown every game,” Carter said after the game. “Feels good though, especially being on defense, you don't get many of those. So getting it a [TD] on defense, it feels good.”
Not many, but also not Carter’s first defensive score.
In 2021 when Carter was still just a redshirt-freshman with the team, he recorded a, yes, 98-yard pick-six at Wisconsin.
EMU beat St. Francis 36-0 yesterday and nobody in attendance walked away saying it was an impressive one. EMU needed scores like Carter’s and Kendric Nowling’s, who recovered Joey Mattord’s blocked punt in the end zone late in the game, to come away with the shutout. No matter what opinions we can draw-up from the game, the conference schedule still opens up next week.
“We can't get complacent, even though, you know, we just won two games back to back,” said Carter. “The energy was low coming into the game. You just know next week, you can't come out like that.”
MAC Football Power Rankings through Week 4
Toledo (3-1 | Last week’s rank: 2) — Hard to slide Toledo into the top slot in a week where they lost on the road, but here we are. If you don’t like it, blame NIU. Toledo collapsed at the end to WKU, but resume-wise deserves some shine for now.
Buffalo (3-1, 1-0 MAC | LW: 8) — Beat NIU in their own house with special teams in overtime. Kicking myself for not taking Buffalo straight-up in my picks because it seemed almost too obvious.
Bowling Green (1-2 | LW: 3) — Best loss of the week and it’s not even close.
Northern Illinois (2-1, 0-1 MAC | LW: 1) — What a gut punch to NIU’s early part of the year. The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time, and it was good for NIU to be the MAC team who beat Notre Dame for another week without having to play anybody last week.
Western Michigan (1-2 | LW: 4) — WMU didn’t play last week, so I’m still waiting to have strong opinions about these Broncos
Eastern Michigan (3-1 | LW: 6) — Wasn’t pretty, but nobody outside of this newsletter’s going to investigate the 36-0 box score. Promise.
Ohio (2-2 | LW: 7) — Uninspiring 41-6 loss to Kentucky. There’s so much “meh” here in the middle of this conference that we’re still trying to sort out, please be patient.
Miami OH (0-3 | LW: 5) — Miami’s had tough opponents. Miami’s also supposed to be the tough opponent for tough opponents and right now they’re anything but that.
Central Michigan (2-2, 1-0 MAC | LW: 9) — Put 23 points on Ball State in the second quarter alone. Having Bert Emmanuel back in the QB-run rotation is an obvious positive for the Chips.
Ball State (1-2, 0-1 MAC | LW: 11) — Moving up Ball State for at least having 34 points in the loss to CMU.
Akron (1-3 | LW: 10) — South Carolina put up 21 points int he fourth quarter to beat Akron 50-7? That doesn’t seem very hospitable.
Kent State (0-4 | LW: 12) — If you’re a Kent State fan actually watching every minute of these games, I’m worried for your liver.
