Week 5 MACtion Power Rankings & Some bye week stats
Week 5 MACtion Power Rankings & Some bye week stats
Just a few stats to think about while EMU has the week off.
By(e) the Numbers
0 in last 229 throws
As mentioned before, it’s been a while since Cole Snyder threw the ball to the other team. His last interception was when he was in a Buffalo Bulls uniform and threw it to somebody wearing a Toledo uniform on Halloween last year. He threw 24 passes in the game after the pick, then 61 more passes through the final three games without an INT. As an Eagle, Snyder is seeing the best completion percentage of his career (65.3%, 94/144) with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions.
+7
Eastern is tied for ninth nationally in the turnover-takeaway ratio with a +7 standing (8 takeaways, 1 turnover). Coincidentally, all of the turnovers that EMU’s experienced, on either offense or defense, were fumbles. No interceptions thrown (obviously), but no interceptions grabbed by the defense either.
9 for 21
The red zone usually seems like a golden ticket to put six points on the board. EMU has struggled to completely capitalize on offense though. In 21 trips to the red zone, EMU’s scored just nine touchdowns, and has settled for field goals on nine other occasions. An 85.71% scoring rate is nice, but EMU’s 123rd in the nation at turning red zone trips into touchdowns (42.86%).
10 rush TD
EMU’s not dominating on the ground, but it’s certainly pushed the issue of wanting to get better at running the football. EMU leads the MAC in rush attempts per game (43.4), but is more satisfyingly leading the conference with 10 rushing scores.
11.29%
Getting into the green on the turnover-takeaway front has been a very recent run of success for EMU, but making plays in the backfield isn’t something this team is new to. It started the year off with nine tackles for loss against UMass, had 10 between Washington and Jacksonville State, and then added 17 more in these last two games. With 36 total tackles for loss created, EMU’s defense is 26th nationally in percentage of plays that end in a loss of yards (11.29%).
91st
On the other side of the token, of course, is the percentage of plays that result in a loss of yards for the offense. This O-line is still trying to find its collective stride, but as far as rates go, the early returns have been a little better so far. Last year, EMU’s offense was 124th nationally in tackles for loss allowed (11.07%), but that percentage has gone down this year (8.97%) and the team is ranked 91st so far this year.
91.6
Sometimes you just have to wait for the other team to make the mistake first. Eastern Michigan’s opponents this year have combined for an average of 91.6 penalty yards per game, the fifth-highest mark on the season. EMU’s opponents have combined for 47 penalties (#2 nationally) for 458 total yards (#4).
MAC Football Power Rankings through Week 5
The first few weeks of filling these rankings out and sliding teams around had some excitement, but there weren’t many convincing arguments to really move teams around this week. Toledo had a bye week, and most teams in the top-half of last week’s power ranking lost on Saturday. Miami finally got a victory, but it needed overtime to get by UMass at home.
Toledo (3-1 | Last week’s rank: 1) — No game for Toledo last week, and honestly nobody really deserves to be a #1 team thus far? Toledo’s the highest-rated team by SP+,which is good enough reason for me at this point in the season. Losing to Western Kentucky last week doesn’t look so bad when stacked against some of these other loses these MAC teams hit over the weekend.
Bowling Green (1-3 | LW: 3) — On the whole, Old Dominion’s season wasn’t as promising as Bowling Green’s was entering Saturday. ODU fought and led for large portions of this game, and Terion Stewart was very limited at home.
Buffalo (3-2, 1-0 MAC | LW: 2) — Thanks for making me look bad, Buffalo. Not just bad, but I was dead-ass wrong about not respecting UConn’s early success enough. UB’s shown it can play very well against similarly-matched schools, but if there’s and imbalance between the two sides, they’ll let it be known. In the losses to Missouri and UConn, Buffalo’s been outscored 85-3.
Northern Illinois (2-2, 0-1 MAC | LW: 4) — No brownie points for “keeping it close” against an ACC school when they’ve already beaten the last two ACC school it faced. Well, three if we want to include Notre Dame in the mix, but that’s an argument for a different time. Cannot wait for the great equalizer of UMass to come to DeKalb.
Eastern Michigan (4-1 | LW: 6) — EMU ran over Kent State on the box score (Delbert Mimms with 145 rush yards, 2 TD). EMU scored 24 points off three-straight turnovers, and then a turnover on downs, in the second half. Aside from that, this was a shootout through the air. Twelve penalties against Kent State also helps the cause, and EMU’s 4-1 whether they’ve looked good in those wins or not.
Ohio (3-2 | LW: 7) — Moving Ohio up a spot because they’ve worked for it. Some teams let should-be blowouts end up being closer than necessary. Not this past weekend, stomping on Akron’s throat like that; the Zips were 0 for 11 on third downs and Ohio out-gained them on total offense (440 yards to 178).
Western Michigan (1-3 | LW: 5) — It’s hard to judge just how frustrating it must be for Broncos fans to watch their team lose to Marshall last weekend. Four punts in the first half, and Jaden Nixon is out there putting a stamp on his name with 148 rush yards.
Miami OH (1-3 | LW:8) — This has got to be the most frustrating group in the MAC. Congrats on the victory, because everybody needs to be happy about their first one. Miami tends to schedule somewhat difficultly in the non-conference, but not at Kent State’s levels. And UMass isn’t supposed to be Northwestern levels of difficulty, but the defending MAC champions just needed overtime to beat the school some (many?) MAC fans just don’t even want to see come join the conference next year. Yikes. Just yikes.
Central Michigan (3-2, 1-0 MAC | LW: 9) — Shutout San Diego State in the second half and won by one point. Needed a 46-yard field goal from Tristan Mattson with five seconds left on the clock. Best part of all, my stupid bet (SDSU +1.5) from last week hit. Sometimes you just gotta live a little.
Ball State (1-3, 0-1 MAC | LW: 10) — After James Madison torched North Carolina, nobody can be shocked at a 63-7 final here. Just stinks that Ball State had to run up against a JMU squad that’s playing like fueled-up Monstars.
Akron (1-3 | LW: 11) — Akron still holds here if only because it didn’t lose to an FCS school earlier in the year. Honestly the bottom three of this list is pretty interchangeable at this point. Akron had -18, with a negative sign, rushing yards against Ohio.
Kent State (0-4 | LW: 12) — There were some plays at times where Tommy Ulatowski got to look like Ben Roethlisberger the way he was throwing some deep shots in the second half. Between that and his already-talented receivers, I think there could be something there.
