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| Western Michigan makes a stop in its big rivalry win over Eastern Michigan |
When you know, you know, and Eastern Michigan head coach Chris Creighton knew that his bunch was going to be up against it in its rivalry game against Western Michigan October 28th in Rynearson Stadium.
The Eagles have, at times, been their own worst enemy this season, and Creighton just had a sense of foreboding heading into the game that this one was going to be a slog. When the scoreboard clock in North end zone read zeroes, Creighton’s worst fears were realized – his Eagles had fallen -- hard -- to the Broncos, ending up on the wrong end of a 45-21 score.
“This game was lost during the week,” Creighton said. “Not that we didn’t have solid practices, but the way this works in this league, if you don’t physically, mentally, and emotionally prepare to the best of your abilities, if there is not that attention to detail and growing emotional intensity on game day, and on game day to be able to release all of that, this is what happens.”
The Broncos (2-3, 3-6) came in and played bully almost from the outset, seizing a 21-0 lead and gashing holes in the Eagles defense with the ground game. Freshman Jalen Buckley, who has been near the top of the MAC rushing ladder for most of the season, scored twice in the first 21 minutes of action and finished the afternoon with 138 yards on 25 carries. Western ran for 252 yards and held the football for more than 36 minutes, putting Eastern into a deficit from which it was unable to recover.
“It was our lack of intensity,” Creighton explained. “All of us wanted to win, but it takes all of it to win. We’re not a baseball team, we don’t have a hundred and however many games. We have 12. But sometimes it’s still hard to do it week after week. But the great teams do. We have to grow that emotional intensity. They beat us in every phase of the game today.”
The Eagles (2-3, 4-5) sputtered early on offense without starting quarterback Austin Smith, who didn’t practice much of the week due to a foot injury. Eastern had negative yardage after three drives, putting the defense into bad position with short three-and-out possessions. Junior Ike Udengwu III got the nod in place of Smith and looked every bit the part of a first-time starter with errant throws and a lot of indecision. He wasn’t helped much by the guys up front, who allowed him to be hit far too often. On the day, Western netted four sacks – three from All-MAC candidate Marshawn Kneeland – and 10 tackles for loss.
Eastern also failed to run the ball consistently, finishing with just 28 yards on the ground.
“There’s not always been continuity up front, we’ve had guys out of the lineup,” Creighton said. “We have to rush the ball better, throw it better and protect better. I’m responsible for making sure we do all of those things better.”
The Eagles had a glimmer of hope heading into halftime after capping a 90-yard drive with a nifty 15-yard scoring run from Samson Evans, cutting the deficit to 21-7 with 3:29 left in the half. Western missed a field goal just before time expired and lost a fumble on its initial second half drive, and it appeared that the Eagles were slowly gaining momentum. But Eastern allowed the first of what would be two safeties on the day, committing a holding penalty in the end zone, which put Western ahead 23-7.
Eastern closed the gap to 23-13 on a second scoring scamper by Evans with 7:27 to play in the third quarter, which was followed by the defense bowing up for one of the few times in the game and stoning the Broncos on four tries from inside the five-yard line, including a fourth-down stuff of quarterback Hayden Wolff on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard-line.
The Eagles took over in the shadow of their own end zone with a chance to make things really interesting, but Kneeland ended their hopes when he sacked Smith – who had entered the game in the second quarter and brought a little life to the offense – in the end zone to put WMU ahead 25-13.
Eastern never got closer the rest of the way and left the field with its five-game home winning streak up in smoke. The Eagles had not lost at home since November of 2022, its longest string of success at The Factory since putting together a 10-game skein from October 1986 to October 1988.
Western Michigan had been counting the days to this contest, recalling last year’s 45-23 defeat at home to the Eagles. Kneeland especially had the date circled on his calendar.
“They called us little bro last year at our place and took it to us, so we had to introduce ourselves to them today at their place,” he said afterward.
Eastern was led on defense by linebackers Joe Sparacio (23 tackles) and Chase Kline (19). Sparacio’s tackle numbers were a MAC season-high, and he and Kline have been among the top 10 tacklers in the nation for most of the season.
Austin Smith finished the day 15-of-25 for 231 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and he favored explosive receiver Jaylon Jackson, who grabbed nine passes for 111 yards and a score.
“I’ve got a bad memory, there’s been a lot of games in the past 10 years, but I don’t recall too many where I had the feeling I have right now,” Creighton said. “I told the coaches this week that this was going to be a coaches game. It starts with me, I failed to get our team ready to play.”
Things won’t get any easier for the Eagles as they head to
Toledo on Nov. 8 to face a Rockets squad on the brink of a West Division title,
though Eastern may remember that it led last year’s contest much of the way
before falling 27-24. Eastern has beaten the Rockets just three times in
history, so it will be a tall task. Still, Eastern has bowl eligibility to play for, and that could be enough to shake the squad out of its doldrums.
“Anybody who is not super focused will have serious issues," he said. “We’ll have a couple of days off to regroup, and coaches will be recruiting. As a coach you rely on your leaders, and rely on the fact that you’ve recruited winners.”
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