While some teams participated in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play this week, others still played non-conference opponents.
MAC teams found themselves up against ranked Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Big Ten teams, fighting to produce upsets within college football. While no games resulted in shocking upsets, it is safe to say teams were not going down without a fight.
One MAC team that fought hard until the bitter end was Bowling Green. The Falcons traveled down to College Station to take on the Aggies of Texas A&M. This was BG’s second time facing a ranked team on the road this season, previously playing Penn State, and both times, they gave their opponents a tough time, but ultimately came up short.
Both games should boost confidence and motivate the Falcons as they transition into MAC play soon.
Junior tight end Harold Fannin Jr. continues to be a dominant player on the Falcon’s offense. On Saturday, he had 145 receiving yards and a 65-yard touchdown.
Between his three games this season, he has now recorded 349 receiving yards, by far the most of any tight end in the country.
In the third quarter, the Falcons closed the gap to a three-point difference, giving them hope.
Randy Bond of Texas A&M added two field goals in the fourth quarter, extending their lead to 26-17.
The Falcons were almost counted out when, with about 90 seconds left in the final quarter, Texas A&M junior running back Le’Veon Moss fumbled the ball, giving hope to the underdogs. While BG was unable to get a touchdown, they did cut the lead to 26-20 before the Aggies recovered the onside kick, ending the game.
The two other MAC teams to play SEC schools this week did not have as much hope for their contest.
Akron traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, to take on the Gamecocks, losing 50-7.
The Zips were able to record a touchdown in the second quarter of the game but were seemingly unable to stop South Carolina’s offense. The Gamecocks finished strong in the fourth quarter with three touchdowns to solidify their win at home against the Zips.
It was a similar story in Lexington, Kentucky, where the Ohio Bobcats took on the Kentucky Wildcats. However, Kentucky proved to be the better cat in their 41-6 win.
Ohio held off Kentucky’s offense in the first quarter, not allowing a touchdown. Nevertheless, the Wildcats never looked back once Demie Sumo-Karngbaye scored twice in the second quarter.
After those two touchdowns, the first for Kentucky in their past nine quarters of gameplay, they put up three more touchdowns, solidifying coming out of their drought. Ohio scored about 30 seconds into the final quarter when Ricky Hunt Jr. scored on a 1-yard run. This was not enough compared to Kentucky’s seemingly awakened offence, and the Wildcats walked away with the win.
“We had trouble adjusting to the speed on both sides of the ball,” Ohio coach Tim Albin said postgame.”
No MAC team had success in beating an SEC team this week. Some put up a fight, possibly giving them confidence as teams begin to transition into in-conference play within the next few weeks.
At the end of their game Saturday, Kent State found themselves scoreless against Penn State in Happy Valley.
Kent State held their opponents to only one touchdown in the first quarter. Penn State seemed to find momentum as the game progressed. Junior Drew Allar, the quarterback for the Nittany Lions, threw three touchdowns and ran for one, leading their offense to a new program record with 718 total offensive yards, breaking their previous record of 707 yards, which had stood since 1926. Kent State was at quite a disadvantage after losing their top two quarterbacks to serious injuries in the first half.
After going scoreless last week against Tennessee, the Golden Flashes will need to find a way to produce offensive success as they head into MAC play.
On the flip side, Eastern Michigan, who will face Kent State next week, stopped their opponents from scoring. The Eagles of EMU beat St. Francis PA 36-0 in Ypsilanti on Saturday.
After not scoring a touchdown in the second quarter, Eastern blocked a punt in the third quarter, which senior linebacker Kendric Knowling was able to recover in the end zone for a touchdown.
The Eagle’s defense also looked very strong, holding St. Francis to 154 yards, with 26 players credited with tackles on EastEasterns’ense.
As expected, conference games this week ended in very close final scores.
Buffalo barely topped nationally-ranked Northern Illinois in overtime on Saturday. However, the Bulls did get off to a rather slow start, not scoring in the first quarter and not scoring a touchdown until the third quarter. NIU looked strong, which was to be expected from the team currently ranked 23rd in the nation, according to the AP Top 25 Poll.
Senior running back Antario Brown of the Huskies scored a touchdown in the first and second quarters, getting his team off to a solid lead.
NIU was stopped by the Buffalo defense in the third quarter, though, unable to score.
After tying the game in the fourth quarter, the Bulls sent the game into overtime. Upton Bellenfant of Buffalo came through for his team, kicking a 37-yard field goal in overtime to ultimately give Buffalo the 23-20 victory, marking just the second time Buffalo has beaten a ranked opponent in their 25 years as an FBS team.
The other MAC game on Saturday also ended in a three-point difference, with Central Michigan topping Ball State 37-34.
Ball State started strong with a touchdown and field goal in the first quarter while not allowing CMU to score.
The Chippewas made up for this with an electric 23-point second quarter. Ball State scored once in the second quarter, keeping the game within five points. With another scoreless quarter for CMU, Ball State took the lead going into the fourth quarter after a touchdown in the third.
Then, within the last five minutes of the game, the lead changed three times. Ball State added a field goal for a 27-23 lead.
Bert Emmanuel Jr. ran 16 yards for a touchdown, putting Central up 30-27. Kadin SemoSemonza’s pass to Tanner Koziol for a touchdown put Ball State up 34-30.
With 53 seconds left in the game, the Chippewas ran 50 yards and 6 yards before Joe Labas, quarterback for CMU, connected with Chris Parker for the winning touchdown. With only 16 seconds left, the Cardinals ran out of time and came up short with a response, giving the game to the Chips.
Miami (OH) was unable to back up Northern Illinois, as they fell to Notre Dame 28-3 on Saturday. After a scoreless first quarter, the Fighting Irish scored twice in the second quarter and once in each of the last two quarters.
Another game that went scoreless in the first quarter came when Toledo fell in their non-conference game against Western Kentucky, despite beating Mississippi State dominantly last week.
The Rockets lost 26-21 Saturday after leading by seven going into the final quarter. Western Kentucky put together two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to beat Toledo.
There were many ups and downs around the MAC this week. Some teams will begin conference play next week, while others have one more week of non-conference play before MACtion truly begins.
