Week 8: Every Game is Must-Win From Here

Eastern Michigan dropped its first MAC game last week against Toledo, and now the team has to tighten up the rest of the way. There are still two teams undefeated in league play, and EMU has to play them both. One’s this weekend.

EMU (4-4, 3-1 MAC) has to take on Ohio (5-2, 3-0 MAC) this weekend in Athens, and still has Western Michigan (5-2, 3-0 MAC) to look forward to in a few weeks.

Last week was just brutal. The 34-14 home loss stung deeper than the scoreboard showed. EMU lacked the goods to stop Toledo’s best pass rusher, Andrew Zock (9 tackles, 2 sacks, 9 hurries, 1 forced fumble), and barely moved the ball the way it wanted to.

The offense is lagging, and the medical training team has been particularly busy these days.

Eight, now nine, straight weeks of football with no water break is something nobody else can relate to, and now EMU’s depth is going to be tested against the team that currently holds the nation’s longest winning streak of 16 in a row at Peden Stadium.

Peden’s field turf was renamed Frank Solich Field in 2022, and the only loss Ohio has ever had on ‘The Frank’ was in 2023 (Oct. 28) against Miami (26-1). This home dominance even includes home wins over Iowa State (2023, 10-7) and West Virginia (2025, 17-10).

That’s right. Ohio’s had more wins over the Big 12 on ‘The Frank’ than losses.

After EMU’s second home loss of the season (first in MAC play), the chances of being one of the top two teams in the final league standings have only gotten more difficult and out of the team’s control. At this point, EMU will have to win its remaining four games and hope and pray that Toledo drops another game between now and the end of the year.

This week’s MAC games:

What’s it going to take for EMU to get some mojo back in its run game?

Offensively, EMU’s been vocal about having some pride in its run game. EMU started to see some progress in late September and early October, but things have slowed down again recently.

After 192 yards rushed with three touchdowns at UMass and 137 yards with one score at Akron, EMU could only net 34 yards on the ground against Toledo.

(Sure, that rushing figure last week does include 56 yards lost on six sacks, so maybe I oughta filter that out of the conversation. But if I’m going to include the positive QB scramble rushes, I’ve got to include the sacks.)

Noah Kim, questionable going into last week’s Toledo game, came out in the fourth quarter and let the two backups lead some drives. Junior-year Jace Stuckey got the keys for a couple of drives, then Yale transfer Brogan McCaughey came in for the third.

Stuckey’s two drives ended in turnovers on downs with back-to-back fourth-down sacks. At Wisconsin, Stuckey led the offense on the team’s final offensive possession and helped move the ball from EMU’s 35-yard line to Wisconsin’s 19 before he was dropped for an 11-yard sack on third down to set up the field goal unit (attempt blocked).

Whether EMU’s going to get it done on the ground at Ohio or EMU’s best chance of winning comes through the air, either way this team is going to have to block better than it showed last week.

Before the season began, EMU coach Chris Creighton’s analogy for how he wanted his offensive line to come together would be like four fingers and a thumb on a hand balling together like a fist.

With constant, nagging injuries (mostly on the right side of the line), EMU rolled out its fourth different combination of five starters by its sixth game of the year, and the O-line against Toledo, with Delaware State transfer Elijha Payne back on the field at right tackle, was only the second time that starting five played together.

Even then, they didn’t all last the whole game.

Junior college and Oklahoma State transfer Tyler Brumfield, at left tackle, came out in the fourth quarter for soreness and freshman Samuel Adjin, who made three starts at right tackle this year, came in for Brumfield before Adjin went down with an in-game injury. Tyler McMillan, also with three starts at RT this year, played LT the rest of the way.

At right guard, Michigan State transfer Cole Dellinger hasn’t played since the second game of the year with a leg issue. He finally dressed last week, but never saw the field; fifth-year senior Dennis Strey Jr. has held down the position since. Even Guzzy Kayed, in from St. Francis (FCS), missed the Lindenwood game to injury.

“When I originally was talking about that, you know, not that we only have five guys who can play, but we had five transfers come in in January,” Creighton said at the weekly press conference Monday. “You certainly can't play offensive line without each other, and I think that they've done a really good job of coming together. I just think that as much transition or whatever word that you want to use with guys coming in, coming out (Note: I’d go with shuffling), it makes that more difficult, right? … But the cohesion of the whole group, and in sort of a backwards way, just because so many different guys have had to step up, that's really, I think, gelled the unit together too.”

One more injury worth pointing out here. Nick Devereaux, the team’s top receiving option, has been missed since he exited the Wisconsin game with an upper-body injury, but Creighton said Monday that he was at least expected to return to running this week.

Will he be able to run and jump and block and take a hit this week? With no margin for error left in the MAC standings, this team is certainly hoping he can return to being a difference-maker for this offense.

Lastly, let’s peek in at some defensive numbers. EMU became much better at stopping the run this year compared to how it did last year, but things haven’t been getting much better.

Yes, some of that does have to do with the injuries. At linebacker, Barry Manning’s early exit has now been met with Zach Mowchan’s waning availability. Jason Marshall, a deep safety, has been limited since he missed the Lindenwood and UMass games, and lately guys like Carter Evans and Rayquan Adkins have found themselves going into the injury tent.

Not to say the defense, even in the face of 480 total yards allowed last week, isn’t making plays.

The two moments when Toledo’s offense took the field deep in EMU territory, the defense held them to just two field goals. There was a fourth-quarter fumble caused by backup linebacker Bryce Eliuk to put EMU’s offense on the field on Toledo’s 30. A 42-yard run was eventually brought down by Adkins, who hurt himself in the process, on EMU’s 2-yard line; then the rest of the gang stepped up to stop the Rockets’ four run plays for a late turnover on downs.

“Our defense has a lot of pride,” Creighton said. “We've got a number of older players, experienced players on our defense and really good leadership, and so I think that attributes to things.

“Not just the fourth down stop, but just the four-play series there down the goal line. I mean, that's just pride and guys caring, and being tough.”

Ohio’s rushing attack is one of the MAC’s best: 207 yards per game, 5 yards per carry, and 14 total touchdowns scored.

With the program’s option game, it’s a pretty balanced attack, too. Five players have between 180 and 330 rushing yards this season. Their quarterbacks, led by Nick Poulos since he returned to action from injury two games ago, aren’t afraid to get involved either. Duncan Brune, the team’s leading running back, is incredibly tough to bring down.

Get this: Brune has appeared in 32 games, carried the ball 219 times, and has rushed for exactly 999 yards in his career. In 2024, Brune had 87 yards gained to just three yards lost. In 2025, he gained 589 yards to just four yards lost. This year, Brune leads the Bobcats at 330 yards gained and has been dropped for a loss zero times.