Miami and Ohio continued to struggle, while Eastern Michigan garnered its first MAC victory against a strong Buffalo squad.
From the battle for last and the fight for the top, week seven saw six Mid-American Conference matchups.
Miami (1-6, 1-2 MAC) traveled to Akron (4-2, 2-0 MAC) and fell 19-29, adding to what has been somewhat of a disappointing season despite the fact the Redhawks picked up their first victory in over a year last week.
“They did a great job making us one dimensional taking away the run,” Miami coach Chuck Martin said. “We hung in the game, had them where we wanted with a key turnover in the first play of the second half, but ended up playing too much catch up. We have to continue learning how to close out close games.”
This week, Miami will head to Dekalb, Illinois to play Northern Illinois in a hostile environment.
Northern Illinois (4-2, 1-1 MAC) will be a handful to deal with compared to Akron.
“(Northern Illinois) has big inside tackles. (The) edge guys are explosive, very fast, whether you’re running the ball or throwing it, their athleticism will test us,” Martin said. “NIU has recruited very well and has a ton of speed on the defense. We’ve played a lot of fast defenses this year so I think we know what we’re up against.”
Kent State (0-6, 0-3 MAC) hosted Massachusetts (1-6, 1-2 MAC), where it fell 40-17. The Golden Flashes have yet to pick up a victory this season.
“It was a disappointing loss,” Kent State coach Paul Haynes said. “We didn’t play our best football to make improvements as a team. We just have to keep coaching and keep working to get our first win.”
Kent State plays at home again this week against a non-MAC opponent in Army (2-4) Saturday.
“Army doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes,” Haynes said. “They play assignment football and pressure the line of scrimmage forcing you into doing things you might not want to. We need to keep taking steps forward and getting better and be ready for a tough football game.”
The Golden Flashes don’t have the time to change completely and implement new things offensively and defensively because of how short the college football season is. Army should certainly be a challenging home test.
Buffalo (3-4,1-2 MAC) traveled to Eastern Michigan (2-4, 1-1 MAC), falling 37-27 in a disappointing loss for a highly-touted Bulls squad.
Buffalo’s intensity and mindset are trivial at this point. Against Eastern Michigan, Buffalo should have felt confident at halftime, because the Bulls had a good handle of the game on both sides of the ball, they just could not close out the game.
“This is one of the most challenging times of the season,” Buffalo coach Jeff Quinn said. “Overall it’s difficult to put into words. (We have to) respond the right way and learn how to finish games because we have a very good football team coming into our house with Central Michigan after our bye.”
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