Eastern Michigan’s margin for error dwindling with 24-13 loss to Central Michigan

Mt. Pleasant — The script has become familiar for Eastern Michigan, and that’s part of them problem.

An early deficit, an offensive lull out of the gate, and too little, too late as the game wore on and the Eagles scratched valiantly to come back, falling short once more. 

For the fourth time in five games this season, Eastern Michigan lost on Saturday. This fate came with some extra salt for the wounds, losing an in-state rivalry to Central Michigan in the conference opener for both teams, 24-13. Eastern Michigan never led, and hasn’t at any point in the four losses to date. And sitting at 1-4 with seven games to play, the margin for error for the Eagles — to make a bowl, to have a quality season — is quickly evaporating. 

“Today was frustrating, disappointing, obviously it was an awful start,” head coach Chris Creighton said. “Very first play of the game was a mega explosive for them. And they go down and score. And then we were three and out. You look up and it’s 14-3, and then 21-3.”

Saturday’s game script is one that has followed the Eagles from Week 1 to now: A slow offensive start while the opponent races out to a lead. 

Against Texas State in the opener, Eastern Michigan trailed 14-3 after one quarter. The Eagles were down 14-3 to Long Island at one point in the second quarter of that game, and went down 14-0 against Kentucky within multiple series. Saturday was no different: 14-3 after one quarter and 21-3 in favor of the Chippewas at the 10:46 mark of the second quarter. 

And some of the same issues haunting the Eagles in early weeks kept showing up, namely the defense failing to limit what Creighton calls “mega explosive” plays. 

On the first play of the game, Central Michigan connected on a 47-yard pass from Joe Labas to Tommy McIntosh, a deep over route without a backside coverage player to force the ball carrier back into defenders, allowing McIntosh to run free.

The Chippewas went on to have plays of 37 and 49 yards on the subsequent touchdown drives to start the game. 

Creighton shouldered the blame postgame for his team not coming out of the gates hot. 

“The place where I failed, not having these guys ready — and I'm just really surprised, honestly — is just the lack of energy and intensity,” Creighton said. “There was just kind of like a lot of dead air. And the guys don't wanna feel that way.”

What can help jolt a team awake, though, is some positive plays of their own. 

But the chunk gains, key conversions, tackles for loss and takeaways never manifested, at least not in anything more than a flash. 

“But you also have to have the ability when you may not feel just naturally energized and urgent and intense,” Creighton said, “you have to be able to sort of realize the situation. Like, we're in the middle of a MAC conference game, the first one, rivalry game, and all that kind of stuff and to be able to flip the switch. And then leaders then have the ability to impact other people. Now a lot of times in a game, making plays is what can do that. And when you look at the game, it's hard to find more than a handful of plays where it's just like, 'OK!' Like, 'Wow, this is going to be, this is a big deal, this is a game changer.'”

That’s mostly been the story for Eastern Michigan this season: Bad starts, big deficits, and not enough juice to get the stops and scores needed to come back.

In the lone win of the season, Eastern Michigan never trailed by more than a field goal and produced two takeaways. There’s a clear recipe to win, with the offense producing points early, keeping the defense out of a hole.

But that’s a recipe that leaves little margin for error as the Eagles have learned. And the Eagles have shown the ability to play quality football in stretches, like winning the second half on the scoreboard on Saturday and forcing Central Michigan into a number of empty possessions through the second and third quarters. 

“So my thought and what we were communicating from the very beginning was even though the scoreboard's not what we want it to be, we're not in trouble in terms of, 'Oh man, we've just walked into a buzzsaw,'” Creighton said. “Not discrediting their team and how they played at all, they played great. But it was not, 'Oh man, we're overmatched.' That's not the feeling, at all. We just had to settle down and play our game. I think that getting the ball first helped in the second half. Got to move it some and we did, as a team we played better in the third quarter. But, again, got to 21-13 but was not able to turn the corner and it's frustrating.” 

But the lack of margin on the micro has now made the macro a narrower path to walk for the Eagles in the final seven games. 

Losing to Texas State in the opener was unfortunate, but not crushing, and a loss at Kentucky was somewhat expected. Losing a game against an FCS opponent, as the Eagles did against Long Island in Week 2, put Eastern Michigan in a pinch with respect to hitting the six-win threshold. 

And now at 1-4, Eastern Michigan needs to go at least 5-2 the rest of the way to make a bowl, against the following slate: at Buffalo, vs. Northern Illinois, at Miami (OH), vs. Ohio, vs. Bowling Green, at Ball State and vs. Western Michigan. 

Ohio appears to be the class of the MAC this season, and Buffalo, Bowling Green and Western Michigan have all looked solid at points. If EMU can rise above the rest of the teams hanging around the basement of the league at this point, it will still need a few likely upset wins to get to the postseason. 

Because after Saturday’s loss, Eastern Michigan’s margin for error got that much smaller. 

“We didn't take the ball away, we threw an interception. We didn't have — we made some good plays on defense and made some good plays on offense, but never that was able to turn the corner,” Creighton said.