Fantastic, Functional, Forgettable: WMU a MAC contender, EMU holds on as MSU, UM wither
Saturday was rough for the Spartans and Wolverines, but the two Michigan MAC teams in action got to celebrate wins.

Saturday served the two Michigan MAC teams that played well, as Western Michigan trounced Ball State, 42-0, and Eastern Michigan held on to get its first conference win, 16-10, against Northern Illinois.
For the two Big Ten teams that played, not so good: UCLA ran all over Michigan State in a 38-13 win in East Lansing and Michigan went to the Coliseum and got outplayed by USC in a 31-13 loss.
Central Michigan had the weekend off. So with plenty of good, bad, ugly and whatever lies in between, let's get into what was Fantastic, Functional and Forgettable from this weekend in the Mitten.
Fantastic
Broc Lowry: Lowry seems to get better with every week of being the full time starter, and played a crisp, clean and über-productive game as Western Michigan shellacked Ball State, 42-0. Lowry went 23-of-27 for 241 yards and two touchdowns and added 108 yards on 13 carries, plus another touchdown. He’s been the engine at the center of the Broncos’ four-game win streak and gets better as a passer each time out. His 52-yard bomb to Malique Dieudonne stands out, but it’s the down-to-down consistency as a passer that’s started to show up and elevate Lowry’s play.
Nadame Tucker: A portal addition from Houston this offseason, Tucker is one of the most productive edge rushers in the country through seven weeks. He’s tied for the national lead with 8.5 sacks and his 13 tackles for loss rank second in the country. He was borderline unblockable on Saturday, finishing with 3.5 sacks as the Broncos wreaked havoc from start to finish. He’s not alone in making this pass rush a potent force, but Tucker is leading the charge so far.
Chris O’Leary and Western Michigan’s defense: Hired this offseason to take over the defense in Kalamazoo, O’Leary’s defense has been lights out during Western Michigan’s four game win streak. And amidst the four-game run, Western Michigan is giving up 7.5 points per game after pitching a shutout on Saturday. The Broncos are stout against the run, disruptive against the pass and fly to the ball at the second level. They create turnovers and negative plays, and aren’t getting beat for explosives, either. It’s the type of defense that can power this team to a conference title.
Eastern Michigan’s defense and Bryce Llewellyn: The counting stats on Eastern Michigan’s defense after Saturday, at least for the run game, weren’t stellar. But scratching a little beneath the surface, and considering the Eagles opponent on Saturday struggles mightily to pass the ball, the defense showed up. And save for one explosive run play — an 80-yard touchdown for NIU’s only TD — the run defense held the Huskies to 3.58 yards per carry, which EMU head coach Chris Creighton was happy to take. And Llewellyn came away with a key fourth quarter interception that helped Eastern Michigan go up by six and burn some clock in a game with slim margins.
Western Michigan’s MAC title hopes: The Broncos’ 0-3 start feels like a distant past, and in the last month all Western Michigan has done is win, going 4-0 and sitting atop the MAC standings with a 3-0 mark in the conference. The remaining conference slate isn’t loaded with landmines, though an Oct. 25 game at Miami (OH) after a week off for the Broncos looms as a key game. The Redhawks are 2-0 in the league, to date. But as of now, the Broncos are in firm control of their fate and a path to Ford Field is becoming apparent.
Functional
Noah Kim and Eastern Michigan’s offense: Aside from an interception on an underthrown deep ball during a scramble drill, Kim was a steady, solid presence and delivered the sort of controlled play and production the Eagles needed. He went 19-of-32 for 147 yards, a touchdown and the interception, but his legs added notable value, too. He rushed nine times for 32 yards. And his touchdown came on a well-executed scramble drill where he connected with tight end Joshua Long. Running back Dontae McMillan went for over 100 yards on the ground, carrying 23 times for 104 yards.
Western Michigan’s non-QB run game: The Broncos run game got the job done on Saturday, with the tailbacks and receivers combining on 27 carries for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Devin Miles had 12 carries for 46 yards, and Jalen Buckley and Ofa ‘Lolo’ Mataele both found the end zone. It wasn’t a flashy performance, and Lowry is the only ball carrier who got above 50 yards for the Broncos. But it was efficient and got the job done in a blowout that the defense led the way on.
Alessio Milivojevic: Stepping in as Aidan Chiles got knocked out with an apparent injury, Milivojevic showed some of the ability he started to flash against Nebraska last weekend. He certainly didn’t change the tenor of MSU’s offense, but he showed why the coaching staff expressed so much confidence in him all offseason. Milivojevic finished going 8-of-18 for 100 yards and a touchdown through the air. He’s shown he can step in and keep the offense functional, but too much was going wrong around him for his performance to impact the game, one way or another.
Michigan’s passing offense and the Bryce Underwood-Andrew Marsh connection: Underwood still needs to work out the misses and what appear to be some predeterminations, and the Wolverines passing attack can probably lean into more stuff to help him find more consistency down-to-down. But Underwood has been solid in his last two outings, save for the critical late-game interception against USC in the loss. He hasn’t been great, but Underwood is playing about as expected for someone six games into their career. And it’s obvious that he and Andrew Marsh have a good feel in the passing game, as the freshmen connected for eight receptions on nine targets for 138 yards and a touchdown.
Eastern Michigan’s chance to salvage this season: The Eagles have played better of late and were on the cusp of beating Buffalo last week before holding off Northern Illinois this week to get to 2-5. The Eagles have managed to be competitive and within one score in the second half of all three of their conference games, and the defense seems to be coming into its own. A 4-1 finish is the worst EMU can do to make a bowl and there are some difficult games remaining on the schedule, but holding on for the win Saturday after a crushing loss in Buffalo means Eastern Michigan is still in play for plenty of its goals.
Forgettable
Michigan State’s run defense: UCLA is surely one of the hottest teams in college football the last two weeks, but the way the Michigan State run defense wilted against the Bruins is a major cause for concern. The Bruins ran up 238 yards and two scores on the ground and former Spartan Jalen Berger led the way with 83 yards on 13 carries. He also added a pair of receiving scores. UCLA interim offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel got on such a heater as to feel comfortable going deep into the bag of tricks and brought a lineman in motion from a wide split to lead block for a touchdown. It was a bad day for the Spartans run defense, a unit that has previously been a solid anchor for the defense.
Michigan State’s offensive line and Aidan Chiles: The Michigan State offensive line is close to unplayable right now with the combination of injuries to tackle Stanton Ramil and guard Luka Vincic and now guard Kristian Phillips, plus poor play from the likes of Ashton Lepo. The group gave up 12 tackles for loss a week ago and got shuffled around for this week, with Lepo eventually getting benched for Rustin Young, though the results didn’t get too much better. The Spartans managed to cobble together 87 net rushing yards, but the lack of consistent protection on passing plays has evidently spooked Chiles, who has played his two worst games of the season the last two weeks as he’s been harassed and beaten up by opposing pass rushes.
Michigan’s rush defense: Michigan’s run defense got sliced and diced by USC to the tune of 224 yards and multiple touchdowns. Some of the issue seemed to arise from the Wolverines dealing with the speedy King Miller at tailback after USC starter Waymond Jordan, more of a bruiser, got hurt. But that’s no excuse, and the way the Wolverines front got ran around and through is concerning. The alarming lowlight of the night came with a third and impossibly long got converted on a middle handoff. A few other potential backfield splash plays weren’t made, and the down-to-down results otherwise weren’t good as big plays killed the defense.
Michigan’s secondary: Contributing to the problems defending the run was a Michigan secondary that played poorly against the run all game, fitting poorly and finding themselves chasing running backs in the open field far too often. And while Jyaire Hill did give up a TD on an uncalled offensive pass interference, the rest of the night wasn’t much better as Makai Lemon carved up the defense. Hill did force a fumble and Zeke Berry had a pick on a bad decision by USC QB Jayden Maiava. But those takeaways really just served to help dull the blow that USC’s offense dealt.
Michigan State’s bowl hopes: Michigan State is 3-3 after starting 3-0. And the remaining schedule doesn’t look too forgiving: at Indiana, vs. Michigan, at Minnesota, an idle week, vs. Penn State, at Iowa and vs. Maryland. Indiana looks like a legitimate national title contender (Editor’s note: That phrase felt like a hallucination to write.) and for all the struggles that led to James Franklin being ousted today, Penn State, along with Michigan, has a better roster on paper. Penn State could go any number of ways under an interim head coach and a worse Michigan team still comfortably beat MSU last year. Games against Minnesota, Maryland and Iowa are probably the best shots for the Spartans to scrape into bowl eligibility. It will take some upsets, though, no matter what, for this Michigan State team to make it to the postseason.