MAC Noon Roundup: The Penn Is Barely Mightier

PENN STATE 14, TEMPLE 10 — This was 60 minutes of ugly football, but Temple did a great job of filling the seats and making Penn State have to win ugly. There was no scoring in the second half until Penn State punched it in with 2:42 to go. PSU had three missed field goals (one blocked) and a punt blocked as well, meaning TU showed up with defense and little else. Bernard Pierce had a pretty awful game (17 carries, 44 yards, TD, fumble) and the quarterbacks had a combined 43% completion rate. We saw Chester Stewart briefly, with no injury to Mike Gerardi, so I'm not sure if Steve Addazio saw the Toledo games and thought, "why not?"

WMU 44, CMU 14 — There's a very real chance that Central Michigan is the worst team in the MAC West. For now, I'm going to hold onto this belief. Their offensive composure is nowhere to be seen. One good quarter at Kentucky is all they've done so far. As for WMU, that offense is just getting warmed up.

You can tell that Jordan White is hella jealous of all the attention Toledo's Eric Page has received the last two weeks. His 13 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns won't be as nearly revered even though it was a key rivalry game (and wiped clean the bad thoughts of last year's debacle) but it matters because he and Page might comprise the two best receivers in the conference. Alex Carder was an accurate 28-for-37 with 355 yards, 3 TDs, a pick and a rushing score. Watch out for WMU.

Wyoming 28, BGSU 27 — This one was painful. It was an exciting finish and we might focus on the blocked extra point at the end (following a Matt Schilz to Ray Hutson touchdown with two seconds to go) but the game goes deeper than that. The Falcons had six turnovers, including a goalline fumble, another fumble which directly led to a touchdown, two interceptions, a kickoff fumble, and a sack-fumble. Schilz shattered the 400-yard mark but what good does that do when six drives end in giveaways? The running game reverted to its frightened personality (perhaps typefied by the fumbles) but the Falcons defense looked actually remarkable, giving up only three touchdowns given the short field position.

Michigan 31, EMU 3 — Hey, Eastern had a 3-0 lead to the game and it wasn't on the opening drive. That's something. The Wolverine collective might say this was an ugly win for them, and I'm inclined to believe that, especially since it must've been Single Wing Night in Ann Arbor: both teams had a combined 69 yards passing. All things considered, EMU had some well-executed big plays on third and fourth down against UM. This was a plucky performance, and they did just about as well as they could slowing down Denard Robinson, considering the personnel. But still a loss.