Eastern Michigan 27 Wyoming 24: 5 Things Learned

It was an odd game. Todd Porter threw four interceptions. Eastern Michigan held Wyoming to 106 yards rushing. Eastern Michigan ran for 239 yards. Brogan Roback played and brought victory to the Warriors of the Huron. All of this leads to the question of what did we learn?

The Defense appears to be pretty good

Kenneth Bailey

As I said in the lead in, the Eastern Michigan defense held Wyoming to 106 yards rushing. Last year, Eastern Michigan had one of the worst rushing defenses in the NCAA. Four games into the season, they’ve held their opponents to less yards than they gave up in a couple of the games last year. They’ve been getting this from more than just Pat O’Conner. By my estimates, you can only pin 10 of Wyoming’s 24 points on the defense.

Todd Porter is a work in progress.

Kenneth Bailey

As I mentioned in the lead in, he threw four interceptions tonight. Two of the interceptions were taken to the end zone for touchdowns. To say he had a bad night would be an understatement. Despite that, he still threw for 214 yards and a touchdown. While not great numbers, except for the picks, they aren’t bad numbers either. He also rushed for 61 yards. I’m not quite ready to give up on him just yet.

Eastern Michigan Rushing is Decent.

Kenneth Bailey

Both Eastern Michigan running backs combined for 170 yards. If you add the 61 yards from Todd Porter, that’s not a bad running game. Based on the stats I looked up for the preview, Wyoming had a pretty good run defense. I’m not sure how all of this translates for the MAC, but I hope it means good things.

Paul Fricano is the real deal.

He knocked down all of the kicks he had to make. One of those was a 46 yard field goal. That means that Creighton wont necessarily be forced to go for it on fourth down in those situations. That can be helpful against the MAC.

The Season is still young.

Eastern Michigan finishes non-conference play at 3 and 1. This is the first time this has happened since 1995. This is the first time they’ve won back to back games since 2011. Both of those seasons were non-losing seasons (6-5 in 1995 and 6-6 in 2011). They have yet to face a MAC team and that’s what matters in the long run. Based on the stats prior to the games, they faced tests in both the Charlotte and Wyoming games and they passed both tests. The real test comes next Saturday when they face Bowling Green. I hope they pass that one too. I think if they do, that bodes well for the season. For now, I will sit back and enjoy this point in the season though.

Kenneth Bailey