2021 Mid-American Conference Football Week 6 Game Recap: Eastern Michigan 13, Miami 12

It was a battle between the two longest serving coaches in the MAC on Saturday (with Miami’s Chuck Martin logging exactly eight days more experience than Chris Creighton,) but it was ultimately Creighton’s Eagles who came up with the necessary stops when they needed to to hold up the RedHawks, taking home a 13-12 victory.

Saturday’s game was the first time since a contest against Indiana State in 2008 that Eastern Michigan has not allowed a touchdown (52-0), and the first time since a contest vs. WMU in 2007 that Eastern Michigan has held a MAC opponent without a touchdown in a 19-2 victory.

It was fairly early in the first quarter, Eastern Michigan was marching the ball fairly well but Ben Bryant threw and interception at around the twelve yard line. In the ensuing Miami drive, the Eastern Michigan defense held them to a 49-yard by Graham Nicholson. Miami would score another field goal with 2:05 left in the first quarter. Eastern Michigan would strike back with a touchdown from Ben Bryan to Bryson Cannon with 6:55 left in the second quarter. Eastern Michigan would take the lead on a field goal in the waning seconds of the first half. Eastern Michigan’s Chad Ryland would kick what ended up being the icing field goal with 8:07 left in the third quarter. Miami would tack on two more field goals to make the final score 13-12 with the Eagles on top.

Eastern Michigan’s Ben Bryant would go 21-of31 for 206 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. He would end up getting sacked six times. His counterpart in the form of AJ Mayer would go 16-of-39 for 259 yards. He didn’t thrown an interception, but he was sacked three times. The Eastern Michigan running game would be led once again by Darius Boone with 36 yards with a team total of 96 yards. Miami’s Tyree Shelton would lead their running attack with 41 yards with a team total 126 yards.

In addition to the six sacks, Miami would get five other tackles for loss. Miami got one interception and Eastern Michigan recovered one fumble, so the turnover battle ended up evening out. But at the end of the day, Eastern Michigan’s defense was good enough to hold Miami to only four field goals.

Eastern Michigan will host Ball State next weekend. And Miami will host Akron for their homecoming game.