2022 MAC Football Week 2 Game Recap: Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns 49, Eastern Michigan Eagles 21

Eastern Michigan went down to Lafayette, Louisiana on Saturday night, looking for a game to steal and show their legitimacy in the MAC West race after a scare agaisnt Eastern Kentucky the week before. If the team that showed up in the first half the game stayed there, that might have happened. Unfortunately, when the clock struck zero, the Eagles would find that they lost by a score of 49-21.

Eastern Michigan started the game pretty well. They would find themselves ahead by a score of 14-0 at halftime. Eastern Michigan struck first with a pass from Samson Evans to Aaron Jacksonin the goal-line Wildcat formation that netted a touchdown. Eastern Michigan would hit again with five seconds left in the half after pass from Aaron Jackson to Tanner Knue.

The Ragin’ Cajuns would get the next score to tie the game up at 9:14 in the third quarter. These scores were by passes from Chandler Fields to Michael Jefferson and Johnny Lumpkin. Eastern Michigan would regain the lead after Darius Boone ran it in for a touchdown to knot the game up once again deep in the third quarter, but this would be the last time the Eagles would prove to be competitive. The Ragin’ Cajuns would get the next five touchdowns to finish the game at its final tally.

Eastern Michigan’s Taylor Powell would throw three interceptions. Eastern Michigan would also give up two fumbles, including one by the typically reliable Hassan Beydoun after a major first down conversion. But probably the worst stat was that Eastern Michigan would finish the game with 41 rushing yards. Admittedly, some of those were negative yards from sacks but still, if you can’t get over 100 yards rushing in a college game, you aren’t going to have much success.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Eagles as they travel to Arizona, where they will face Arizona State for a late night contest on Saturday with a scheduled kickoff at 11 p.m. Eastern time.