MAC Power Rankings: Week Six

It was a critical week in the MAC for several teams, as we had a season-high three conference games in the same week. Ball State and Central Michigan headed one step closer to their showdown, and Kent State got back on the horse with a win over preseason East favorite Ohio. Miami stuck it to the Big East, and Eastern Michigan got a taste of the SEC. Let’s see how they stack up:

1. Ball State – Any concerns of a let down after last week’s heartbreaker at Nebraska fell by the wayside early, as the Cardinals leapt to a 28-0 halftime lead at Scheumann Stadium, and cruised to a 49-14 win over Buffalo. The defense was the big star for Ball State, shutting down a Bull attack that had been fairly potent against MAC-level competition. The biggest question for the Cardinals going forward will be the defensive front, as the Cardinals are still 99^th in the nation in rush D, 77^th in sacks and 97^th in TFL. The offense is going to cruise all year long, with Nate Davis making a very strong case for MAC Player of the Year, and Frank Edmonds looking great in relief of Miquale Lewis against Buffalo.
2. Kent State – Zip fans might take issue with this one, but I have to believe based on what I’ve seen this year that the Flashes are either the 2^nd or best third team in the conference, and I think the rest of the season will demonstrate that. Kent went in to Peden Stadium Saturday to face a Bobcats team desperately needing a win and came out a 33-25 victor, putting them right back in the East race. Eugene Jarvis was amazing, getting 230 yards and two scores, and the defense is continuing to impress, ranking tops in the MAC in rush D and yardage D, and 2^nd in the MAC in pass efficiency D and scoring D.
3. Bowling Green – The Falcon offense kept humming, as Tyler Sheehan was pinpoint accurate, tossing 31 for 42 for 270 yards and 3 scores as BGSU got an easy win over Western Kentucky. This wasn’t an awful Hilltopper squad, but Bowling Green dismantled them, leading 41-7 at one point in the fourth. The Green heads to Boston College this week, and then gets two nasty road trips at Miami and Kent.
4. Central Michigan – I took in the Chips 35-10 over NIU in person Saturday, and the passing attack looked phenomenal, racing up and down the field with big play potential at both receiver and RB. Dan LeFevour gets all the pub for throwing the passes, but the Chippewa offensive line absolutely manhandled a Husky front four that includes beast Larry English, giving LeFevour all day long to make reads and throw. The D still left something to be desired, giving up 521 yards to the Huskies, but they did toughen up in the red zone, getting five turnovers and a couple of fourth down stops. The offense is going to be solid; can the defense hang in crucial road tests at Ball State and Western?
5. Akron – The Zips got the Wagon Wheel, but the offense just can’t get rolling smoothly enough to convince me that this team can last over the entire season. A week ago, I thought the QB situation was figured out, but Carlton Jackson lasted just three passes against UCONN, and sophomore Chris Jacquemain went back in to action with efficiency but not much downfield threat.The defense did a great job against a really solid UCONN attack for a half, but looked brutal in the second half as Husky QB Tyler Lorenzen led three straight TD drives in the third quarter. If the D can survive Tim Hiller and Western, this squad could very well by 4-0 in the MAC by November.
6. Western Michigan – The offense put up a really strong performance against the sieve-like Toledo D Saturday, putting the Rockets away with a Jamarko Simmons TD reception with under five left to go up 21. The pass D finally showed up, and played like a unit with multiple all-conference performers should, but the D also gave up a lot of yards to Rocket RB Jalen Parmele (20 cars, 130 yards). Parmele is a really good back, but this defense still has to show me something before I consider this team a contender for the West. How often do you get this the fifth game of the year; WMU had two backs get their first 100 yard games of the year against the Rockets.
7. Ohio – The Bobcats have to be the MAC’s biggest disappointment at the 1/3 pole. Ohio committed a staggering 17 penalties for 170 yards against Kent, and the team’s bread and butter rushing attack only put up 88 yards on 30 carries. Theo Scott might be able to give the Bobcats a lift QB; in the first extended action of his career, Scott was 16-24 for 161 yards and 2 TD. Maybe if Ohio establishes any kind of a deep threat, some holes will open for McRae. Until then, both the offensive line and the defense have shown they’re not up to the task of cleaning up the offense’s mess for the second year in a row.
8. Buffalo – The Bulls ran in to a buzzsaw in Muncie, with the Cardinals’ passing attack just on fire. Giving up 49 points to Nate Davis & Co. wasn’t nearly as stunning as the Bulls netting just 219 yards but being set back 108 yards on 11 penalties. That’s half their offensive yardage taken away by penalties. The Bulls’ margin for error just isn’t that wide, and they’ve got to run better as a team than 27 carries for 83 yards if they want to get a few more wins. The next two weeks are going to make or break Buffalo’s year; winnable home dates against Ohio and Toledo could send the Bulls off anywhere from 3-1 to 1-3 in the conference.
9. Miami – Football oddsmakers never cease to amaze me. You had a Syracuse team that just clobbered #9 Louisville coming to visit a Miami team that had just been drilled by Cincinnati and Colorado in successive weeks. But the Redhawks were only a 1 point dog, and they beat the ‘Cuse with relative ease, outgaining the Orange 436-302 and getting 125 yards from junior RB Cory Jones, bringing his career total to 133. Mike Kokal’s numbers were pretty bad, with 3 INT in just 26 attempts, but somehow the team got the win. Anybody that knows what to expect from this squad week to week should move to Vegas.
10. Toledo – The Rocket D continues to get torched, and the secondary hasn’t bounced back from losing three quarters of its unit early in the year. Teams are going to bomb, bomb, bombs away on the Toledo defense all year long, and that’s a bad recipe for Toledo in a MAC West full of good passing attacks. Tyler Sheehan, Nate Davis and Drew Willy are licking their chops.
11. Northern Illinois – The offense raced up and down the Kelly/Shorts field, but was brutal inside the red zone, getting 0 points out of two trips inside the 5 in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Justin Anderson had his third straight game over 150 yards, and is looking like a real breakout star in a QB-dominated MAC West. The defense, led by DE Larry English, has to get more pressure on the QB than they did against the Chips. There are obviously some real conversion problems here; when you outgain a team by 130 yards and lose by 25, you’re not doing something right.
12. Eastern Michigan – The Eagle D didn’t fare too badly against Vanderbilt, giving up just 341 yards, but the rushing attack was terrible (30 carries on 62 yards) and Andy Schmitt was pretty bad, too, throwing 4 picks in just 24 attempts. You can’t fault EMU much for this loss; they went to an SEC team’s house and got beat. But you’d think they’d be able to sustain drives just a little bit better. The EMU D is an unsung unit; if the offense can move the chains, they’ll have a chance against Ohio and Toledo.
13. Temple – The Owls’ hopes for 2007 have dissipated in to embarrassment already, with the 16 point defeat at Army being the low point so far. Temple gave up two 85+ yard kick returns for scores and Army recovered a fumble in the Owl end zone for a score. It’s something different every week for this Temple squad that just can’t seem to get their stars aligned on the same weekend and get a W.