I'm trying not to get ahead of myself here. Eastern Michigan is not the 0-10 team we defeated back in 2014. Their recent FBS accomplishments have far exceeded ours. The Eagles beat Rutgers in 2017, Purdue in 2018 and Illinois in 2019--and all those were on the Big 10's team's home field.
Eastern Michigan is better than us until we prove different.
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One more point about Saturday's game. The UMass defense had a couple workman-like third-and-long stops. UMass played three down linemen and standup linebacker. Both times the Minutemen had the deep coverage and everybody stayed in their lanes so the BC quarterback was not tempted to run and slide. BC completed a pass both times, but it was well short of the first down.
That was a big contrast to 2019. The first few games UMass played the exact same defense, rushing three and dropping everybody else back. In 2019 the opposing QB either hit a wide open receiver for 30 yards or pulled it down and rushed 30 yards. After the first few games, the UMass defense coordinator was just trying to keep the plays under 10 yards/play. Saturday was a big change. Also the Minutemen ran in some defensive packages. Not quite Don Brown's package-for-ever-down-and-distance, but enough so the defense could play aggressive. That's a big change from 2019.
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Eagles (the BC variety) Insider has five takeaways from the UMass game.
ESPN recaps the BC-UMass game.
Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" says the Minutemen showed signs of progress.
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Sports Illustrated looks at the odds and more for UMass-Eastern Michigan.
The Vegas line is Eastern Michigan by -18.
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The big doin's from Eastern Michigan-Wisconsin game is EMU's Turan Rush's behavior on the field.
Meanwhile in Madison, 45 people were ejected from the Badgers-Eagles game and 32 were arrested.
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