Recent Play Details

We don't know UMass head coach Don Brown personally, but from what we gather, he's a pretty vanilla, straight-forward kind of guy. Coach Brown would love if his Minutemen could play a vanilla, straight-forward game this weekend. In their opener, UMass was the beneficiary of turnovers and big plays in their upset win over New Mexico State. In their second game, they were on the other side of that coin against Auburn and probably should have kept that one closer than the final score indicated. The same was true again last week. Miami (Oh) jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a 99-yard pass play, followed by a 70-yard pass play 23 seconds later. You can't wave a magic wand and erase those plays, but UMass was very competitive outside of those two plays. They had one more first down, one less penalty, one less turnover, were much better on third downs and the time of possession was essentially even. Can Brown get his defense to stop giving up 99-and-70-yard touchdown passes? We sure hope so. Eastern Michigan's record against the spread as an underdog is well-documented. With last week's point spread cover against Minnesota, the Eagles have improved to 25-6 ATS in their last 31 games as a road 'dog. That's very impressive, but doesn't mean a lick in this one. For as good as the Eagles are as an underdog, they are equally as bad in the role of a favorite. Since the start of last season, EMU has failed to cover the spread in each of its five games as a home favorite. The Miami (Oh) team that UMass played last week is better than the Eastern Michigan squad they will see this week. Take the points with the Minutemen.