Written by Adam Burke

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The Twitter hashtag #MACtion originated from the sight of a lot of offense during ESPN’s coverage of weeknight Mid-American Conference football games. There were plenty of big plays, kick return touchdowns, no defense whatsoever, and a lot of people finding weeknight MAC football to be enjoyable, or at least a distraction from watching network TV dramas with their wives.

The opposite of #MACtion was played in Ypsilanti on Saturday. In my preview of last Saturday’s games, I called the Northern Illinois/Eastern Michigan game from last year’s MAC Tournament a “barnburner”. Obviously, I was being sarcastic, as the score was 18-11 at halftime in that game. As it turns out, last March’s game had nothing on Saturday’s game. To put it nicely, both teams had record-setting defensive performances. To be completely honest, both teams had incredibly pathetic offensive performances. Northern Illinois scored four points in the first half. They went over 24 and a half minutes without a field goal in the game and, at one point, were 0-for-32 on three-point attempts. Eastern Michigan eventually won 42-25, in a game that was a running joke on Twitter for the better part of an hour.

In other Saturday action, four of the six winners on Saturday took a lead into halftime and picked up a conference victory. The Bulls led by six at Rhodes Arena on the University of Akron campus before the Zips woke up and outscored Buffalo by 10 in the second half in a 68-64 win. Things keep getting worse for the Kent State Golden Flashes, who lost their third straight, in heartbreaking fashion, to the Ohio Bobcats by a 69-68 final. Toledo got back in the win column, taking care of business against Bowling Green in a 13-point win. Western Michigan continued their winning ways in the MAC, picking up their fourth consecutive conference win in a 76-59 win at Central Michigan. Ball State went on the road and hammered the Miami of Ohio Redhawks, 82-62.

The schedule format remains the same this week, as all 12 MAC schools take the court on Wednesday night to continue the conference schedule. Five of the six games tip off at 7 p.m., with the lone 8 p.m. tip out in DeKalb where Northern Illinois will try to shake off one of the most atrocious offensive performances in the shot clock era.

The highlight game of the Wednesday’s slate will be at the Stroh Center on the campus of Bowling Green State University where the Falcons host the Akron Zips. Both the Zips and Bobcats have a four-game cushion in the MAC East Division with 6-0 conference marks. This looks like a trap game for the Zips with Saturday’s matchup against Ohio on the horizon. They’ll have to focus and take care of business against a dangerous Bowling Green team that is 2-0 at home in conference play. The Zips have won seven in a row over the Falcons, with their last loss coming on March 1, 2009.

Over the last 10 matchups between the two teams, the Zips have held the Falcons to just over 56 points per game, a number that doesn’t bode well for the Falcons if they want to pull an upset. Akron is just 4-4 away from home this season and all seven BG wins have been at the Stroh Center.

The game can be seen live on SportsTime Ohio at 7 p.m.

The other top dog, or should I say cat, in the MAC, the Ohio Bobcats, return home to Athens to battle the Eastern Michigan Eagles. This contest should have the makings of a blowout, as Eastern Michigan is 340th in the country offensively, while Ohio is 52nd in the country in home defense. Year in and year out, Ohio is the more talented team, but these two squads have split the last 10 meetings, each team five up and five down.

If there’s one thing Eastern Michigan does do well, they play defense. Skewed slightly by Northern Illinois’s horrendous performance, the Eagles are holding opponents to a 38.8 field goal percentage and are 41st in the country in points allowed per game at 59.4. The Eagles are a frustrating team to play against, which could allow them to hang around in this game and give Ohio some troubles. Not to mention, Ohio, like Akron, may also be looking ahead to Saturday’s big game.

The Toledo Rockets travel to Muncie to take on the Ball State Cardinals. The road team has won the last four games in this series, which would seem to be a good trend for the Rockets, despite their 2-8 mark away from home this season. Both teams snapped losing streaks on Saturday, with Toledo ending theirs at three and Ball State stopping theirs at four.
So, if nothing else, one of these two teams will be able to say they’re on a winning streak following the final buzzer on Wednesday.

The biggest problem for both of these teams has been inconsistency, due in large part to turnovers. Neither Toledo nor Ball State is on the plus side in assist-to-turnover ratio. Both of them have similar scoring outputs and scoring defenses, so this should be a tightly contested affair.

The MAC West division-leading Western Michigan Broncos ride into Oxford looking to extend Miami of Ohio’s three-game losing streak. The Broncos are rolling right now, winners of four straight in MAC play by an average of 20.25 points per game. They’ll take on a Redhawks bunch that just lost by 20 to drop them to 2-4 in the conference.

The road has not been kind to Western Michigan, who have lost 16 of their last 22 road games and have lost nine of 10 in Oxford. These two teams have split the last 10 meetings, with the home team winning nine of 10. That’s certainly a good sign for the Redhawks, who really need to snap out of this slump with the importance of seeding for the MAC Tournament. Watch the rebounding battle in this one. The Broncos have an edge of nearly 11 rebounds per game over the Redhawks on the season, so second chance points could be the difference.

The Central Michigan Chippewas make the trek to Buffalo’s Alumni Arena to battle Daaa Bulls. While I don’t expect Daaa Bulls to win 402 to zip like Bill Swerski and the Superfans might, things do look good for Buffalo. They have won six of the last eight meetings between these two at Alumni Arena and three straight over the Chips. The Chips have lost four out of five, including a seven-point loss to Northern Illinois, in which they gave up 74 points.

In the latest tip on Wednesday, Kent State will try to get back on track against Northern Illinois. The Flashes have lost three straight after starting out 2-1 in MAC play. A matchup against the Huskies should be just what the doctor ordered, as the 4-14 Huskies are the weakest link in the conference. This home game will kick off a stretch of three straight in the Convocation Center for the Huskies.

For as bad as Northern Illinois is, they’re only one win away from tying last season’s win total. For Kent State, the time is now to start moving towards improving their seeding for the tournament. With games against Northern Illinois and the other MAC West teams on the schedule over the next couple of weeks, they can climb back into a position to get a free pass to Cleveland as a #3 or #4 seed.