Ball State at Eastern Michigan 10/16/21 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The Ball State Cardinals travel on the road to Rynearson Stadium to take on the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Ball State has won two in a row after a sluggish start to the season, they easily handled Western Michigan last week with a 45-20 win, where they pulled away with 28 unanswered points to end the game. Eastern Michigan put together an outstanding defensive effort in their last outing, and with the 13-12 win improved to 4-2 on the year.

Ball State has been relatively stagnant on the offensive end, they’re averaging 319.2 yards and 23.5 points per game. Senior Drew Plitt has led the offense and put together a solid couple of seasons, building off of that completing 60.9% of his passes for 1,157 yards and eight touchdowns to three interceptions. 

The Cardinals have had a ton of struggles trying to establish the run game averaging just 104.3 rushing yards per contest, led by freshman Carson Steele who is averaigng just over four yards a carry and has totaled 241 yards and four touchdowns this season. 

Ball State’s defense has also had some issues this season, but they’ve played a tough non-conference schedule including Army and Penn State. They’re allowing 401.2 yards per game and opponents are scoring 28 points per contest this season. The Cardinals were able to force four turnovers in their last outing in the win over Western Michigan.

Eastern Michigan has beaten up on poor opponents with blowout wins over Texas State and UMass, inflating their season average to 29.3 points and 356.8 yards per contest. Ben Bryant has been a solid starter in his first year at the helm, he’s completing 66.2% of his passes for 1,129 yards and seven touchdowns to just two interceptions. 

The Eagles' defense has been what they’ve leaned on, especially last week as Miami-Ohio failed to score a touchdown. Eastern Michigan is holding opponents to just 22.8 points per contest and has allowed 390 yards per contest. One area of concern is stopping the run as a fellow MAC conference team, Northern Illinois, rushed for 242 yards and attempted just 20 passes in the loss.