Sunday, November 15, 2009 9:47 PM CST
EIU football wins easier than expected
By BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Last year’s UT Martin postgame celebration was not the only video Eastern Illinois watched of the Skyhawks.
C.J. James had this UT Martin pass play memorized like the favorite line of his favorite movie.
“We were repping it all week,” the EIU corner back said. “I watched film for six hours through the week and it seemed like they were running it a lot.
“It was a dummy call to throw us off. I was kind of disguising it as long as I could.”
Then James stepped up, picked off UT Martin quarterback Cade Thompson’s pass and returned it for a 79 yard touchdown.
If you started thinking on this play with 7:39 still left in the first quarter this was going to be Eastern’s day, you were right.
The Panthers were on their way to Saturday’s surprisingly one-sided 49-13 win at O’Brien Field avenging last year’s loss at UT Martin that resulted in an Internet video celebration and more significantly clinching at least a share of the Ohio Valley Conference football championship.
Now 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the OVC, the Panthers could claim outright league title and automatic berth into the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision playoffs by winning Thursday’s game against Tennessee State at O’Brien Field with a 5:30 p.m. start for an ESPNU national telecast.
If Tennessee State, 3-7 and 2-4, were to regain its early October form that beat Eastern Kentucky and knock off the Panthers, then EIU would have to hope that on Saturday Jacksonville State would beat Eastern Kentucky, which is 5-2 and would win a tie-breaker because of its Oct. 3 win over the Panthers.
But if Saturday’s easier than expected win was any indication, the Panthers are peaking.
“They made a video on us, they disrespected us and we wanted to bully them but we didn’t think it was going to be this bad,” cornerback C.J. James said.
“To be honest,” linebacker Nick Nasti said, “I wasn’t expecting this.”
EIU looked every bit like its 13th and 14th rankings in national polls on Saturday when posting its highest scoring game of the season with Jake Christensen completing 18 of 21 passes for 322 yards and four touchdowns in three quarters before watching the rest of this romp from the sideline.
As entertaining as this offense was, James’ interception making it 14-0 might have been the play of the day.
“To me the turning point was the interception return because it put us up two scores,” EIU offensive coordinator Roy Wittke said. “Once we had that we felt we had a little breathing room. Our kids did a good job of executing the plan and I thought did a good job in the second half and maintaining their focus and finishing the job, taking advantage of the great field position the defense gave us.”
Speaking of taking what was available, EIU’s offense watched the UT Martin defense, too.
“What we did see was we saw them have trouble making adjustments and as a result they freed guys up in the back end of the passing game,” Wittke said. “That’s something that was a big part of our game plan.”
Christensen & Co. made that game plan work.
“We just beat them straight up and Jake put it where it needed to be,” said Charles Graves, whose four receptions for 106 yards and two touchdowns led another balanced game by EIU receivers. “Our offense opened up and showed what we could do. Obviously our front line allowed us to complete the passes.”
Meanwhile, Eastern’s defense added to its outstanding season limiting a UT Martin team that ranked second in OVC offense to just seven points through three quarters.
“Their offense was really good but obviously our defense shut them down,” Graves said. “Without our defense we wouldn’t have scored that many points.”
Eastern’s defense was grateful for the outburst by its offense.
“They say the best defense is a good offense,” said Nasti whose six tackles shared the team lead with safety James Cooper. “When the defense gets a break and doesn’t have to stay on the field it helps.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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