OXFORD — The Miami RedHawks played their best game of the season on Saturday — in all three phases.
Brett Gabbert threw four touchdowns, and the defense added a pair of turnovers as Miami beat Eastern Michigan 38-14 at Rynearson Stadium.
The RedHawks improved to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference. Eastern Michigan fell to 4-2 (1-1 MAC).
“Obviously, excited about the outcome,” Miami coach Chuck Martin said. “Very excited with how we played. Really a total team effort.”
Here are five takeaways from Miami’s win over Eastern Michigan:
1. Running game runs wild
The RedHawks have been searching for an answer to their running game.
They got it Saturday — partly due to a balanced playbook.
Miami had a season-high 199 yards on the ground, led by 100 from Keyon Mozee. Jordan Brunson had 65 yards rushing, including a 44-yard touchdown run to close it out.
2. Defensive playmakers
Corban Hondru made his first-ever start Saturday and finished with a career-best 16 tackles, while Eli Blakey registered a career-high 18 tackles.
“I think after last week, we just had that one-game-at-a-time mindset,” Blakey said. “We just went in there, play-by-play having each other’s backs.
“We knew that Eastern Michigan was a go-fast team. That’s what we practiced all week. We were prepared. They were fast. We saw the routes that we wanted to see. We were in all of the checks. We missed a few major checks last week, so this week, we made this our major thing — bring in the right defenses for the right formations.”
3. Being the offensive aggressor
Gabbert unleashed a 75-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Virgil on the first play from scrimmage on Saturday.
Eastern Michigan never held the lead the rest of the way, and Miami went on to score the most points in a game this season.
“Obviously, it’s a huge play,” Martin said. “Anytime you get off to a good start and you get your head up and you’re feeling good about yourself offensively, defensively, whatever it is. Again, it just gets everybody feeling good.
“When you feel good, you’re confident, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing. You’re doing yardwork, and you feel good, and you’re confident, and you’re doing a heck of a job — that’s just life. How you feel and where your confidence level is, it’s everything. For the team, it’s just a great way to start on the road.”
4. Cleaning up special teams
Martin pointed out that special teams still needs to be tightened up. An uncharacteristic fumble on a punt return by Cade McDonald gave the ball back to Eastern Michigan following the Eagles’ second possession.
But the Miami defense forced a three-and-out to negate the turnover.
“There’s some things we’ve got to continue to clean up on ST,” Martin said. “We had one kickoff return, and then we had Cade trying to do too much on a punt return.
“Again, Cade’s been so amazing at punt return that it’s hard to get too mad at Cade because he makes good decisions. He’s been spectacular. He just tried to do too much. Trying to make something out of nothing, and it came back to bite us.”
5. Timing was right with passing game
Gabbert completed 10 of 13 passes for 222 yards and the four touchdowns.
The RedHawks’ offensive line played a big role in that, and their receivers didn’t miss many passes.
“The passing game is heading in the right direction,” Martin said. “We talk about timing all of the time. Our timing has not been good for a lot of different reasons. We’ve been working really hard at it, and our timing was really good on Saturday.”
Virgil finished with three catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns, but left the game when he was hit hard in the end zone during a 19-yard touchdown catch. It was Virgil’s first multi-touchdown game of his career.
Martin said Gabbert, who has started every game this season after coming back from last year’s leg injury, looked to be in form on Saturday.
“He looked like himself,” Martin said. “He’s looked like himself in spurts this year, and other times he hasn’t looked like himself. He looks like he’s close to himself. I don’t know that he’s totally felt like himself. In different times in games, I think he has. He’s gotten into a good place, and he’s gotten into a rhythm.
“The whole game, he managed the game good. He saw, whether it be a protection check or whatever it was, he managed the game really good from a mental standpoint.”
