The rest of the season they used former starting quarterback Kyle McMahon, and freshman Alex Gillet. Eastern scored no more than 12 points in any of the next three games, including a 56–8 loss at Central Michigan. The week after that, they nearly beat Ball State who was also winless at the time. The difference was a safety in the fourth quarter. Next, they had one more non-conference game as they traveled to Arkansas. This game was the opposite of the Michigan game — bad first half, good second half. They were down 42–0 before eventually losing 63–27. For the rest of the year, they were only close in the finale at Akron, losing by 7. In previous years, Eastern was able to get at least a few wins because of a high scoring offense. Schmitt's injury ended that, and their defense was among the worst in the nation. Eastern gave up 3,321 rushing yards (276.8 per game), more than any other team in the nation, which was their downfall. They statistically appeared to have one of the best passing defenses, allowing 150.5 passing yards per game, second only to Air Force, but this was mostly an illusion. Everyone knew they couldn't stop the run, so opponents just didn't call many pass plays.
