To break its five-game losing streak, Eastern relied on two relatively inexperienced players whose performances on Saturday resulted in both players being named as players of the week in the OVC.

For the previous five games in which the Panthers came out on the losing end, two of their main weaknesses were the inability to create turnovers on defense and a lack of big plays from the special teams.

Freshman cornerback Albert Brown single-handedly took care of the ineffectiveness of the defense by raising havoc throughout the game against Murray State. Finishing the game with four tackles, one interception, two fumble recoveries and two deflected passes, Brown showed the intangibles an inexperienced defensive player usually doesn’t posses at this point in his career.

“It’s not a surprise anymore; true freshmen get more of a chance now than they ever used to,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. “But (Brown) happens to be one of the true freshmen we have that is going to be playing regularly.”

Brown took care of two problems the defense had been having. First of all, Brown dominated the turnover section of the stat book as he was involved in three turnovers that Eastern caused.

“I was just in the right spot at the right time for the interception,” Brown said. “But I was disappointed that I didn’t get into the endzone.”

Brown also took care of covering the opposing teams top wide receiver and did well enough to keep Eastern in control of the Racers’ passing game. The freshman cornerback was matched up against Racer senior receiver Deandre Green for much of the game.

While Green did go over the 100-yard mark receiving, he only caught the ball four times and was held out of the endzone.

“The job (Brown) did covering Deandre Green really made a large impact for our defense,” defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said. “Our whole defense is predicated on the secondary making big plays, and Albert certainly did that for us.”

Throughout the year Brown had grown into the favor Bellantoni, but he hadn’t produced as much as his coach had wanted until this Saturday. That was mostly due to the learning curve that freshmen have to deal with when first developing under Bellantoni’s system.

“He’s just a 17-year old freshmen, and it takes time to learn the concepts we teach,” Bellantoni said. “He has the talent to make the plays, but it was just a matter of experience and he put it all together on Saturday.”

The defense was not the only unit for Eastern that reversed its poor play and became a positive against the Racers.

The special teams for the Panthers had been the Achilles heel for the team, as they allowed blocked punts and didn’t make positive plays in the return game.

But against Murray State, Eastern reestablished its special teams play. The group found the most success on the punt return team, as freshman wide receiver Charles Owens returned two punts for 53 yards.

The 26.5 yard average per return for Owens gave Eastern a boost in field position. Also, Owens’ longest return of 44 yards turned out to be a game-breaking play for the Panthers, as it set up Vincent Webb’s game-winning touchdown.

But it wasn’t just Owens who improved the play on punt and kickoff returns. The entire unit solidified the blocking in front of Owens, giving him the opportunity to make a play.

“There were 10 other guys affecting the return because the blockers consistently set up a fine wall for Owens,” Spoo said. “But you have to give credit to the returner too, because Owens had the moxy to find the holes and make the right decisions.”

The overall play for Brown and Owens resulted in weekly awards given to both players from the OVC.

Brown was awarded defensive player of the week, while Owens gained the special teams player of the week award.

This was the first time in the 2003 season that Eastern had two players gain conference recognition from the OVC in the same week.

Neither Spoo nor Bellantoni believe that this trend will stop after the Murray State game. Instead both coaches look forward to what these two players have to offer the team in the future.

“Both of these players can make plays, and I expect to see a lot more of them on the field in the future,” Spoo said.