After two fourth quarter slip ups, the Eastern Illinois defense will need to regroup for a strong effort if they hope to contain Eastern Michigan’s high powered offense that has put up 69 points in two conference games.

The Eagles run a no huddle offense, something the Panthers haven’t seen much of this year. EMU spreads their formations out, much like Eastern, but keeps the ball on the ground more.

“They have some tricky formations,” defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said.

EMU runs many formations similar to Eastern Illinois, defensive end, Kory Lothe said.

“They wait for you to lineup wrong and then they run a big play on you,” Lothe said.

Eagle runningback Anthony Sherell has rushed for 260 yards this season, 150 against Buffalo, and quarterback Matt Bohnet has rushed for 206 yards, 99 against Toledo and 92 against Buffalo.

“If they are running effectively it opens up (the passing game) and they can catch you sleeping,” Bellantoni said.

The Panthers have held opponents under 100 yards in their first two games this season. The Eagles no-huddle offense could pose some problems for the Panthers, though, Bellantoni said.

“Anytime a team is going no-huddle your gonna get tired and we don’t have a lot of depth to substitute,” Bellantoni said.

But one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the Panthers will be defending the two-minute offense.

“When teams run a two-minute offense we’ve had trouble just sitting back and defending,” Bellantoni said.

That was the case in the last week’s game against Illinois State when Eastern nearly shutdown the Redbird offense until they switched to their two-minute drill.

“The loss to Illinois State was more disappointing because they were a more talented team,” Lothe said. “I was just in awe of how that could happen two weeks in a row.

“We’re just having trouble finishing but once we start clicking we’ll be real good.”