Eastern’s coaches couldn’t have been more correct about the importance of controlling the line of scrimmage, but unfortunately they couldn’t do anything about it Saturday night.

The Panthers run defense was conquered by Illinois State in the first half that led to an early 14-point deficit, which caused Eastern’s 27-6 loss.

“Illinois State dominated us on both sides of the ball,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. “They played well and we played extremely poorly.”

The Redbirds were able to march the ball down the field without a three-and-out until 9:40 was left in the second quarter. Illinois State was able to accomplish this with its backup tailback Pierre Rembert. The transfer from Michigan ran for 112 yards on 29 carries, both career highs.

“I thought he killed us,” Spoo said. “It looked like he got yards in chunks every time.”

Rembert turned out to be the ISU workhorse back as he ended the first half with 23 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Redbirds starting running back Brad Thompson was sidelined for most of the game with a bruised shoulder and was limited to only five carries for 11 yards.

Spoo said that the Panthers were not surprised to see Rembert constantly carrying the ball that often in the first half.

“He made some big gains early and they figured let’s go with him and it worked,” Spoo said.

On the other side of the ball, Eastern was unable to establish a ground game of its own for the third straight week. The Panthers totaled only 74 yards rushing on 27 carries. Starting tailback Vincent Webb got only 16 yards on 10 carries. The only major contributor was sophomore Travorus Bess who had 40 yards on six attempts but most of them came on a 32-yard run in the second quarter.

“They were more physical than us,” Bess said.

Going into the game, the Redbirds had allowed 100 yards-per-game on the ground but faced a Panther team that only averaged 98 yards by their running backs.

The ISU defense shut down any possible running game putting the fate of the game on Eastern quarterback Mike Donato. The sophomore finished the game 15-for-32 with 162 yards and two interceptions.

Eastern will face Samford, the fifth best running defense in the Ohio Valley Conference, next week at O’Brien Stadium.