Congratulations to the 2005 Eastern football team on its 31-20 win over Tennessee Tech as the Panthers clinched a share of the Ohio Valley Conference title.

After watching last year’s team go 5-6 and lose so many close games, I knew that the Panthers were going to be better than their preseason No. 4 rank in the conference polls. Sometimes a team can learn more from a loss than a win, and Eastern certainly learned a lot from 2004 that has benefited them in 2005.

Saturday’s win proved that the offense can keep Eastern in games and Donato silenced any critics with his 327 yards and two passing touchdowns.

Players and coaches stressed that the team’s tight bonds helped them find a way to win a game when they were struggling early on, and that is certainly the sign of a good team.

That being said, the Panthers can’t play like they did yesterday when they head to Jacksonville State and come back with an OVC title.

Donato, while he did have a huge game, still needs to work out a few more kinks in his game. On one play in Eastern’s red zone, Donato threw a pass that looked like it was intended for a receiver running an out route to the far pylon, but it ended up closer to the parking lot of Lantz Arena.

On one run play, Donato took the snap and, as he turned for the exchange, fell straight to the turf. And of course, there was the interception within Eastern’s own 25-yard line in the third quarter. The Golden Eagles turned the interception into a field goal and cut Eastern’s lead to 24-20.

Against the Gamecocks next week, the Panthers can’t afford to fumble the ball, something they did 5 times Saturday-they lost 3 of them. The second of junior running back Vincent Webb’s two fumbles came directly after junior line backer Lucius Seymour intercepted a ball to kill a Tech drive in their red zone.

The fumble killed all the momentum that the defense just gained. Nothing is worse for a defense than to stop a driving offense only to have to come back on the field two plays later because the offense gave the ball right back.

The defense also gave up big plays. Cameron Kirnes’ 72-yard touchdown in the second quarter was the longest play from scrimmage Eastern gave up this season. There were several times it looked like running backs extended runs after sloppy tackling by the Panthers.

Saturday wasn’t the Panthers’ best game, but they still won. Smoothing out those kind of mistakes will certainly be a goal for Eastern head coach Bob Spoo and his coaching staff this week as the match up they’ve surely been waiting all year for looms just ahead.

Dan Renick is a senior journalism major. If you would like to tell him that this was a winning column despite big mistakes tell him so at [email protected].