The Eastern football team is not waiting until late November to think it is in the playoffs. For Panthers’ coach Kim Dameron, Eastern is feeling postseason pressure now.

“We’re in the playoffs already, right now,” Dameron said. “We win or we go home.”

After a 1-5 start to the season, the Panthers have bounced back with three straight wins and are 4-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Sitting in third place behind Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State, Eastern is still hopeful of its third consecutive conference title, needing a little help in the next couple of weeks.

But, heading into their noon kickoff on Saturday at O’Brien Field against Murray State, the Panthers are confident, starting with their coach.

“We’re excited about where we are and the attitude of our kids,” Dameron said. “We’re in a sudden death playoff. There’s no doubt about that. We have to make sure that every week we go 1-0. That’s our focus right now, Murray State and trying to get a win on Saturday.”

With a 3-6 overall record, the Racers enter O’Brien Field as one of three OVC teams with only one conference win. Murray State is a 27-point underdog against the Panthers according to sportbet.com, and Eastern plays Jacksonville State next week, when the it needs to beat the Gamecocks to have a chance at winning at least a share of the OVC championship.

Dameron made it clear that his players are not looking ahead.

“There won’t be a word spoken about anything past Murray State because if we don’t beat Murray State it doesn’t matter what we do against Jacksonville State,” Dameron said. “We’re in a bunker mentality. We’re in a one-game season every week.”

Junior linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill shared the same sentiments, following Eastern’s road win at Tennessee Tech.

“We have a big game against Jacksonville State, but we’re not looking past this week,” he said.

Grugier-Hill and the Panthers’ defense have a new challenge in Murray State’s offense. Unlike the high-scoring teams Eastern has faced earlier in the season, the Racers favor the passing game.

Quarterback KD Humphries leads Murray State’s offense, which has the No. 10 scoring offense in the FCS, averaging 38.2 points per game. Humphries himself has the ninth most passing yards in the nation, with 2,314, while also ranking No. 9 in the country with 19 passing touchdowns.

“We’ve got a heck of a challenge this week with Murray State coming in here with a high-powered offense that they have,” Dameron said.

During his five years coaching Murray State, Chris Hatcher’s offense has averaged at least 26.6 points per game against the OVC. This season, despite a 1-4 conference record, the Racers have the No. 4 scoring offense, averaging 30 points per game.

Coming off a 62-38 loss at home against Tennessee-Martin, Hatcher still saw Humphries throw five touchdown passes and complete a pass to 11 different receivers, which Hatcher said is a key to winning games in the future.

“Everybody kind of got in the mix and we got some good playmakers out there,” Hatcher said. “Humphries has been doing a good job of distributing the ball evenly these past couple of games and for us to win he’s going to have to continue doing that.”

Eastern has been good against the pass this season in OVC play, giving up the second fewest passing yards per game. Yet, Dameron knows his defense will have to put more time this week to prepare for the conference’s No. 1 passing offense.

“So, our defense is going to put in a little extra time in this week I’m sure,” he said.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.