Eagles can concentrate on remainder of season

EUGENE – The Eastern Washington football team will move on.

Coach Beau Baldwin will make sure of that after a memorable 61-42 loss to Oregon Saturday night that had it all: offensive brilliance, defensive lapses, a foolish act by a young defender and a bittersweet reunion with former Eagles quarterback Vernon Adams.

The emotional roller-coaster rolled to a stop Saturday night. Next up for the Eagles is a week of practice, followed by a tough game at Northern Iowa. They have a lot of work to do – even the offense, which racked 549 yards in a hostile environment against the seventh-ranked team in the Football Bowl Subdivision but struggled to run the ball.

“We have some things to work on,” running back Jalen Moore said after the game.

Yes, it’s tough to get the offensive linemen surging on the snap count with 58,000 hostiles yelling their utmost, but guess what? The next game is in the 16,000 seat UNI-Dome, one of the loudest venues in FCS. Certainly the Panthers will try to keep Eastern one-dimensional, even if they don’t have the defensive speed and athleticism of Oregon.

After that it’s nine straight games against teams from the Big Sky Conference, which enjoyed one of its best weekends in history: Portland State and North Dakota won at Washington State and Wyoming, respectively, while Weber State frustrated Oregon State for three quarters and Southern Utah lost at Utah State on a late punt return.

Then again, relying just on the passing game might not matter if Cooper Kupp has another afternoon like he had Saturday: career bests of 15 catches and 246 yards, which also happen to be Autzen Stadium records.

“He keeps taking it to another level,” Baldwin said.

The Eagles should be able to pass effectively against the rest of the schedule. At Oregon, Jordan West hit 23 of 34 passes for 293 yards and three touchdowns before being sidelined by cramps.

“The game definitely slowed down for me tonight,” West said.

Backup Reilly Hennessey shocked the Ducks – and perhaps some Eagle fans – with his mobility and passing precision, finished 14 for 21 for 145 yards and two scores.

That didn’t happen for the defense, which struggled all night to match Oregon. Adams’ athleticism (19 for 25 for 246 yards passing and 94 yards scrambling) and the speed of running back Royce Freeman (180 yards and three TDs on just 20 carries) were too much for a group that started five freshmen and included a whopping 17 underclassmen on the two-deep roster.

Said defensive tackle Matthew Sommer, “It just goes to the mental reserves of our team that we still competed to the end.”

One player competed too fiercely. Roverback John Kreifels was ejected for targeting Adams, then taunted the crowd as he left the field. Asked whether Kreifels had some bad blood with his former teammate, Baldwin responded, “Johnny has a history with anyone on offense.”

“But it’s not a laughing matter – he’s got to learn from that,” Baldwin said.

Kreifels and his teammates won’t face an offense as talented as Oregon’s, but the 4-2-5 is a work in progress.

“It’s tough without looking at film, but many times we were in good position, but were weren’t making the tackles,” Baldwin said. “There are some technique things in terms of tackling, but it’ll be fun to see their growth.”