John Blanchette: Eagles-Griz rivalry built on respect

Where is the Big Sky we used to know?

A look at the upper floors of the conference standings name checks schools like North Dakota, Weber State and Cal Poly. That suggests a “Game of Thrones” story arc featuring Thoros of Myr, Orell and Maggy the Frog.

Desperate for the familiar, we looked for old neighborhood pals Montana and Eastern Washington to reinvest some of their signature tension and drama into the Big Sky narrative on Saturday, to say nothing of brand names we can believe in.

Guess we’ll have to wait ‘til next year.

Or not. The last three installments between these teams have now been three-score-or-more wipeouts. And even though they’ve alternated victories, this is no way to sustain the embers of a rivalry.

Which is not to say Eastern’s 35-16 stifling of the Grizzlies was without theatrics. Not at all.

Let’s see. There was Cooper Kupp streaking between two Montana defenders to run under an Olympian touchdown pass. There was the trickeration of Kupp being the triggerman and his quarterback, Gage Gubrud, the target on another long will-breaker. There were the jitterbug stylings of Jerry Louie-McGee of Montana via Lake City High School – who isn’t the next Kupp, but his own kind of showman. There was a one-handed interception. By a linebacker.

And there was Kupp, and more Kupp.

The Grizzlies must have been theorizing that if they let him score touchdowns at will, Kupp would reconsider and turn pro mid-game.

What there wasn’t was a sense that the Grizzlies had any more than a puncher’s chance this day – and maybe not even that, as their haymakers didn’t so much as make the Eagles blink. On the afternoon, Montana had seven plays of 20 yards or more, and exactly one led to a touchdown.

Eastern, at one point, had run 17 plays, and scored twice.

Which, regardless of the the Kuppology seminar in session, was a compliment to Eastern’s defense, and one which coach Beau Baldwin thought overdue.

“There’s a misconception, and it irks me a little,” said Baldwin. “Everyone thinks every game we play is 56-54. That’s not true.

“We play an incredibly tough non-conference schedule, and it’s different than some, so sometimes stats get skewed. Coming into this game, when you’re talking about Big Sky opponents? We were third or fourth in the conference in points allowed on defense. So I take it to heart for those guys when they read that and all they hear about is ‘another shootout’ or that they’re not going to be good enough and that’s the reason they’re not going to win.”

Well, consider this: the Grizzlies’ 16 points were their fewest in this series since a 14-14 tie in 1984. And this is the team that sits right behind EWU in all the Big Sky offensive metrics – though those totals are surely skewed by two UM romps over a couple of sad sacks.

Eastern did struggle to get the Grizzlies off the field early, but three key stops – a missed field goal, a drop on fourth down and an interception by Mitch Fettig – flipped that momentum, and maybe each team’s resolve.

“You have to find energy,” said safety Zach Bruce. “At halftime, they might have had 50 or 60 plays and that’s a ton. You just have to look at your teammates and know you have each other’s back, and that will you to play harder and faster – though against a rival like Montana, it’s not really that hard to find that will or extra energy anyway.”

And that’s the thing – if the recent point spreads, or EWU’s recent run (six wins in the last eight meetings) may have turned down the burner for those outside the lines, it hasn’t for those inside.

“They don’t really like us, we don’t really like them,” acknowledged Fettig, “but I think it’s because we respect them and they respect us. That’s really what the rivalry is built on.”

Sometimes. Sometimes it’s getting thumped by 41 points, as EWU was a year ago in Missoula.

“It was a hard memory to forget, so we definitely had a little edge that way,” Bruce said. “We felt they had a little bit of arrogance about last year’s win. So we wanted to go out and show them we weren’t the same team.”

That sentiment was echoed by Baldwin, who noted that “We’re in a different spot – even our victories coming into this game were a lot different than the victories last year at this point.”

Next week is the last real showdown – at Cal Poly. Eastern’s schedule doesn’t include North Dakota or Weber this year in the bloated Big Sky. Depending on developments, that could make for a wholly unsatisfying end – a bloodless tie at the top, or worse.

But that’s the Big Sky we know now.