There wasn't much to recommend -- for Eagles fans, at least -- about Saturday's 31-13 Big Sky Conference football loss to Weber State.

A couple of school records were set, sure.  And some fourth-quarter offensive fireworks that fizzled out in deep in the red zone were entertaining. But the Eagles were beaten badly in the trenches on both sides of the football, which allowed Weber State to remain committed to the run, while Eastern seemed a bit scattered in its play calling afternoon.

For more details on the game, you can read this game story that appeared in Sunday's S-R and this gamer that ran in the Ogden Standard Examiner.  I've also included this link to a Standard Examiner sidebar on the final minute and a half of the first half that went so bad for Eastern, along with this link to the post-game story on EWU's webside and this link to what the sports information folks at Weber State filed on the game. 

You can check out summaries of all the Big Sky games that were played on Saturday here, and be sure to check below for additional post-game thoughts and comments on the Weber State-EWU game.

 

It became obvious early on that Eagles quarterback Matt Nichols was having trouble finding open receivers, and after the game he admitted to being a bit confused by the way Weber State was mixing up and disguising its coverages.

"It wasn't even that they played a lot more zone that usual, but they were just mixing it up a lot better," said Nichols, who seemed to figure things out midway through the second half.  "They did some really good things in that regard, and there wasn't much you can, other than what we did, which was to just keep fighting in the game and trying not to give up.

"Overall, it's a game we're going to have to learn from and come back from."

Eagles head coach Beau Baldwin also adressed the confusion issue.

"They played a little more zone that they showed on film, and did a good job," he said of the Wildcats. "And they have good players. They've got guys who have the ability to go in and out of playing zone and play man, and I was impressed by that."

Nichols directed the Eagles on one fourth-quarter drive that led to a touchdowns and two others that ended with lost fumble inside Weber's 3-yard line.

Senior wideout Tony Davis attributed much of that success to the way the Eagles sped up their play calling and offensive execution, in general.

"I feel like once we started pushing the pace, things started clicking," he said. "Once we started hurrying up and catching them off guard, they were confused by that a little bit.  We need to build off that."

Baldwin said he had hope to keep his offense more balanced, but had to get away from the run because of consistency issues --  of which Weber seemed to have none, as evidenced by senior running back Trevyn Smith's numbers:  32 carries, 143 net yards, one touchdown and a 4.5 yard-per-carry average.

"Their offensive line is good," Baldwin said. "They're just a good football team. They have the ability to stay balanced, and we weren't doing enough offensively, so they were able to build a little bit of a lead -- especially at the end of the first half.   And when you're playing with a lead, it's a little bit easier to stay with that balance and stay with that runnign game.

"We were establishing a running game at times, but then some times they'd make a stop and force us into a loss or something like that to get usout of rythym a little bit. But early on, we were trying to stay as balanced as we could."

A key  play came right before halftime,  when Eastern's senior free safety Kevin Hatch seemed to be in perfect position to pick off a Cameron Higgins pass in the end zone -- only to have it bounce off his shoulder pads and into the arms of Wildcats' wide receiver Mike Phillips for a touchdown that gave WSU it's 22-7 halftime lead.

According to Hatch, he lost the ball in the sun.

"I thought I had it," he said. "I tried to get back to the basics:  When it's in the sun, you've got to catch the sun.  That's what I tried to do, but hit me on the shoulder and bounced into his hands.  The sun wasn't as easy to  catch as I thought."

Of the crucial personal foul that was called on the Eagles' defense and kept a Weber State scoring drive alive earlier in the second period, Hatch added:

"Ultimately, as a defensive unit, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. We kind of let a couple of things go over our head and get behind us -- for a couple of touchdowns, actually. But (the penalty) was definitely tough to think you had stopped someone and it becomes a first down and you've got to keep grinding.

"I don't know if it was necessarily a letdown, but no matter what, that was on us, and we've got to make sure we're taking care of business and using the proper techniques to avoid penalties like that."

When asked how Saturday's loss might affect prepartions for this Saturday's showdown against league-leading Montana in Missoula, Davis said, "I expect there to be a big bounceback. We're senior heavy and we have a lot of leaders on this team, so I don't expect any problem at all in bouncing back."

 

 

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