Eagles Keep Block Party Under Control

It takes more than proximity to prolong a rivalry, if indeed that’s what Idaho and Eastern Washington have had over the years.

A certain proximity to the point spread helps.

Ten points? Ten’s a start. Maybe. Right now, there’s only one more rematch booked - next year - and who knows if the Vandals’ scheduling ambitions will intersect with Eastern after that?

They’re in a different league now. For real. Whereas for the past few years, they’ve just been in a different league.

“This was a tough game to get up for,” allowed running back Joel Thomas after the Vandals subdued EWU 37-27 by summoning just about whatever was necessary - rock-ribbed running or over-the-top pyrotechnics or even the odd defensive stop, odd being the operative word.

Presumably, Thomas was speaking for the players and not the 10,107 customers at the Kibbie Sensory Deprivation Dome who kept their hands warm with their heinies. Talk about a tough crowd. On a pre-game hike up the bleachers, we couldn’t help but notice the crib notes left on the seats reminding the patrons to make noise.

We must assume, then, that the enthusiasm issue here is not related so much to the tailgating policy as it is to reading retention.

Then again, we heard it was relatively raucous a few weeks ago for the Nevada game, so maybe assimilation to the Big West is further along than we imagined.

“It’s a non-conference game,” shrugged Thomas, “against a (NCAA Division) I-AA team. Nothing against them - we were in the same boat last year.”

And while the Vandals were in their boat, the Eagles were engaged elsewhere without a paddle - a situation since rectified, accounting for the proceedings being as interesting as they were.

That is to say, sort of interesting.

In sizing matters up beforehand, Eastern coach Mike Kramer fretted about his fragile offensive line and the notion of moving the ball against Idaho. He also noted that “conference games are played in the front yard,” making this a “backyard brawl.”

We were thinking more of a barbecue.

Two cornerbacks, well grilled.

As it turned out, the Eastern offense held up just fine. Joe Sewell and Rex Prescott each broke off mega-runs for scores, Sewell’s 87-yarder getting the Eagles within 17-13 early in the second half. But the game changed immediately thereafter because the Vandals - who had puttered along with the slashing runs of Thomas and play-action passes into the flat - changed it.

They went wide, high and long. They went mostly to Antonio Wilson, a sleek 6-foot-3 model for whom 100-yard receiving days have become routine. On Saturday, it was 11 catches for 173 yards. Whether Wilson was matched against DePrice Kelly or Ryan Moore, QB Ryan Fien threw it and Wilson caught it.

It’s not strategy, just sense. In the second half alone, the Vandals had pass plays that covered 47, 47, 39, 44 and 27 yards - an explosiveness which, frankly, made it seem a little weird when Idaho coach Chris Tormey once kicked a field goal on fourth-and-inches at the Eastern 11. Maybe Fien-to-Wilson is a relationship that needs distance.

“He just looks for Antonio when he gets in trouble,” Tormey said of Fien, “because Antonio’s just come through time and time again for him - for us. Two of those big plays came when Antonio wasn’t the primary receiver, but he got a step on his man and Ryan threw it out to him. Those two are on the same wavelength.”

To say nothing of the same vertical plane.

“They’re 6-3 at wide receiver and we’re 5-3 at corner,” said Kramer.

“I’m 5-10 on a good day,” Moore demurred.

“On one of those mini-tramps, maybe,” said Kramer.

But it’s not as if EWU didn’t know this in advance.

“You know when I knew they had great wide receivers? When I was riding my dad’s combine,” said Kramer, who worked harvest at the family spread in nearby Colton. “(The Vandals) were playing Wyoming and going up and down the field and Bob (Idaho radio announcer Bob Curtis) was talking about how good those receivers were and I’m thinking, ‘Uh-oh.’

“We can get better at corner,” Kramer reasoned, “but we can’t get taller.”

And yet Kramer insisted he’d have been more comfortable had the Eagles been able to stop Thomas and force Idaho into passing earlier.

“We needed them to make a mistake,” he said. “We needed Ryan to throw the ball to one of our guys, or for Joel to kick the ball out. We were shattered a little bit on defense, because that’s been the strength of our football team this year.

“This thing,” he said, hefting a copy of the final stats, “is so heavy with ink on first downs that I can’t lift it.”

Such is the loser’s burden. The Eagles now resume Big Sky Conference play with games against Northern Arizona and Cal State Northridge - basic must-wins if they’re to have any hope of making the I-AA playoffs, or even just to preserve what’s been so hard-won this fall.

Respect. Redemption. For the Vandals, there are no more I-AA playoffs. No Division I-A-1/2 playoffs. No bowl contrivance. They can still be Big West co-champs, and they can still beat up on Boise State - their real rival, no matter what the atlas suggests.

“But this is the best Eastern team we’ve played, no question,” said Idaho defensive end Ryan Phillips. “And we always know they’ll come to play. There always seems to be a little resentment there.”

If there’s nothing else to hang a game on, that’ll do. , DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review