Dry Dock Next Stop For Eastern Washington Kramer Suspects Some Need For Changes In Eagles Lineup

The upcoming bye week on Eastern Washington’s football schedule has taken on new meaning and a much greater sense of urgency.

In the 13 days between Saturday night’s 30-27 overtime loss to Portland State and their Sept. 26 trip to Cal State Northridge, the winless Eagles must heal some deep wounds - both physical and mental in nature - and grow into the kind of mature, mistake-free team that fifth-year coach Mike Kramer covets.

“My God, it couldn’t come at a better time,” Kramer said Sunday of the bye week, which follows back-to-back losses to Idaho and PSU. “We’re 0-2 and limping into port. “We’ve taken a couple of torpedoes to the bow, and I’m a little afraid our keel is going to break, here, if we don’t right this thing.

We need to bring her into dry dock and chip some paint.”

For the nautically challenged, Kramer’s comments translate accordingly: The admiral is hot, and lineup changes could be lurking behind the next ice berg.

Kramer was so distraught over Saturday night’s loss, which came when PSU answered Eastern’s overtime field goal with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Jim Blanchard to Art Williams, that he gave his players the day off and told his assistant coaches not to bother coming in, either.

Alone in the darkness of his office, Kramer watched video of the loss from 6:30 in the morning until well past noon. He took a break to bring his boat back from the lake and then returned in the early evening to watch more video.

His reviews were strictly two thumbs downs.

Despite the dramatic improvement shown by the Eagles’ offensive line and a pair of breath-taking Bashir Levingston punt returns that resulted in touchdowns, Kramer called his team’s overall performance “abysmal.”

His disgust was aimed primarily at placekicker Josh Atwood, who missed three short field goals - including a 25-yarder that could have won the game in the final seconds of regulation play, and punter Ryan Chicoine, who averaged just 27.3 yards on his three attempts.

But he also had some candid and less-than-complementary comments about senior running back Mike MacKenzie, who fumbled the ball away twice, and junior quarterback Griff Garske, who completed 16 of 27 passes for 226 yards but produced just 10 points despite having the ball inside PSU’s 25-yard line six times.

“We’re not able to throw the ball accurately down there,” Kramer said of his team’s series of meltdowns inside the red zone. “Griff was 10 of 12 at halftime, but came unhinged a little bit the second half.

“Again, it still kind of comes back to the quarterback. If you’re the guy and you only lead us to 10 points, that’s not going to win a lot of Big Sky games.”

Of Garske, Kramer added, “He played well, he played better (than he did against Idaho), but did he play well enough to retain his starting position? That’s a question we’re not even close to deciding.”

Kramer hinted that there could be several lineup changes on the horizon, but did not get specific. “We haven’t talked as a staff about where we’re going to go,” he explained, “but, obviously, we’re 0-2, our offense isn’t generating any points and our defense has shown that it can’t stop the run.

“We’re spinning a little bit, but luckily we’ve got a couple of weeks to right things.”

Kramer said he expects to have injured defensive linemen Dario Romero (knee) and Adam Kellar (ankle) and offensive guard John Kane (knee) back for the Northridge game. Cornerback Ole Olesen, who missed most of the PSU game with bruised ribs, should be healed by then, too.

Kramer said he would concentrate on game situations at practice.

“We need to improve our recognition factor,” he said, “because both offensively and defensively we seem to be a step slow.”

Kramer admitted, however, that he might not be able to do much with a sophomore-laden defensive line that has been abused the first two games. He cited the 23 tackles made by middle linebacker Greg Belzer as ammunition to back his assessment.

“Believe me, that’s a record you don’t want your middle linebacker to have.”