Eagles to rest, wait on NCAA
At least the Eastern Washington football team has a little time to savor its share of the Big Sky Conference title.
The Eagles get today and Wednesday off, knowing they are all but assured a spot in the I-AA playoffs thanks to Saturday’s amazing 51-44 overtime win at Montana State.
“It will be great. We need some time off physically and mentally,” Eastern coach Paul Wulff said. “We need to regroup and get back to practice real hard to keep our timing.”
Eastern, ranked 15th, finished the regular season 8-3, which should get them in the playoffs, although they won’t know for sure until this weekend. EWU is one of the few teams to play 11 games without a bye during the regular season.
The 6-1 league record assures a tie for the Big Sky title, but Montana could grab the automatic berth in the playoffs by beating Montana State on Saturday. The Griz are 5-1, but beat Eastern 31-28 last month.
If Montana wins, all indications are the Eagles would get an at-large bid when the pairings are announced on ESPNews Sunday at 10 a.m.
“I know it’s not guaranteed, but we feel really good about our chances to get in,” Wulff said. “We don’t need (Montana State) to do a lot for us, but if they do it obviously changes things for us. Getting the outright championship and the automatic berth is even better. We are going to be Bobcat fans and I think they have a good chance.”
As far as trying to plan ahead, Wulff said the coaches could try to track down film of several potential opponents, but the Bobcats gave them plenty of things to work on.
“We’re going to worry about ourselves right now, clean up some things we didn’t do very well in the game,” Wulff said. “That’s our first priority.”
The Eastern defense gave up 663 yards, the most since Houston had 751 in an 84-21 rout in 1990, and the offense only had 137 at halftime.
Honors and records
Eric Kimble’s record-setting day resulted in sharing the Big Sky Conference and The Sports Network national offensive player of the week honors.
Kimble caught 10 passes for 196 yards against the Bobcats. That gave the junior from Tacoma 68 receptions for 1,207 yards, both EWU season records. He had three touchdown receptions for the third time this season, increasing his season record to 16 and his career record to 31. Kimble leads the Big Sky in receiving yards per game (109.4) and scoring (10 points a game), ranking sixth nationally in both categories.
Kimble has 39 touchdowns in 32 career games. That is second in school history behind the 53 touchdowns Jesse Chatman scored.
MSU quarterback Travis Lulay shared the honor with Kimble after torching the Eagles for 432 yards passing and 110 rushing. It was the second straight week Lulay had more than 500 yards of total offense and fifth straight 300-yard passing day.
Quarterback Erik Meyer also made the Eastern record book after throwing for 372 yards and five touchdowns in Bozeman. Meyer now owns the school record for total offense (3,226) and touchdown passes (51) – throwing just 10 interceptions in the process.
Meyer, a junior, has 3,037 passing yards this year, the third best in school history behind Fred Salanoa (3,057 in 2001) and Josh Blankenship (3,243 in 2002).
Meyer continues to lead the nation in passing efficiency with a 175.5 rating, breaking Harry Leon’s record of 169.5 in 1997. His completion rate of 63.1 percent broke Dan Daly’s 1981 school record.
The comeback
After Eastern overcame a 31-10 deficit early in the third quarter to catch Montana State at 37, the Bobcats took a 44-37 lead with just 1:17 remaining.
The few Eastern fans among the crowd of 12,907 might have been worried, but the Eagles weren’t.
“We knew we were going to score,” offensive tackle Michael Roos said. “Our 2-minute offense is the best in the nation. We all know it, we all believe in it.”