Vikings can’t corral Meyer
For two years it’s been the arm of Erik Meyer that has sparked the offense for Eastern Washington’s football team.
Saturday at slippery Woodward Field, Meyer’s feet gave the Eagles opportunities, avoiding a Portland State defensive line that found itself with chances for many more than the four sacks the Vikings ended up with.
Meyer ended up with 68 yards rushing, including four scrambles for double-digit yardage, contributing to the 14th-ranked Eagles’ 42-24 win in a crucial Big Sky Conference game.
“We did get a lot of pressure on him, and honestly it seemed like he had Crisco on him at times, we were just sliding right off,” said Vikings linebacker Joey King, a graduate of Ferris High School. “At the end of the first half, we got a big hit on him, got him hurt a little bit. We just needed a couple more like that and things might have swung the other way.”
Meyer finished the game with a bruised sternum and a possible broken pinky on his non-throwing left hand.
Previously, Meyer’s best rushing day was 44 yards against Central Washington in 2003, his sophomore year.
“We thought we could get a lot of pressure on him, and we did,” Portland State head coach Tim Walsh said. “He’s Houdini, man.”
Mac attack
Meyer also benefited from the re-emergence of wide receiver Craig McIntyre as a threat.
McIntyre had caught one ball in two games, but on Saturday, he was the Eagles’ leading receiver, catching seven passes for 101 yards, his first 100-yard game at EWU.
“Earlier this week coach (Paul) Wulff talked to me and told me I had to make my presence felt,” said the senior from West Valley. “I understand as a senior I have to be a leader and make big plays.”
He came up especially big when, with the Eagles up by four points in the fourth quarter and facing a second-and-17, he made back-to-back catches on hitches for 20 yards. After another reception, this one for 6 yards, Ryan Cole broke a 52-yard run for an 11-point margin.
“As a receiving corps, that’s what we focus on, big-time players making big-time plays in big games like this,” McIntyre said.
Not-so-special teams
In the span of 10 seconds in the second quarter, Eastern’s special teams were responsible for a large swing in momentum – the wrong way.
First, Ryan Donckers, in his second full game back as the Eagles’ punter, booted a 48-yard punt to force Brendan Ferrigno to return the kick from his own 9-yard-line.
This wouldn’t seem so bad, as Ferrigno had averaged 9.6 yards a return this season, but on this one he went 91 yards untouched to cut Eastern’s lead to 14-10.
On the ensuing kickoff, Charles Searcy returned the ball out to the Eagles’ 38, where he fumbled away the football to give the Vikings outstanding field position. They converted that into a touchdown and the lead.
“They responded after it was noticeable that it was poor. That was encouraging,” EWU special teams coach Keith Murphy said. “There’s something with this year’s unit that’s just not clicking. Something’s got to change. We’ve got to find a way to get better.”
Missed opportunities
There was only disappointment on the side of the Vikings, who led 24-21 in the third quarter, but then were blitzed for 21 unanswered points.
Walsh cited 10 penalties for 85 yards and missed defensive assignments on Cole’s two long runs as being the most frustrating items.
“Those two long touchdown runs were flat mistakes on our part,” Walsh said. “It’s just a lot of disappointing things that culminated in a loss. The most frustrating part is we didn’t put our best foot forward.”
Offensive penalties put the Vikings in a difficult situation, because their offense is built on Joe Rubin running the ball, which becomes much tougher on second- and third-and-long.
In PSU’s first four games, the Vikings committed only 16 penalties, by far the fewest in the Big Sky.
“We ran the ball pretty good at first,” said Rubin, who ran for 356 yards and five touchdowns last week against Northern Colorado, but carried 40 times for 182 yards and one score Saturday. “We put ourselves in some bad positions in the second half where we had third and double sticks or second-and-15 and we had to pass the ball.”
When they passed, quarterback Sawyer Smith was ineffective, going 10 of 28 for 114 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Quick kicks
In the win, Meyer set the Eastern Washington record for career passing yards on a 13-yard pass, fittingly, to Eric Kimble early in the second quarter. That yardage pushed Meyer past Mark Tenneson’s record of 7,492 from 1989-92. … Kimble also moved closer to a record, catching his 38th career touchdown to put him seventh all-time in the I-AA classification. The record-holder is Jerry Rice, who caught 50 touchdowns at Mississippi Valley State. … The Eagles were 16 of 40 (40 percent) on third-down conversions coming into this game, but were a sparking 8 of 13 (61.5 percent) on Saturday. … Eastern’s defense keeps losing players. Safety Gregor Smith and lineman Garrett Quinn both left with knee injuries and did not return.