Things to watch: Eastern Washington must find offensive consistency to upset Fresno State
For all the positive talk around Eastern Washington’s defensive performance last week against North Dakota State, the final score still indicated that the Eagles have work to do on both sides of the ball.
The 35-10 regular-season nonconference loss to a fellow FCS team – the nation’s second-ranked one – was the program’s first to a team at Eastern’s level since a 49-45 shootout loss at Jacksonville State in 2019. The Eagles beat Tennessee State 36-29 last year and Western Illinois 62-56 the year before that.
The 10 points Eastern scored were also the Eagles’ fewest against a nonconference opponent – at any level – since a 56-10 loss to Texas Tech in 2017. Including Big Sky play, the Eagles have been held to 10 points or less just two other times since Aaron Best became head coach in 2017.
All that sets the bar for improvement Saturday at Fresno State, if the Eagles are to pull off the upset, awfully high. Not only do the Eagles need to contain an offense that beat Purdue 39-35 last week in West Lafayette, Indiana, they also probably need to score a whole lot more than they did against NDSU.
Regardless of the outcome, Eastern is going to be part of making history in one respect: Saturday’s television broadcast will be the first in the FBS that is exclusively in Spanish, airing on Univision. The game will also be available to watch via streaming on the Mountain West Network. A synced broadcast with the Fresno State radio call – in English – will also be available.
Here are a few aspects of the game to pay attention to when the Eagles and Bulldogs kick off at 6 p.m. in Fresno, California.
Can Michael Wortham find space again? The Eagles’ junior quarterback did a little bit of everything last week, rushing five times for 41 yards, catching one pass for 28 more and returning three kickoffs for another 65. He was by far the Eagles’ most effective offensive player. “Any time he touches the ball, he’s bound to potentially score,” Best said during his media availability on Tuesday. “But we’ve got to be smart about it because he’s in the quarterback room. It’s a delicate balance. And so that’s the risk you take when you play other positions, but we think the risk is worth the reward, and so does Mike.” Wortham lined up occasionally alongside starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas but did not attempt a pass, so that at least is an area he hasn’t yet shown in a game what he can do.
Will the offense show an ability to consistently finish drives early? One of Eastern’s big problems last year was that it got stuck in first-quarter deficits, sometimes by multiple touchdowns. During that 3-8 season they were outscored 127-56 in the first quarter. Last week NDSU led 14-0 just 8 minutes into the game and 14-7 after the first quarter. So, something needs to give for the Eagles to be more successful, and against an FBS team the more likely scenario – one that has led to Eastern’s upsets in the past – is that the Eagles’ offense gets going early and often. Visperas will be making his third career start and he has ample receiving options. The running game only gained 94 yards (for a net of 72) against NDSU, and the necessity for improvement there was something junior receiver Efton Chism III highlighted this week. “We’ve got a great running game,” he said. “We’ve got to get them the ball, open up the front (of Fresno’s defense) so we can explode more on the back (of the defense).”
Will the defense be able to generate pass pressure? The Bulldogs didn’t allow any sacks last week, giving redshirt sophomore quarterback Mikey Keene plenty of time to complete 31 of 44 passes for 366 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Fresno State, under coordinator Pat McCann, likes to spread out defenses and get the ball to players in space. Receivers Erik Brooks (nine catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns) and Jaelen Gill (eight for 65 and a score) were Keene’s favorite targets against Purdue, and the Bulldogs were methodical moving the ball. Their longest play went for 49 yards and only four others went for more than 20, but still they ran 82 plays to Purdue’s 60 and consumed more than 36 minutes while on offense. The Eagles will need to balance out those numbers as much as possible. A good way to do that would be to get some sacks to force the Bulldogs into second-and-long and third-and-long situations. A couple of turnovers wouldn’t hurt, either.