Eastern Washington’s defense has chance to exert itself against battered Idaho offense

It was just about this time last year when the Eastern Washington football team took to its home field for a matchup against the Idaho Vandals that, on the outside, wasn’t predicted to be all that close.

The Vandals were a top-five team in the FCS rankings, and a year before they had defeated the Eagles by 32 points.

The Eagles had split their first two games – and were coming off a road win at UC Davis – but starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas was a surprise scratch, leaving the offense in the hands of Jared Taylor.

“Going in, I don’t believe that outside people expected us to compete with them,” EWU cornerback Alphonse Oywak said this week. “Regardless of that, I knew the players we had and the fight we had in us.”

Idaho won the game, but it did so 44-36, a closer margin that many would have expected. Powered by Taylor’s 121 rushing yards, the Eagles led in the second half before the Vandals’ rushing game became too much – they ran for 363 yards – and from there Eastern won just two more games. The Vandals, meanwhile, reached the second round of the playoffs.

It is against that historical backdrop that these programs will meet on Saturday, this time at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, where again an unranked Eagles (2-5, 1-2 Big Sky) team will try to upend a ranked Vandals squad (5-3, 2-2).

“We know as long as we click together, we’re going to be in battles throughout the game,” Oywak said. “Now it’s the finishing aspect. No matter who we play, we’re going to compete.”

Oywak made a season-high seven tackles against the Vandals last year. This season, as a redshirt junior, he has started three games at cornerback in an increased role. He has one of the Eagles’ three interceptions, which came during Eastern’s lone Big Sky victory two weeks ago, 35-28 over Sacramento State.

Slowing down offenses has been an issue for Eastern this season in all sorts of ways. Among the Big Sky’s 12 teams, only Portland State has allowed more first downs per game than the 25 Eastern’s opponents are averaging. The Vikings are also the only team to allow more yards per play (7.9) than the Eagles have (7.0).

In the red zone, Eastern has been particularly generous. Twenty-six times an opponent has advanced inside the Eagles’ 20-yard line. They have kicked – and made – three field goals and scored 23 touchdowns. Every other Big Sky defense has made at least two red-zone stops.

But the Eagles are continuing to see each game as a chance to improve and to put together a complete team effort – offensive players were quick to point out that they scored just three points in the first quarter of last week’s 48-38 loss to UC Davis – and to do so against a rival.

“The season hasn’t played out for either of us as we anticipated,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said Tuesday during weekly media availability. “But we have a chance to correct things a little bit more this week. They’re going to get after us, we’re going to get after them, and they will give everything they’ve got because they’re going into a bye week, so they’ve got nothing to leave on the table.”

The Vandals, ranked 11th in this week’s FCS Stats Perform Top 25, are still behind Montana State (ranked second), UC Davis (fifth) and Montana (ninth) among the Big Sky’s ranked teams, but a couple of more wins over their final four games might be enough to get them into the playoffs. None of their remaining opponents – EWU, then Portland State, Weber State and Idaho State – is ranked.

But the rankings aren’t something either team is paying particular attention to, especially the Eagles, who have lost three games this year by four points or less.

“The confidence is still through the roof,” Oywak said. “We know that if we can put our best foot forward and ride this thing out, there’s still a chance (at the playoffs). We know we have to go into this Idaho game playing how we want to finish out the rest of the year.”

Idaho’s offense has dealt with a bevy of injuries and hasn’t been what it was in previous years. The Vandals rank 11th in the Big Sky in total offense (348.5 yards per game) and have thrown seven interceptions.

Their offensive efficiency rating is the conference’s fourth lowest (Eastern’s is the second highest) and just twice this season have the Vandals scored more than 27 points.

During Big Sky play, Eastern has scored 49, 35 and 38 points against defenses that despite such an allowance still rank seventh, sixth and fourth in the conference, respectively, in scoring defense.

“We know where Idaho’s offense is at, and a big thing for us is taking advantage of that this week,” Oywak said. “We know our defense is going to play a big role coming into this Saturday.”