‘We’re sick of being one thing away’: EWU prepares for Nevada looking to get on right side of close games

It is not lost on Eastern Washington’s football team just how close it is to having a 3-0 record.

“Just one little thing away,” Eagles junior wide receiver Noah Cronquist said. “We’re sick of being one thing away.”

It’s a frustrating continuation of a trend from last year, when the Eagles finished 4-7 and lost four games by eight points or fewer.

This year, a three-point overtime loss to Drake and a four-point road loss to Southeastern Louisiana has Eastern’s record at 1-2 heading into an FBS matchup at Nevada at noon Saturday in Reno.

Although they are playing a level up, there is no drop in confidence among the Eagles, who are eager for the chance to get back on the field and get back to .500 heading into Big Sky play.

“I don’t really see it as FBS vs. FCS,” freshman defensive lineman Dishawn Misa said during media availability on Tuesday. “I just see it as another team we’re going to play.”

Nevada (1-3) is historically a familiar foe for Eastern Washington, as the two shared a place in the Big Sky from 1987 to 1991. Eastern is 1-8 against Nevada , the lone victory (33-7) coming in 1989 in Cheney.

In six trips to Reno, the Eagles haven’t won. In their most recent matchup, in 2010, the Wolf Pack won 49-24. Nevada finished 13-1 that season, defeating Boston College 20-13 in the Fight Hunger Bowl.

That year’s EWU team also won 13 games and defeated Delaware 20-19 to win an FCS national championship. Just two other Division I football programs won as many games that season: national champion Auburn went 14-0, and TCU, then in the Mountain West, went 13-0.

Only a deep playoff run would make it possible for this year’s EWU team to win that many games. Regardless of how the game goes, the Eagles are going to need to demonstrate their competitiveness in the Big Sky to get back to the FCS playoffs for the first time since 2021.

“Do I think we have the talent, the experience, the coaching to win the Big Sky? Absolutely,” EWU offensive coordinator Jim Chapin said. “Our kids aren’t quitting, and I think that’s the most exciting part. Now it’s just pushing the chips all-in and continuing to grow and find areas we can improve.”

Although the eight remaining games against Big Sky teams will be paramount for the Eagles, a win at Nevada would go a long way toward actualizing Eastern’s playoff hopes. With this year’s 12-game schedule, an FCS team with eight Division I wins would almost surely reach the 24-team playoff field. Seven wins? Not such a lock.

Eastern needs only look to the 2019 season as a template. That year, it finished 6-2 in the Big Sky but 7-5 overall, with one of those victories coming over then-Division II Lindenwood. EWU didn’t make the playoffs.

But all the Eagles can do this week is try to beat Nevada, and to do so they are looking inward.

“Doing our jobs the best we can do is the best way to fix the problems we had in the last two games,” Misa said.

Against Southeastern Louisiana, Eastern’s inability to stop the run – something that was so problematic last season – was again an issue, as the Eagles allowed the Lions to run for 253 yards on 47 attempts.

Eastern also struggled on third down, allowing SELA to convert in 6 of 13 such situations but only converting itself on 3 of 12 third downs.

They are the sort of fundamentals that Nevada first-year coach Jeff Choate highlighted as points of emphasis for his team this week as it prepares to avoid losing to an FCS team for the third straight year.

“We’ve got to do what we do,” Choate said during his Monday news conference. “We can’t worry about the opponent.”

Nevada finished 2-10 last season, and all but one of those losses came by double digits. One was to the Big Sky’s Idaho Vandals, who won 33-6 at Mackay Stadium.

“We’ve got to continue to play with really good effort,” Choate said. “That’s going to be the eraser for us. I don’t anticipate us playing a lot of blowout games. I think we’re going to play a lot of tight games. And we’ll learn how to win those tight games. That’s what this program needs to do right now.”

That is almost exactly the place Eastern finds itself in.

“In a close game, it’s going to be a four- or six-play difference,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said Tuesday during media availability. “(We) don’t know where those four are going to land or what side of the ball they’re gonna land on, but we’ve got to seize the opportunity in those four or six plays in these one-score games to be able to get us back to .500.”