Eastern Washington’s passing attack has started slow this season. Can it return to form against Montana?

Over the past couple of decades, Eastern Washington developed a reputation built around offenses that, if they weren’t unstoppable, were at least capable of keeping the team in just about any football game.

The program produced a handful of CFL quarterbacks, as well as a few NFL receivers. One of them, Cooper Kupp, was later named Super Bowl MVP for the Los Angeles Rams.

After the 2010 season, behind an offense that racked up 397 yards per game, the Eagles won an FCS national championship, the only one claimed by a Big Sky team since Montana, Eastern’s opponent Saturday evening in Cheney, won a national title in 2001.

In the 14 years since, Eastern has produced some of the most prolific offenses to play college football, including the 2021 squad that averaged 44 points and 555 yards of offense per game. That team, which finished 10-3, also produced four of the 12 highest single-game yardage totals in program history.

All that sets a particularly high bar for any Eastern Washington team.

But it also makes what Eastern Washington’s offense has done – or struggled to do – through four games this season historically notable, because the Eagles’ offense has hardly resembled those high-powered units of the past two decades.

Eastern is 1-3 heading into its Big Sky opener this weekend at Roos Field. In the three games since the lone victory, 42-27 over Monmouth (New Jersey), the Eagles’ offense has failed to gain 400 yards in any single game.

The last time the Eagles failed to cross that threshold in three consecutive games was in 2017. During that three-game stretch, the Eagles lost to Southern Utah, beat Weber State and lost to North Dakota. They finished 7-4 overall and 6-2 in Big Sky play and were left out of the FCS playoffs.

The Eagles this season have taken care of the football, turning the ball over just twice, and they have run the ball with success, averaging 4.5 yards per carry, better than last year’s season-long average of 4.1.

But the passing game just hasn’t kept up.

“If we can become more explosive through the air, not just in the short and intermediate game, that opens a lot of doors for us,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said during media availability on Tuesday, “because I think consistently (on offense) we’ve been able to run the ball for a better part of four games.”

The Eagles have played one FBS opponent (Nevada, last week) and three FCS teams during nonconference play. They have averaged 403 yards of offense per game, right about what that 2010 national title team averaged (Taiwan Jones accounted for, on average, 160 of those yards per game).

But that 2010 team also held opponents to 378 yards per game; this year’s squad has allowed an average of 443.

Eastern also hasn’t thrown the ball particularly often this season, with 117 pass attempts and 163 rushing attempts, bucking its reputation as a throw-first program.

What Best said he would like to see is more explosive plays , noting that if the Eagles could pop three or four more long runs against Montana, that would help their play-action and RPO game.

Through four games, the passing attack hasn’t provided many of those explosive plays, nor have the Eagles seemed to try to throw the ball deep all that often.

“Everybody wants to complete some balls down the field and stretch the defense vertically,” said Marc Anderson, EWU’s associate head coach and passing game coordinator. “We definitely have the ability to do that. We have the players to do that. We have all the pieces. … Those things will come as we continue to lock in and hone in on the defense and the execution of things.”

One reason for the Eagles’ lack of a deep passing game is no doubt the absence of senior Nolan Ulm, who has played little since the season opener when he caught five passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.

Junior Noah Cronquist has filled in with touchdowns – of more than 40 yards – in each of the past two games. One of those came on a double pass from quarterback Michael Wortham, who lined up in the backfield on the play.

Starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas has attempted all but 13 of Eastern’s passes this season.

He’s been remarkably efficient, completing 82 of 104 attempts, the best completion percentage (78.8) in the Big Sky.

But he is also averaging 203 yards per game, 72 fewer than he averaged last year.

One obvious explanation is that Visperas has been sharing snaps with Wortham and with redshirt junior Jared Taylor, who has 139 rushing yards this season on 27 carries. His presence has made the Eagles’ offense more multiple and versatile, forcing opponents to account for the varied skill sets of all three quarterbacks. Wortham, for example, has rushed for 101 yards, thrown for 44 and caught passes for another 47.

While Anderson has heard the concerns that Visperas’ rhythm might be thrown off by substituting in and out, he said those are overblown.

“Everybody seems to talk about that except for the quarterbacks and the guys on offense,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t seem to affect them. They don’t flinch when they’re subbing out.”

Still, the Eagles are entering a daunting stretch of Big Sky games in which their next five opponents are all ranked in the FCS Stats Perform Top 25. If there’s a time for the Eagles’ offense to erupt and look as explosive as it so often has over the past two decades, this is it.

“Things haven’t gone our way the last couple games, but it doesn’t matter,” Visperas said during media availability Tuesday.

“My belief in the team is that we’re a really good, championship-caliber team, and we’re going to keep swinging no matter what.”