Eastern Washington able to hang on against Weber State 23-20 despite less than 200 yards of total offense

In other circumstances, the performance by Eastern Washington’s offense on Saturday would be lamented more than remembered.

Just 199 yards gained, with only 30 of them accrued on the ground for the fewest rushing yards among the 100 games Aaron Best has been the team’s head football coach.

But circumstances matter, and in the light of a 23-20 victory over Weber State at Stewart Stadium in Ogden, Utah, where the Eagles last won 13 years ago, those statistics became secondary.

“My gosh,” Best said in a postgame radio interview, “we made beautiful out of ugly.”

In a few big moments, particularly right before halftime, the Eagles offense stepped up. But again and again it was players on defense and special teams who made the big plays for an Eagles team that is now 4-4 overall and 3-1 halfway through Big Sky play.

“We definitely could have done more in the second half,” sixth-year senior wide receiver Nolan Ulm said in a postgame phone interview. “But guys came through.”

Ulm admitted that the game should have been put away earlier, considering how well the Eagles’ defense played.

For the third week in a row and fourth time overall, the Eagles held an opponent under 30 points. They forced three turnovers and committed none themselves while capitalizing on the three red-zone visits they had with three red-zone touchdowns.

Paired with a safety that came after one of senior Landon Ogles’ five punts inside the 20, the Eagles scored just enough to stay ahead of the Wildcats (3-5, 1-3) in the end.

“It felt like we were all just going hard, working hard, and we made it ugly,” wide receiver Wesley Garrett said in a postgame radio interview. “We made plays when there were opportunities.”

The first such opportunity came on the fourth play of Eastern Washington’s opening possession, when Ogles lofted a punt that returner Bird Butler mishandled. The ball bounced inside the Wildcats’ 5-yard line, and Garrett fell on it.

One play later, redshirt senior Jared Taylor ran for a touchdown, the first of his two. That tied the game at 7.

The teams then swapped punts, but again pinned deep, at their own 6, Weber State snapped the ball into the end zone, where quarterback Dijon Jennings fell on it, and Eastern took a 9-7 lead on the safety.

Weber State regained the lead in the second quarter when Chauncey Sylvester scored on a 5-yard run to make it 14-9. But after that, Eastern’s offense got hot, even if only for two drives.

The key play came five plays into the first of those two drives, when, facing a third-and-11, redshirt sophomore quarterback Nate Bell threw a ball to Ulm in traffic over the middle. Ulm made the contested catch, his only one of the game, and gained 24 yards.

Ulm drew a defensive pass interference penalty on the next play, and six plays later Bell completed a 7-yard touchdown pass to redshirt freshman Jaxon Branch, the receiver’s second of the season.

“He’s got instinctual hands,” Ulm said of Branch, who made the catch just a couple inches from the ground. “He continues to show up in those big moments.”

The EWU defense forced a three-and-out, and the Eagles answered with an eight-play, 65-yard scoring drive capped by Taylor’s second touchdown. Eastern again opted for the extra point to make it 23-14 heading into halftime.

Eastern’s offense didn’t gain a single first down in the third quarter, and in the second half overall the Eagles gained just 16 yards.

But Weber State was little more effective in the second half, when it settled for three field-goal attempts – one of which was blocked – and saw two other drives end with interceptions.

Redshirt sophomore Jaylon Jenkins had the first interception, which made him the first Eagles player since Calin Criner in 2019 to have four interceptions in a season.

Cornerback Ambrose Marsh, who has started all eight games as a redshirt freshman, came up with the second interception, one that gave the Eagles the ball at midfield with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter.

“We have a different identity as a team, something that we’ve been harping on,” Jenkins said in a phone interview. “We call ourselves the joy boys. It leads to plays on the field.”

After the Marsh interception, the Eagles converted on a third-and-3 when the Wildcats couldn’t substitute fast enough – even coming out of a timeout – and were flagged for a penalty for too many men on the field. The Eagles ran out the clock after that.

Bell finished with 20 completions on 29 attempts for 169 yards. He was sacked four times and finished with 18 rushes for 20 yards. Taylor ran 11 times for a team-high 23 yards.

Grad senior Read Sunn led the Eagles’ defense with 11 tackles, while Marsh added six and Jenkins five. Tariq May got a sack for the second time in as many games.

Now the Eagles will return home to face Sacramento State (4-4, 2-2), which on Friday night lost 49-35 to Montana (8-0, 4-0).

After the game, Best was effusive in his praise for Eastern’s defense.

“They take the messages and they don’t just run with them, they sprint with them,” Best said. “They’re young, but they’re coachable … and they continue to win.”