Montana State separates itself from Eastern Washington from the start to win 57-3

BOZEMAN, Montana – There was an air of anticipation surrounding Eastern Washington’s offense entering Saturday’s Big Sky Conference opener at Bobcat Stadium.

The Eagles were, after all, coming off a 52-point performance at home a week ago, and they were preparing for the return of redshirt senior quarterback Jared Taylor after his two-game absence. It had the makings of a glorious explosion from Eastern’s offense, one that would straighten out their crooked path through September.

Instead, their two-quarterback attack failed miserably.

By the end of the first quarter, Eastern Washington had more points (zero) than yards (-1), and the fourth-ranked Montana State Bobcats proved quite capable of taking what they were given, cruising to a 57-3 shellacking of the Eagles that will go down as one of the program’s most lopsided defeats.

“We didn’t execute on third down, got off the field pretty quick a lot,” sixth-year senior receiver and captain Nolan Ulm said. “Never found a click. Never found a groove. Never found a rhythm.”

The pace with which the Bobcats (3-2, 1-0 Big Sky) took advantage of the Eagles (1-4, 0-1) wasn’t particularly brisk as much as it was casual. After the first of Landon Ogles’ eight punts was returned to the Montana State 48-yard line, junior Justin Lamson led the Bobcats on an eight-play scoring drive that really had just one big play: a 25-yard connection with senior Chris Long.

Even the next two drives, which ended quickly in touchdowns of 43 yards (for Hunter Provience) and 45 yards (for Taco Dowler) didn’t require any particularly adept shimmy or shake. Lamson just hit open receivers for touchdowns.

Just like that, it was 21-0 Bobcats. And there were still 4 minutes and 47 seconds left in the first quarter.

“They’d shown to be vulnerable to the pass, and we needed to take advantage of that,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said after his team extended its winning streak over Eastern to five games. “I think for the most part we did that.”

Offensively, Eastern employed both Taylor and Nate Bell on the field together for most plays in the first quarter. But the best the arrangement got them was a six-yard run by Taylor. In the first quarter, they achieved just one first down.

“We were a very incomplete team today,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said. “They out-competed us in between the lines and certainly outside the lines as well, as far as being thoroughly outcoached.”

The Eagles produced two highlights in the second quarter: Justis La’ulu blocked a field goal – the Bobcats didn’t have a particularly great day kicking, missing two PATs as well – and Soren McKee hit a 21-yarder that got the Eagles on the board.

But aside from that and an interception by Ambrose Marsh in the fourth quarter, it was a game largely devoid of excellence for the Eagles.

They amassed 207 yards offensively, their fewest since they had 187 in a 70-14 loss at Oregon in 2022. It was their second-fewest yards against an FCS opponent in Best’s nine seasons as head coach, three more yards than the 204 they had in a 40-13 loss to North Dakota State in 2017.

Saturday’s loss was also just the second time under Best that the team failed to score a touchdown, the other coming in a 14-6 loss at Weber State in 2018.

“A complete game on their end, and a very incomplete game on our end,” Best said.

Taylor, who didn’t play at all in the second half, finished 5-of-12 for 59 passing yards and ran 11 times for 25 more. The redshirt sophomore Bell, who took all the second half snaps until redshirt freshman Jake Schakel took over for the last two drives, finished 3-of-9 for 19 passing yards and ran 13 times for a team-high 41 yards.

Running back Marceese Yetts finished with a team-high four receptions for 32 yards.

The Eagles loaded the buses outside Bobcat Stadium still looking for their first road win of the season – they’ve had four tries – after suffering their worst loss ever to the Bobcats, even worse than the 57-14 defeat they endured last time they played here, in 2023.

It was also Eastern’s worst loss since a 63-7 defeat in 2022 at Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium, a setting the Eagles will return to later this season, on Nov. 8.

“We’ve got to be better on the road,” Ulm said. “We’ve got to find a way to operate in hostile environments. There’s another one coming later. It can’t just be that we dominate on the Red but we’re not executing on the road, which is kind of what it’s been.”

They’ll play their next two at home, starting Saturday against Portland State (0-5, 0-1).

“I’d like to look at ourselves and not worry about who the opponent is and where we’re playing them and how we’re playing them,” Best said. “The Red’s fine, but we’ve got some things we’ve got to clean up on our end to be way more efficient.”