Serious ? about EWU

[mcg]

So what would a team built to beat EWU look like?

 

[CV Griz Fan]

So what would a team built to beat EWU look like?

Think Bill Parcel's Giants circa 1990 that stopped Jim Kelly's Bills
Think Bill Belichek's Patriot's circa 2001 that stopped Kurt Warner's "greatest show on turf" Rams.

Parcel's slowed the game down. Won TOP and scored a field goal late.
Belichek spied. Held receivers. And kicked a FG late.

 

[mcg]

So what would a team built to beat EWU look like?

Think Bill Parcel's Giants circa 1990 that stopped Jim Kelly's Bills
Think Bill Belichek's Patriot's circa 2001 that stopped Kurt Warner's "greatest show on turf" Rams.

Parcel's slowed the game down. Won TOP and scored a field goal late.
Belichek spied. Held receivers. And kicked a FG late.

Stour defense, ball control offense, effective special teams. Hmmm......

 

[Born2BaGriz]

EWU's defense is not nearly as bad as it seems from the scores of the first couple games. They play a little soft (almost a prevent) because their offense is such a scoring machine. I think they will beat NDSU if they meet them in the playoffs if they don't lose many more to injury.

Not sure they can beat NDSU, but I agree with you that their defense is not as bad as it may seem. Because their offense usually takes less than 2 minutes to score, their defense is back on the field so much, that they wear down.

Montana's defense during the Don Read era was much the same. they scored so fast that the defense had no time to rest before having to go back on field.

Not true on either count. Having played during the Don Read era, we actually had some pretty good defenses and one game that sticks out as near and dear to my heart is in 86 when the then number one Navada-Reno Wolfpack lost in Wash-Griz to an unranked Montana. Even in the Dickinson days what made them so good was that they could grind it out a bit or score as quickly as needed.

The tough thing is that youth, especially on defense can be such of an adjustment because it is reaction versus action. AKA the hand slap game as is action is always quicker than reaction. Point being, you have a ton of youth on your defense the amount of time they have to react may be a bit slower not due to lack of talent, but lack of recognition and adjustment to speed of the game. You might be headed in the right spot, but just that tick of a second can be the difference. That being said, much like our O line, their defense will get better and what concerns me the most is the VA is so accurate and so in tune with his receiving corp that getting a pass rush or stopping a pass can be difficult as he is often throwing before the receiver turns. There is no doubt in my mind they are the team to beat right now but it is a long season and only time will tell.

 

[Great Day To Be An Eagle]

"Just when I think you (eGriz) possibly couldn't get any dumber.... You go and do something like this...... AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!"

What gives Griz fans? A whole page of thoughts and perspective on EWU football that actually talks about football and doesn't resort to talking about "high school stands" and "pink turf". Ya'll are turning over a new leaf over there or something. Impressive thread, thanks for the great analysis and discussion.

Obviously as an EWU fan I'm worried about our D, but I also think much of what ya'll have said is true, it will probably gel more as they get in to the thick of the season. And then of course there's the fact that I don't believe there to be one team in the nation that can outscore EWU so there's that.

Does watching Sam Houston get rolled by a D3 school worry me when three weeks ago that same Sam Houston team moved the ball all over EWU? Sure. But I also think this whole beginning of EWU's season has been a little screwy too. For one the schedule changed a mere two months or so before the season started. So everything got moved up a few weeks in terms of regular practices and camp and what not. Then of course was the big week 1 ESPN game which brought a ton of emotion and distractions to campus. not to mention it was played in mid September. Then a second game in September, Labor Day weekend , against a team that was hard to get up for. Then a big road game at UW which had a bunch of emotion and distractions. Yeah, sure, the players should be able to block that out, but they're all off their schedules. They haven''t even started school yet and they've already played 3 games. I think they need to get in to a flow of the season, where they're balancing school and football, having "normal" schedules and playing teams they're familiar and comfortable with. THen I think the D will gel and we'll see what happens.

Right now though, there's a tough team in Bozeman waiting for revenge that worries me, as a fan, most. Go Eags!

 

[blazerbird]

We've faced teams recently that I felt posed a problem for our style of play. SDSU with Zenner, Nova back in 2010, Illinois State, Towson, and of course Sam Houston. In each game you could see an effective defensive adjustment, but sometimes that adjustment came too late (SHSU 2012, Towson 2013). It's almost as if our defense needs to see the opponent on the field for a quarter or two before we decide how to handle them. The UW game is a decent example. 24 points in the first quarter, 22 points in the second half. Despite our injuries on defense, we have more than enough talent and depth. We need an early stop or two to give our offense a chance to build a lead. Without that stop, we're in trouble no matter who we play as the opponent has time to build some rhythm. As for our backup QB, we're lucky. Jordan West looks every bit the part.