First time for everything! Let's get that W! GO AGS!

You're absolutely right. Is Barriere the best quarterback in the Big Sky, the best quarterback we've played this season, and a contender for the Walter Payton award? Yes absolutely. I'm not trying to down play his talent at this level because we've seen him dominate teams game after game, season after season but he is absolutely not the best player in all of college football.

I guess my concern is that the EWU struggles are somewhat of a false flag. The last 2 weeks they play 2 of the toughest defenses in the Big Sky and MSU specifically might have one of the best defenses in all of FCS. EWU still only lost by 3 to them. The 2 weeks before the losses they dropped 71 on Idaho and 63 on Northern Colorado. I just worry because our defense hasn't been tested by a particularly potent offense all season.

You're certainly a more confident fan than me! I just don't think we've faced a truly good offense this season and I'm not sure our offense keeps pace.

Like I said though, I really hope the boys prove me wrong! I would absolutely love to be wrong in this situation.

I'm excited for this game it has huge implications for the post season. Unfortunately, I am still predicting a loss. Over the seasons we just haven't been able to figure out EWU. I hope the boys go out there and prove me wrong!

EWU's offensive coordinator has resigned. Former UCD wide receivers coach and current EWU wide receivers coach, Pat McCann, will take over as interim offensive coordinator.

https://goeags.com/news/2021/11/9/football-ian-shoemaker-resigns-as-offensive-coordinator.aspx

Ags also #4 in college sports madness poll

https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fcs-football/top-25-rankings

Yep, EWU has our number. I'll pretty much always predict a loss until they prove me wrong.

I wouldn't call myself pessimistic, but definitely skeptical. I'm very happy that we're essentially a lock for the playoffs right now, but I think it's also important to be objective. We VERY easily could be sitting at like 3 more losses than we have right now against a relatively weak schedule.

Massey currently giving the Aggies a 41% chance of winning

Eastern coming off a 2 game losing streak is going to be very desperate to put one in the W column. I don't know if the defense is up to this task or not. My gut says no, but I am hoping that I am wrong.

He's definitely less of a runner than HR or TT, that's for sure. He moved around a little bit in the backfield today while attempting to find open receivers, but I don't remember him pulling one down and going with it. That is an element that is kind of expected of quarterbacks in 2021. You're not really playing with a full deck of cards if you don't have at least some mobility.

Absolutely

The quarterback situation is definitely a part of my analysis. Against Cal Poly, Hastings was highly efficient, but not very effective at all. Basically a lot of completed check downs that went for 5 or less yards. He definitely seemed more comfortable today and would have had a 300 yard game if we didn't put it into neutral at the end of the 3rd quarter. And to be clear, I'm not trying to knock Hastings or anything. He looked good today and it made me feel a little better with him going forward.

I have my concerns about the defense too though. We've managed to be a good bend not break defense so far, but I personally don't think we've played any lights out offenses so far this season. We will see if my fears are confirmed against Eastern or not.

We're in a weird place honestly. We benefitted from having some big wins in the first couple weeks of the season to put us high in the polls early followed by a relatively easy schedule. An outside observer might look at our schedule and nothing more and think that we're placed appropriately, but I don't think I'm alone in thinking we probably get rocked by most teams in the top 10. I just don't feel like we have the same level of tip top talent or consistency right now.

That being said, I'm happy we're ranked and it's very likely we make a trip to the playoffs which is nice.

Another topic to note is our defense's complete lack of ability to zone in on mobile QBs. If a QB displays simply non-zero athleticism we're gonna let him run all over us. It's gonna get us killed against Eastern.

Not sure if anyone else saw, but Tulsa ALMOST took down #2 Cinci 20-28. Had the ball on the 1 yard line and couldn't punch in a potential game tying TD (with 2 pt conversion)

Yeah, not a huge fan. Like I said, I'm not asking for Hastings to be slinging the ball 50 yards down field but we weren't even trying to get 1st downs anymore. Seemed perfectly content with 3 and outs even when NAU gave us the ball on their own 20.

Happy with the win, but have to say that there could have been a very different outcome if their QB doesn't go down with an injury. We weren't stopping him.

Kind of annoyed with the last couple of offensive drives. Not saying we have to be taking deep shots, but we're not even going for 1st downs.