Eastern Washington is as real as they come, even without Gubrud. Here are some of their impact players... Like Davis, they have a lot of guys playing on both sides of the ball. Not a 1 trick pony by any means.

RB Sam McPherson
- net 780 yards rushing
- 7.6 yards per carry
- 7 rushing touchdowns

RB Antoine Custer
- net 425 yards rushing
- 6.6 yards per carry
- 4 rushing touchdowns

QB Eric Barriere
- 1002 passing yards
- 7 passing touchdowns
- 60% completions
- net 294 yards rushing
- 6.3 yards per carry
- 5 rushing touchdowns

WR Nsimba Webster
- 822 receiving yards
- 15.8 yards per reception
- 5 receiving touchdowns

WR Andrew Boston
- 351 receiving yards
- 10.9 yards per reception
- 2 receiving touchdowns

LB Ketner Kupp
- 56 total tackles
- 4.5 tackles for loss
- 4 QB hits

LB Kurt Calhoun
- 52 total tackles
- 5 tackles for loss
- 1.5 sacks

DL Jay-Tee Tuili
- 23 total tackles
- 5.5 tackles for loss
- 4 sacks

DB D'londo Tucker
- 28 total tackles
- 6 pass break ups
- 3 interceptions

Massey is currently giving EWU the edge entirely based on home field advantage. On a neutral field they just barely give the edge to the Aggies. This has all the makings of an incredible match up. I just hope the Aggies can put together a full 4 quarters. That is something that we've struggled with this season, but we cannot afford to take a quarter off against these guys.

Mentioned this last week but there is little to no fall off w/o Gubrud. Sure, there is an experience factor lost but Barriere is extremely athletic and can keep plays alive with his legs.

Couple thoughts from yesterday:
-Prob one of the best secondaries UCD gonna face all year, the 'Jacks were top 15 in Pass defense and they held the Ags about 70 yard under their avg. Doss got his but Harrell was blanketed all day. WR's weren't finding a lot of open room. Thomas the #2 receiver. NAU faced 3 really good pass offenses: held UCD 70 under, held Idaho St 120 under avg, and EWU went over their avg by about 50. (this last comment means absolutely nothing as game were different, etc but just calling out what I saw....)
-Gotta clean up the penalties up, 22 the last two games. Yup, a chunk were noise related @ Montana but still another 8 yesterday. Need as clean a game as possible in Cheney.
-Would have liked to see the run defense play a little better - NAU was clearly a pretty limited one dimensional team and gashed UCD for over 300 yards. Adjustments were made at half and they defended it better in the 2nd allowing just the one long run. Would like to see better when you basically know what's coming. Porter clearly gave them the better chance to move the ball which is why we didn't see Campiotti.

All this said, UCD was off an emotional comeback road win with their biggest game of the year on deck. They took care of business, all that ultimately matters. But the little things have to be cleaned up if you want to walk away with a win next week. Sagarin rankings just updated and would have UCD about +5 this week. EWU 2 points better then throw in home field. I think that's pretty fair, would prob have UCD +3 as I would power rate these two teams evenly.

Biggest game for UCD since? (would love to hear thoughts here?). I would say since either the quarterfinal in 2002 against Kingsville or the national semi-final at the Alerus center vs UND in 2001. There is legitimately so much riding on this game. Ags can win the conference title for the first time. They can also likely play themselves into a high seed (prob the #2) + bye in the playoffs. IF they were to lose don't be surprised if they play Thanksgiving weekend, hosting a game (no bye or seed). Team continuing to beat each other up would help (#2 & #8 lost) and Kenny, Delaware, and Elon all have tough games left.

Sac St also awaits and while they are down two things to consider: rivaly game + QB status. If Thompson is back they are a completely different team offensively. No clue on his injury status, finding info on that has been impossible so no clue if he will be back.

*clearly cant win the title with a win this week but would clinch a share at the worst

Here's an update to the Massey rankings related to our schedule:

https://www.masseyratings.com/cf2018/ncaa-d1/ratings

Current - School - (Previous)

#33 Stanford (#30)
#86 UC Davis (#86)
#97 Eastern Washington (#97)
#123 Idaho State (#126)
#144 San Jose State (#137)
#145 Montana (#157)
#148 Idaho (#159)
#179 Cal Poly (#179)
#181 San Diego (#192) Up 1
#187 Northern Arizona (#184) Down 1
#201 Northern Colorado (#197)
#207 Sacramento State (#209)

It's been quite static this week. San Diego moves up one since they keep on winning against their weaker scheduled teams.

San Jose State, Montana, and Idaho appear to be similar quality of teams.

As CA Forever and CK2 have said above, UCD and Eastern Washington will be a good matchup.

Also, as a comparison, we're now ranked higher than UCLA. :)

California is projected to beat us 30 to 23.This is a preview for next year. :)

With which QB taking snaps for the Bears?

How does preparation during the week take place at the player level (i.e. when do they practice, go over film before the game)?

I haven't studied the Bears.

Don't know. I did see pictures on twitter of the team in Halloween costumes in the weight room. Maybe a bit of fun in a week between battles.

http://www.compughterratings.com/CFB/simulations

Well, it's a sniff at the playoff atmosphere. Idaho State @ home was a warm up, @ Griz was a test, but they are young and rebuilding the second Bobby Ball era...EWU is legit and we're both playing for the Big Sky Championship.

Get the schemes ready, and be ready to play fast out of the gate, because the Eagles will come at us hard.

What makes them so scary this season is that they have developed a balanced attack too. EWU has been an air raid offense for the last several seasons, but McPherson, Custer, and now Barriere are doing significant damage on the ground. One of those teams that defenses are going to have fits over cause there is no way to stop everything they throw at you.

Sustained offensive drives on our end helps, and ST.

Cal's QB is Chase Garbers

Yet they have an infatuation with McIlwain who has more picks than TDs.

Got a chance to watch most of the first half of EWU/UNC (now have seen two games since Barriere took over).

First off, kid is a sophomore, is a player and gonna be an issue for the next two years.

Eagles mainly ran 4 wide, 1 back as their base all first half. At some points they went to a formation with TE or FB but mainly ran the 4/1. Everything right now is real quick/easy for Barriere. Lots of swing passes, screens, quick slant, etc. Basically looking to get the ball out of his hands quickly. With the 4 wide, defense is spread out and also where the Eagles get very dangerous running the ball. They are running some RPO /read option stuff where the can hand it to Custer or Barriere can keep it.

The offense they are running is perfect for the kid - forces him to get rid of ball quickly and uses his speed/skill to run with it. He can also save a play if things aren't open. They even ran a designed QB run where QB took snap and just broke left with pulling lineman.

I will say when the first option isnt open there was a little bit of indecisiveness and that's where he can get himself in trouble. He only threw downfield (more than 10 yards) a couple times in FH - one was a busted coverage to a wide open guy on the first or second play, then second was him scrambling around trying to make a play and threw a pick. Aggies will have to put him in situations where he has to look downfield. (3rd and long) If Eagles stay on schedule, lots of options with talented WR's, a good back, and an athlete at QB.

UCD has a better defense than last year and last year Gubrud threw all over them but the Ags completely took away the run. If they can do that again this year, they'll be in good shape. But clearly the run game more dangerous with EB back there. UCD giving up 3.8 per carry, which is top 40 in terms of YPC. That said, was much stronger first 5 games vs last 4 games. (3.0 pc vs 4.4 pc). EWU has the #1 offense in the nation for a reason - stopping them gonna be a big task.

On the other side, EWU wants you to believe they have a dramatically improved defense - but do they?
The best offense they played was Southern Utah 27th, then Cal Poly 49, then NAU at 55th, Idaho 69th, UNC 72nd, etc, etc. The best offense they played was ?? (would have been NAU if Cookus didnt hurt very early in this game?). Still, YPP (a great indicator of a team success was 5.4, the same amount Wash St rang up against EWU). FWIW, Davis has had over 5.4 YPP in every game except Stanford, avg over 6). Maybe this is a much better defense but I dont see anything that would tell me that based on who they've played. UCD going to be by far the best offense they've played all year. There isnt a DB that will be able to check Doss (reminder: he had his career high last year with 205 yard vs EWU) and if they want to roll coverage Harrell is the difference this year having a dominant #2 along with an all conference TE.It all works b/c Maier makes great decision with pinpoint accuracy.

I dont see anyway this game isnt played in the high 30's/low 40's. I expect a total for the game to be set in the high 70's - maybe even an 80. Need to play a clean game - turnovers, penalties, special team. The margin for error is slim here as i think these teams are nearly identical. They get the home game which is big. However, I would feel pretty good about about Hawk as the coach (big advantage over Best) as well as UCD resiliency (Idaho St, Montana) but clearly the Eagles arent without their stuff too losing Gubrud.

Damn, this is gonna be a hell of a game.

It's a big game for sure, but if Davis goes 9-2, we're seeded and get the bye

I agree in general (esp w last weekend’s results) but cant say that for sure. It will matter what others teams do.....If other teams keep losing them 9-2 gets them a 6-8 seed bc of the landscape of FCS. JMU & Wofford lost second FCS game. Elon, Kenny, Delaware all have tough schedules left. NDSU/SDSU/EWU would be top 4. Going to be a fun two weeks. The CAA has been so fun this year
And they’ll prob all keep
Beating each other up so I expect at least one of Elon/Delaware
To stumble based on schedules.

Any idea why our run defense has slipped the 2nd half of the schedule?

As simple as better RBs / better running teams (Cal Poly, NAU, etc.)?

Facilities Tour (from 5 years ago)

For Good Measure, this is NDSU @ EWU about 14 months ago. NDSU pounded them into oblivion, and contained the speed of EWU.

I thought run defense vs Poly was pretty good after the first drive. No long runs. I think yards per carry was good. Vs NAU, they basically ran the wildcat which gives them a numbers advantage. They’ve been getting a lot a rush yards with it; again, we didn’t give up large chunks. EWU has a good rush game coupled with solid pass, do that’s really going to test us

It seems like just about every time we turn around we have another biggest game of the D1 era: ISU, Montana and now EWU for what could be all the marbles. I think this is the most significant game we have had since we went D1 and certainly our most challenging FCS game of the year.

I think we will go into Cheney as a slight underdog and, like Hawk always says, we need to focus on just getting a little better each time out. We'll need to play our best game yet and, if we do, we can come home with a W which means we need to stiffen up defensively, clean up the numerous penalties of late, take care of the ball and play smart Aggie football. If we don't we could lose by more than we'd like to imagine. I think EWU is that good.

couldn’t agree more. Turnovers or penalties or special team mistake could turn this into the Montana first half all over.

Our penalties are scary and I also think we can improve defensively.

we are first in the league in turnover margin.
Also first in conference in red zone defense.
We can’t expect a shutout but if we get some turnovers and stops and our offense scores as expected we win. That’s how this team has got to this record.

Weber kept them down to 6 points. I think that was Barriere's second start as QB. He keeps the play going with his legs. But it looks like he gets rattled on some of the videos and doesn't quite have that 6th sense when the pocket is closing up. The only thing I know is we better be ready to play 4 quarters. I think if you take one or two quarters off with a team like this it can be lights out.

So whose going to be at the game?