#16 Montana State vs #17 Portland State

[Rjones61]

I still don't see PSU as a playoff team. They have a good win against the cougs and a decent win against MSU. They beat cal poly and I'll buy into it. They are still not at our level..,

Why is a 2-4 team the measuring stick for PSU? Portland dominated MSU, which is not something we can also claim. Portland State should be taken very seriously. They are probably the only team ahead with seriously potential to pop us in the mouth. Portland State has a harder schedule, but still has a lot of potential to go 4-0 before meeting us.

Even if PSU loses and is unable to contend for the Big Sky title, they could still ruin our possibility of a playoff seed. When PSU was getting blown out of the water by mediocre teams, they would still bring us down to the wire. A healthy PSU that blows out weak FBS teams is a dangerous equation for EWU.

 

[ewueagle2010]

I still don't see PSU as a playoff team. They have a good win against the cougs and a decent win against MSU. They beat cal poly and I'll buy into it. They are still not at our level..,

Why is a 2-4 team the measuring stick for PSU? Portland dominated MSU, which is not something we can also claim. Portland State should be taken very seriously. They are probably the only team ahead with seriously potential to pop us in the mouth. Portland State has a harder schedule, but still has a lot of potential to go 4-0 before meeting us.

Even if PSU loses and is unable to contend for the Big Sky title, they could still ruin our possibility of a playoff seed. When PSU was getting blown out of the water by mediocre teams, they would still bring us down to the wire. A healthy PSU that blows out weak FBS teams is a dangerous equation for EWU.

PSU looks at us like we looked at the Griz 10 years ago. They were better, but we always played them tough and even knocked them off a few times.

We are better than them. Period. Could they beat us? Sure, but so could have Cal Poly or even Sac St. EWU has won 3 straight Big Sky Titles and is an established national power, so we're going to get most teams best effort.

I'm with Marc and I'm not ready to jump on Portland St just yet. I'm not putting much in to Big Sky scores this year as they've been all over the map. MSU was and still is way overrated, as I said coming in to the season. If we played MSU again at full strength, it may be a "blowout." If they beat Cal Poly, then I'll take them seriously.

 

[LDopaPDX]

I'm onboard the Portland State bandwagon. I think they are a high quality team. However, the analogy that they're like us a decade ago is pretty accurate. We'd invariably lose a few that we should have won just because we didn't quite have the confidence in being able to pull wins out of the fire. That happened when Portland State played North Dakota and could easily happen again.

But they worry me a lot... a team that is committed to running the ball and do it well? Not exactly the kind of team we play well against.

 

[EWURanger]

They "feel" like they could be the best team in the conference right now. That said, it would not surprise me to see PSU (or any BSC team) drop a game that they're supposed to win. Just a lot of strange stuff going in in conference llay this year, and really, all iver the country in FCS.

 

[93bird]

Let them run the ball. They're not Ill St. with a monster QB. We've seen teams like PSU before and have done pretty well. Think back to the playoffs. SEMO, SD State, Jax State. They all were supposed to have all world running backs (Zenner's in the League), but we kept them in check pretty easily. It's the teams like SHSU who have mobile, accurate passers in addition to great running backs that give us trouble. PSU has three tough running QBs, but they're not deep threats and they're not super big or fast. Keep Jones under 500 yards and I think we've got a great shot at beating them.

 

[luckyintheorder]

They "feel" like they could be the best team in the conference right now. That said, it would not surprise me to see PSU (or any BSC team) drop a game that they're supposed to win. Just a lot of strange stuff going in in conference llay this year, and really, all iver the country in FCS.

Strange stuff indeed.

PSU loses 1-2 games before Eastern. Watched a lot of the game last week, and despite their athleticism, there is still a lack of discipline and MSU is terrible on defense. They get the bye this week, but face Cal Poly, UM, SUU and UNC before trip to Cheney. Good luck with that slate. Certainly will be paying more attention to PSU the rest of the season, but not spending any worry points until PSU week. Too many things to accomplish before then.

Looking forward to continued improvement from the D; they have been getting stops and our O needs to sync with those moments and make the other team pay. Don't have a number, but think we are not converting those opportunities at a very high level (guessing less than 50% TD after a D stop?) Anyone have a sense of that without having to go back over all the drive charts?

 

[marceagfan5]

I'm more concerned with playing in Missoula than PSU in Cheney the following week.

I think PSU loses big to Cal Poly this weekend and the wheels start to fall off.

 

[HookedonGriz]

I'm more concerned with playing in Missoula than PSU in Cheney the following week.

I think PSU loses big to Cal Poly this weekend and the wheels start to fall off.

I'm quite certain you had said the same thing about PSU vs MSU, correct? That PSU would lose to the Cats and start their skid? From what I saw, they dominated the Cats and are a legit team. The prior poster also said "well the Cats defense is horrible" (which it is) so that you can't put too much stock in that win. The Cats defense statistically ranks 118 out of 123 FCS teams. Guess who is still ranked below them....EWU. I'm not sure folks realize that.

 

[marceagfan5]

I'm more concerned with playing in Missoula than PSU in Cheney the following week.

I think PSU loses big to Cal Poly this weekend and the wheels start to fall off.

I'm quite certain you had said the same thing about PSU vs MSU, correct? That PSU would lose to the Cats and start their skid? From what I saw, they dominated the Cats and are a legit team. The prior poster also said "well the Cats defense is horrible" (which it is) so that you can't put too much stock in that win. The Cats defense statistically ranks 118 out of 123 FCS teams. Guess who is still ranked below them....EWU. I'm not sure folks realize that.

I absolutely did, I thought MSU would beat PSU so they have my respect, but I still don't think they are a contender. We are giving them a ton of credit for their wins (which they really only have one good win), yet everyone seems to forget they lost at home to UND...and yes, I know Eastern doesn't have a good win yet.

You don't have to tell us our D sucks, we all know that, it has sucked for the past few years. We are extremely young on D this year, with a new coach and a new system. As posted in another thread, we are only giving up 30 a game in our last 3 compared to 50 a game in our first 3. As crazy as it sounds, If we only give up 30, we are going to win a helluva lot of games...

 

[HookedonGriz]

I'm more concerned with playing in Missoula than PSU in Cheney the following week.

I think PSU loses big to Cal Poly this weekend and the wheels start to fall off.

I'm quite certain you had said the same thing about PSU vs MSU, correct? That PSU would lose to the Cats and start their skid? From what I saw, they dominated the Cats and are a legit team. The prior poster also said "well the Cats defense is horrible" (which it is) so that you can't put too much stock in that win. The Cats defense statistically ranks 118 out of 123 FCS teams. Guess who is still ranked below them....EWU. I'm not sure folks realize that.

I absolutely did, I thought MSU would beat PSU so they have my respect, but I still don't think they are a contender. We are giving them a ton of credit for their wins (which they really only have one good win), yet everyone seems to forget they lost at home to UND...and yes, I know Eastern doesn't have a good win yet.

You don't have to tell us our D sucks, we all know that, it has sucked for the past few years. We are extremely young on D this year, with a new coach and a new system. As posted in another thread, we are only giving up 30 a game in our last 3 compared to 50 a game in our first 3. As crazy as it sounds, If we only give up 30, we are going to win a helluva lot of games...

Yes I agree with ya. If you hold folks to 30 you will be fine through conference. Playoffs always seem to show us otherwise. Wasn't trying to be a di$k or spout off about defensive woes because I know my team has its fair share of problems, too. But was just surprised when I saw the defensive rankings to see EWU below MSU as I also think of MSU being much worse off. That was all.

 

[GoldenEagle]

I'm more concerned with playing in Missoula than PSU in Cheney the following week.

I think PSU loses big to Cal Poly this weekend and the wheels start to fall off.

I think the only remaining game PSU loses is to the EAGS. CalPoly will definitely test them, but I see the Vikings winning this weekend and handling UM easily on Halloween.

 

[EWURanger]

I'm more concerned with playing in Missoula than PSU in Cheney the following week.

I think PSU loses big to Cal Poly this weekend and the wheels start to fall off.

I'm quite certain you had said the same thing about PSU vs MSU, correct? That PSU would lose to the Cats and start their skid? From what I saw, they dominated the Cats and are a legit team. The prior poster also said "well the Cats defense is horrible" (which it is) so that you can't put too much stock in that win. The Cats defense statistically ranks 118 out of 123 FCS teams. Guess who is still ranked below them....EWU. I'm not sure folks realize that.

I absolutely did, I thought MSU would beat PSU so they have my respect, but I still don't think they are a contender. We are giving them a ton of credit for their wins (which they really only have one good win), yet everyone seems to forget they lost at home to UND...and yes, I know Eastern doesn't have a good win yet.

You don't have to tell us our D sucks, we all know that, it has sucked for the past few years. We are extremely young on D this year, with a new coach and a new system. As posted in another thread, we are only giving up 30 a game in our last 3 compared to 50 a game in our first 3. As crazy as it sounds, If we only give up 30, we are going to win a helluva lot of games...

Yes I agree with ya. If you hold folks to 30 you will be fine through conference. Playoffs always seem to show us otherwise. Wasn't trying to be a di$k or spout off about defensive woes because I know my team has its fair share of problems, too. But was just surprised when I saw the defensive rankings to see EWU below MSU as I also think of MSU being much worse off. That was all.

Well, you have to consider strength of schedule and put things into context. MSU didn't play Oregon or UNI to start the season. If they had, rest assured that their defensive stats would look worse than ours. Minus a late rally by MSU, we handled them, despite giving up a ton of yards, a lot of which were late in the game.