FCS Playoffs 2nd Round EWU @ UM Game Day Thread

[marceagfan5]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

 

[GoldenEagle]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

How does the committee gift UM a seed after such a hollow accomplishment?

 

[dudeitsaid]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

How does the committee gift UM a seed after such a hollow accomplishment?

I thought that was interesting to look at, and UM only beat one team with a winning record, while we and MSU beat three, and Sac State beat two. In regards to the combined win percentage of teams that were beaten, not including FBS (I think all four teams had serviceable performance against the FBS this year, even though only us and UM won), for EWU, it's 42.2%, MSU is 40.4%, Sac State 36.0%, and UM 30.7%. UM definitely doesn't have a lot to hang their hat on. I think they are always a tough team for EWU, but there is nothing about them that scares me.

For comparison, if we beat UM, we'd likely move on to JMU, and they have beaten six teams with a winning record, and the combined win percentage of the teams they've played is 47.3%, and then likely to NDSU, who beat three teams with winning records with a combined win percentage of 42.9% (almost exactly like EWU).

Not sure it means a ton, but I'd say EWU is more battle tested than UM is, just hate the quick turnaround and playing on their home turf.

 

[clawman1]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

 

[GetEm_Griz]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

If JMU gets upset, I believe it goes back to a bid process if the two teams playing are not seeded.

 

[luckyintheorder]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

My exact thoughts last night after reading the Griz fan invasion of the RedZone board and the general sentiment over on eGriz. Their football team did take MSU to the woodshed but will have had 2 weeks to cool off IMO. The short week works in Eastern's favor.

 

[Grizbrawler]

Gotta say, looking forward to this one. Short week won't matter from a game planning perspective. Teams know each other and neither Montana or Eastern will be better than they already are. As good as UNI's DL was, I still think Montana's is better with better db's. The new found defensive intensity is more than a match for Montana's offense... Full speed ahead. ;-)

I don't think this game will be close. We saw how confused Barriere looked the last time you all came into Missoula. I think the defensive pressure, noise, and maybe even the weather will be too much for him and the Chickens to overcome. Montana's offense had only improved since the first game and the defense is a lot better than what UNI showed yesterday.

You heard it here first!

Montana GRIZ 45
Chickens 10

Nice first post. :shake: Do the Griz have some sort of secret weapon that we didn't get a look at the first time we played?

GTFO with that BS.

No secret weapons but we have Cam Humphrey back. You were lucky to beat us earlier in the season when we had our second string QB in the game.

well Cam was in the game all but the final 30 seconds...but I agree griz will win this one big.

Yes but that's a tall order to ask a guy to come into a game cold like that and get the win. Cam would have got it done. I just watched a replay of the second half of the EWU game and I retract my previous statement about the outcome of the Griz-EWU. I'm now predicting a 56-10 victory for the Griz. The chickens special teams and offense are a lot worse than I thought. Any predictions?

It's reasonable to think that Montana should be the favorites at home. No problem. But if you think you're going to score 56 points on us that's crazy.

Your Qb will be running for his life for most of the game so it's not unrealistic to think the Montana D will force two or three turnovers. That's where the additional points come from.

 

[ClarkGrizwald]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

How does the committee gift UM a seed after such a hollow accomplishment?

I thought that was interesting to look at, and UM only beat one team with a winning record, while we and MSU beat three, and Sac State beat two. In regards to the combined win percentage of teams that were beaten, not including FBS (I think all four teams had serviceable performance against the FBS this year, even though only us and UM won), for EWU, it's 42.2%, MSU is 40.4%, Sac State 36.0%, and UM 30.7%. UM definitely doesn't have a lot to hang their hat on. I think they are always a tough team for EWU, but there is nothing about them that scares me.

For comparison, if we beat UM, we'd likely move on to JMU, and they have beaten six teams with a winning record, and the combined win percentage of the teams they've played is 47.3%, and then likely to NDSU, who beat three teams with winning records with a combined win percentage of 42.9% (almost exactly like EWU).

Not sure it means a ton, but I'd say EWU is more battle tested than UM is, just hate the quick turnaround and playing on their home turf.

I’m confused. Aren’t the only teams eastern best with a winning record Montana and Davis? And msu only has eastern and 6-5 Weber? And sac — a team eastern and msu didn’t play — has just Davis and Montana?

 

[luckyintheorder]

Seems like these games are often tough games. The majority in the last decade are one score games. That being said, both teams are motivated for this game, and neither team is intimidated for the other. I think UM gets a boost from being at home and having a good season, seems a lot of people believe they are back. Their best wins are MSU and UW. UW is not the team the football world thought they were going to be, and MSU is a rivalry game where history proves anything can happen. They can hang their hats on their better performance against MSU as the indicator they are going to beat the Eags this time, but don't think it means anything. Honestly, EWU can beat anyone in the field if they play their football. My biggest concern is the conservative approach the offense has taken of late. That's not going to get it done against UM or the rest of the field. I think Friday is anyone's game, and it's going to be another classic. It will be a great game regardless of who wins. If the coaches let the offense rip, I'm taking the Eags. If it's the same offense as yesterday, I think UM will win.

I don't totally disagree. The play calling seemed suspect at times yesterday...to the extent that we ran the ball a ton to try to hang onto the lead late in the game, even when it wasn't working all that great and at the risk of not moving the ball very effectively and having to punt a few times. Any times a special teams unit touches the ball I get nervous.

I do think the weather factored into the passing game. It's a rhythm offense and we've seen that when it's not clicking it can be really problematic to get back into synch.

All that said, it's playoff football and we need to be able to grind out wins against these sort of teams that just want to lean on you and sit on the ball to burn clock. It was sort of nice seeing us do that to another team rather than it being done to us as we've seen with a few MVFC teams over the years.

It was weather that the Celts would call "dreich." Big fan of the book, "Where Troy Once Stood". Interesting theory that it was Celts, not Greeks, who fought the "Trojan War" in England over access to tin. Feasible.

Interesting game, UNI was far worse than I thought. They weren't very good at all. Glad I'm not the only one to see it. In the build up to the game I had watched two of their bigger games against playoff teams, Missouri State and S. Illinios and was generally unimpressed with their team speed. Each of those opponents were able to disrupt the QB just like Eastern did despite the oversized OL. Eastern really shined in the run defense.
...

Barriere definitely needs to play better BTW, the weather is the weather and there were just a lot of poorly executed plays for the Eagles. When EB3 gets in a hurry, his accuracy suffers. He was in a hurry for no reason early in the game and I think (speculation) it impacted the play calling later. I'd speculate further that the coaches geek him up sometimes when they see good pass rusher's on tape. The Eastern OL has played well against 4 very good DL's this season, hope EB3 feels that and stays calm early against the Griz. Eag's would benefit from a fast start, middle and ending to this game :lol:

 

[HookedonGriz]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

How does the committee gift UM a seed after such a hollow accomplishment?

I’m seriously shocked you guys are surprised the Griz got a seed:

- 9 D1 wins (vs 8 for EWU)

- the 2 losses to ranked teams (EWU lost to unranked Weber….at home)

- 5 wins in a row and a beat down of the #3 team in the country…a team who beat EWU in Cheney (vs EWU being 3-2 in last 5 with 2 losses at home)

Despite all of that, I firmly believe EWU should have been seeded 7 or 8. You guys should be mad that ETSU got a seed, not UM. Every single FCS head had UM getting a seed from 4-6 range.

 

[Seattle Eagle]

Isn't it time to get the prediction thread going? Short week.

 

[HookedonGriz]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

I think most educated Griz fans know this will be a great game. I’m guessing the winner will win by 5-8 points. Most of the talk on egriz is that it will be a battle for sure. We are glad to have you at home as we seem to be cursed on the red turf. We will all know more on Friday. Safe travels.

 

[marceagfan5]

Griz fans sure are confident after beating ONE team with a winning record all year. They beat the cats and all of a sudden the Griz fans come out of the woodwork, I guess it was graduation day this weekend, everyone in Missoula becomes a Griz grad/fan on Black Friday…

I think most educated Griz fans know this will be a great game. I’m guessing the winner will win by 5-8 points. Most of the talk on egriz is that it will be a battle for sure. We are glad to have you at home as we seem to be cursed on the red turf. We will all know more on Friday. Safe travels.

I’ve always appreciated your posts…

I completely agree that both teams should have been seeded and that this should be a great game!

 

[eaglesfootball]

Anyone heard anything on EB3’s injury? Rumor is that he rolled his ankle pretty good against UNI.

 

[rabidbscfan]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

no, because you will be eliminated on friday night...just the way it works...be cool if they do upset JMU we would get two home games..before most likely going to fargo but you never know maybe the football gods really do favor the griz and ndsu gets beat and 3 home games dang

 

[luckyintheorder]

If the Eagles struggle offensively, do they kick the FG's on 4th downs inside the 30?

Weather is supposed to be cold and clear.

 

[marceagfan5]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

no, because you will be eliminated on friday night...just the way it works...be cool if they do upset JMU we would get two home games..before most likely going to fargo but you never know maybe the football gods really do favor the griz and ndsu gets beat and 3 home games dang

It is refreshing to remember what Griz fans are like…

 

[FormerEag]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

no, because you will be eliminated on friday night...just the way it works...be cool if they do upset JMU we would get two home games..before most likely going to fargo but you never know maybe the football gods really do favor the griz and ndsu gets beat and 3 home games dang

It is refreshing to remember what Griz fans are like…

Grizzz fans are just Bison fans without any recent success...

 

[ewueagle2010]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

no, because you will be eliminated on friday night...just the way it works...be cool if they do upset JMU we would get two home games..before most likely going to fargo but you never know maybe the football gods really do favor the griz and ndsu gets beat and 3 home games dang

It is refreshing to remember what Griz fans are like…

Grizzz fans are just Bison fans without any recent success...

Worse. Griz fans have a inferiority complex like I've never seen with any fanbase.

 

[GoldenEagle]

If SELA upsets JMU would we go there?

no, because you will be eliminated on friday night...just the way it works...be cool if they do upset JMU we would get two home games..before most likely going to fargo but you never know maybe the football gods really do favor the griz and ndsu gets beat and 3 home games dang

It is refreshing to remember what Griz fans are like…

Grizzz fans are just Bison fans without any recent success...

Worse. Griz fans have a inferiority complex like I've never seen with any fanbase.

Those pansies are as soft as Brie cheese.