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UM-Western (NAIA) at #1 EWU Game Thread

Screamin_Eagle174

Screamin_Eagle174

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Montana-Western Bulldogs (1-0, 1-0 Frontier) at #1 Eastern Washington Eagles (1-0, 0-0 BSC)

Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014 • 6:05 p.m. PST
Roos Field (8,600) • Cheney, WA

TV: Televised live regionally by SWX
Radio: 700 ESPN (EWU)
Webcast: www.watchbigsky.com

Athletics: myUMW | GoEags.com
Twitter: @MontanaWestern | @ewuathletics
Fan Forums: Frontier Conference | EWU Redzone

Series: EWU leads 7-1*
Last Meeting: 2007 - EWU won 52-13 in Cheney, WA

In college football, you can't look back. And you can't look forward too much either.

Coming off a monumental victory, the top-ranked Eastern Washington University football team remains at home to face Montana Western on Saturday (Aug. 30) on Youth Football Day at Roos Field. Kickoff is 6:05 p.m. Pacific time versus the Bulldogs, a member of the NAIA and the Frontier Conference.

Down 21-14, Eastern out-scored No. 17 Sam Houston State 42-14 in the final 36 1/2 minutes to register a 56-35 win last Saturday in a matchup between two NCAA Football Championship Subdivision powerhouses. The "FCS Showcase" televised by ESPN.

The Bulldogs also played last week, and opened with a 38-6 league win over Montana Tech. The Bulldogs led at halftime 35-0 and out-gained the Orediggers 334-214 in total offense and won the turnover battle 4-0. A year ago, Montana Western was 4-6 with all of its games league counters.

Although a showdown with Pac-12 opponent Washington on Sept. 6 is ahead for the Eagles, they can't afford to look past this week's game. Eastern is 8-0 all-time versus Montana Western, and the Eagles have won their last five games versus lower-division foes dating back to 21-14 loss in 2006 to Central Washington.

"It's 11 college football players against 11 college football players and we are all looking to accomplish special things in a season and in every game," said Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin. "They are going to look at it no different than the way we looked at Oregon State a year ago and will look at Washington in two weeks. At the end of the day, its players fighting and scrapping, and they are there for a reason just like our players. They can football, and they looked very strong in their opening win on both sides of the ball. I don't care who you play, it's always going to be a challenge."
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http://goeags.com/sports/m-footbl/2014-15/releases/14fbAug25MontanaWestern" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Anyone know what we can expect from these guys? I don't buy into the "two levels down" thing that I read in that article. There are some really good NAIA teams that could whip up on DII teams. We should have obvious advantages in size, speed, and depth, but is it realistic to expect our defense to shut these guys out?
 
The word I hear is that a lot of our starters will be held out of this game or play very minimal snaps. I hope our coaches and players come out focused and ready to play. Our back ups are good players that should beat up on these guys pretty good if everyone is focused.
 
Rjones61 said:
There are good NAIA teams, but Montana Western isn't one of them. Western Oregon was better than this team.
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WOU is DII. SOU is NAIA and they took SAC to overtime last year .
 
The measure for a game like this is being able to dominate. We need to come out and euthanize them early, don't give them any taste of success. Lots of three-and-outs is what I most want to see.
 
Just saw on twitter that only 500 tickets are remaining and they are promoting the heck out of it. $5 tickets with promo codes.....good for them for being smart enough to drop the prices for a less than sexy game for most fans.
 
Seattle Eagle referred to this as a "two levels downs thing", but two levels down would be DIII. If we are going to play a teams that is two levels down I suggest we we play Whitworth. I think it would have more local appeal.
 
DIII vs NAIA is often thought that DIII is better than NAIA. DIII is under NCAA rules and is non-scholarship. NAIA can get very creative in getting money to athletes and don't have the same restrictions that NCAA has in regards to visits, meals, phone calls and a vast array of other enticing ways to attract an athlete. NAIA sport programs are often much stronger across the board for both men and women than DIII(and even DII in some cases).
 
Obzerver said:
DIII vs NAIA is often thought that DIII is better than NAIA. DIII is under NCAA rules and is non-scholarship. NAIA can get very creative in getting money to athletes and don't have the same restrictions that NCAA has in regards to visits, meals, phone calls and a vast array of other enticing ways to attract an athlete. NAIA sport programs are often much stronger across the board for both men and women than DIII(and even DII in some cases).
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Exactly right....NAIA and DIII are separate, but a lot feel NAIA is below DIII, which means we are literally playing a team 3 divisions down.

This game is going to be really, really ugly. Doubt many of the starters make it to half and I'm pretty sure several won't play at all....
 
I think NAIA is pretty much the same as D-2, not D-3. But C'mon, this is Dillon Montana. This will be pretty ugly early! EWU team speed and depth will run away with this game. This is a $$ game for UM-Western, which is in NO resemblance to the GRIZ. I'm from Montana and know this for a fact. The key is to treat them just like any other team and do our thing. Game over by half.
 
You put games like this on the schedule early so, ideally, you can work through your roster and get a lot of 2s and 3s game reps. I'm sure it'll be all starters on the field for a quarter, especially since the rhythm was a bit off last weekend. Hopefully, we build a big lead early and keep adding to it.

Again, with a lackluster D performance last week, it would really be helpful to get a bunch of 3 and outs and let that defensive staff build confidence.

I think Montana-Western might be a little better than some figure, but they still shouldn't be within 50 if we play well.
 
talon38 said:
I think NAIA is pretty much the same as D-2, not D-3. But C'mon, this is Dillon Montana. This will be pretty ugly early! EWU team speed and depth will run away with this game. This is a $$ game for UM-Western, which is in NO resemblance to the GRIZ. I'm from Montana and know this for a fact. The key is to treat them just like any other team and do our thing. Game over by half.
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I agree with this. I think most pundits would put DIII on the bottom rung. While it could generate more local attention, a game against Whitworth would be more lop-sided than this one's going to be.
 
DefendtheRed said:
talon38 said:
I think NAIA is pretty much the same as D-2, not D-3. But C'mon, this is Dillon Montana. This will be pretty ugly early! EWU team speed and depth will run away with this game. This is a $$ game for UM-Western, which is in NO resemblance to the GRIZ. I'm from Montana and know this for a fact. The key is to treat them just like any other team and do our thing. Game over by half.
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I agree with this. I think most pundits would put DIII on the bottom rung. While it could generate more local attention, a game against Whitworth would be more lop-sided than this one's going to be.
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This. I believe NAIA teams offer scholarships, whereas DIII schools do not. Just saw that the game's sold out, so I don't really think it matters who we play in these type of games. Agree that Whitworth would probably fare worse, though.
 
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