UNI @ EWU Game Day Thread

[EWURanger]

Not sure what to think about this matchup or how UNI got into the playoffs with a .500 record, but thinking it’s probably a tough draw even at home. They’re probably your typical Missouri Valley team we’ve played in the past, so the key to a win in this game will be to start fast and get some points on the board early to make them play from behind. Not sure how great their secondary is but I think our Qb and receivers can beat just about anyone in the FCS when they’re clicking. I also think we’ll need EB3 to extend plays more than he’s done this season. It’s playoff time - time to assume a little more risk.

I think the only common opponent is WIU, a team they beat handily but I’m not going to out too much stock into that. They also beat Sac St. early in the season. This is a game we should win but if we’re not focused it could easily turn into another Weber St. or MSU debacle since they’re basically the same type of team.

 

[luckyintheorder]

Not sure what to think about this matchup or how UNI got into the playoffs with a .500 record, but thinking it’s probably a tough draw even at home. They’re probably your typical Missouri Valley team we’ve played in the past, so the key to a win in this game will be to start fast and get some points on the board early to make them play from behind. Not sure how great their secondary is but I think our Qb and receivers can beat just about anyone in the FCS when they’re clicking. I also think we’ll need EB3 to extend plays more than he’s done this season. It’s playoff time - time to assume a little more risk.

I think the only common opponent is WIU, a team they beat handily but I’m not going to out too much stock into that. They also beat Sac St. early in the season. This is a game we should win but if we’re not focused it could easily turn into another Weber St. or MSU debacle since they’re basically the same type of team.

3 of the 4 FCS losses were to teams that made the playoff's and a loss to Illinios State. No way they should have made the dance IMO. Watched a quarter of their game against Missouri State and they looked good on offensive, strong armed QB, OK OL and some players on defense but need to watch more. Tried to go back to their game vs. Sac St but ESPN+ didn't list it.

Massey has this nearly a coin flip... https://masseyratings.com/game.php?s0=358435&oid0=5641&h=-1&s1=358435&oid1=2383

UNI Board: https://www.panthernation.com/forum/specific-sports-topic-forums/panther-football

As an aside and a tip of the hat to "it's a small world", ran into a N. Iowa fan at the store today and we chatted about the upcoming contest. She commented on the red field negatively, told me MVC is number 1, that the BigSky can't play defense and gave a resounding Go Panthers to finish with a flourish... I laughed and said we'll see how it goes, Go Eags ;-) She at least knew where Cheney was located.

 

[EagerEagle]

Sadly went and paid for my tickets for the game today. Probably won't be to many butts in the seats for this one being after the holidays/students not on campus/and price of tickets.. After fees and survey fee it was $125 for my two tickets. 40% chance of rain and Mid 40's as a high.

 

[luckyintheorder]

mcpo117
Junior Member

#12
Today, 01:06 PM
I had written the postseason off in my head, and now here I am thinking "you know, we should be able to score on EWU and we might have the best defense they've faced. and it's about time we won a game in Missoula."

I never learn.

Know the UNI faithful will catch up on the stats soon. I did go out and look and the funny thing is Eastern played three teams whose Total Defense numbers are better than UNI's already this season... Montana, MSU and Weber. The bad news for UNI is their offensive production falls in the Idaho/Montana range with scoring around 27 points a game.

Doesn't this feel like every game Eastern has had the last half of the season?

Well, it's on the Eag's that they dropped two games by 4 points and are stuck with this game after the holiday. Gotta say, I thought the play calling improved against PSU, especially in running several plays definitely designed to set up other plays. McCann was a WR coach at UNI and did OC duty for three games and into the playoff's for UNI back in 2018. Don't know how this will impact his planning, just know if Eag's continue to use motion, lead blocking and play action with this set of RB's and WR's, the offense will take care of itself in this one. Did I leave out the TE's? Sorry, them too.

 

[luckyintheorder]

Sadly went and paid for my tickets for the game today. Probably won't be to many butts in the seats for this one being after the holidays/students not on campus/and price of tickets.. After fees and survey fee it was $125 for my two tickets. 40% chance of rain and Mid 40's as a high.

My butt will be there in spirit EagerEagle. Considered going to the KSU game but it starts later than normal... Eags first.

 

[luckyintheorder]

Originally posted by Neighbor View Post
some polls has Eastern Washington as high as 4th. How did they fall out of favor and not receive a seed?
Their computer numbers are terrible, they didn't play anybody (including missing Sacramento State in the league), and giving up 56 points to Western Illinois by rule knocks you out of the seeding picture.

OK. This smacks of ignorance.

'Spirit. are they yours.' Scrooge could say no more.

'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon
them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.
This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both,
and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy,
for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the
writing be erased

 

[LDopaPDX]

UNI is a very dangerous opponent. Just look at our history against them... it ain't good. I could be mistaken, but I think this is only the second time they've come to Cheney... every other game was in the Unidome (one of the better indoor stadiums).

Every team we play that can smash the ball will have the same gameplan. It's exactly what we saw versus Portland State last week. They'll try to dominate possession and play 3 downs at a time. We've been able to keep our scores reasonable, but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs. Given the tempo offense we play, keeping our defense on the field is a double whammy. It keeps us from threatening, and it takes us out of rhythm offensively.

I realize it's unchangeable at this point, but if I had one philosophical change I could make, it would be greater focus on 3-and-outs. I couldn't care if we ever get a turnover, I just want to see three and out on 50% of possessions. But that's not who we are right now, so we may need a couple of turnovers to swing things in our favor. I expect we'll play defense with the soft zones and using just four to pressure, while occasionally bringing two extra through the gaps. Being able to disrupt the flow with just four will be key, but I think that'll be tough as UNI is pretty coherent on the line.

Defensively, I like what UNI does. They aren't nearly as big of a blitzing team as we've seen, but given our difficulty dealing with blitzes this year, maybe that'll change on Saturday. They show a lot of mixed zones with one or two high. I expect they'll be showing two high safeties except when they dial up the blitz to guard against our passing game. If so, I expect to see us utilize the flats on shorter routes... maybe a heavy dose of WR screens.

I think UNI brings about the same brand as Montana, so the game could theoretically be similar. They're not easy to score against, and they do enough on offense to make life difficult. Interestingly, UNI, Montana, and Eastern all shared Western Illinois as an opponent. UNI and Montana blew them out, while we were a defensive disaster and damn near lost.

 

[dudeitsaid]

I think it's time to take the leash off of Barriere. When he is a dual threat QB, I think he makes the entire offense more effective. It just creates another dynamic. It happened a little with PSU, but I think they've been very conservative with him, understandably in the sense that none of the back-ups are going to step in and produce at even close to his rate. But now is the time to pull out all the stops. Best case is EWU grabs a quick lead and makes UNI play from behind. This was critical in the win with PSU, imo.

 

[EWURanger]

Best case is EWU grabs a quick lead and makes UNI play from behind. This was critical in the win with PSU, imo.

It was, but we can’t wait 2 1/2 quarters to do it in this game. In the games we’ve blown teams out in this year we got up early and made the opponent play at our pace…that includes WIU, who should have never been in that game as early as the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

Agreed on EB3 - he needs to make the defense account for him because that creates that extra dynamic that most FCS teams can’t stop.

UNI is good, despite their record. I don’t think they’re better than UM or MSU who we played tight games with. Frankly, I don’t think they’re better than Weber State, either.

Dictate the tempo with our offense, get a few stops on defense, and we’ll be just fine.

 

[luckyintheorder]

UNI is a very dangerous opponent. Just look at our history against them... it ain't good. I could be mistaken, but I think this is only the second time they've come to Cheney... every other game was in the Unidome (one of the better indoor stadiums).

Every team we play that can smash the ball will have the same gameplan. It's exactly what we saw versus Portland State last week. They'll try to dominate possession and play 3 downs at a time. We've been able to keep our scores reasonable, but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs. Given the tempo offense we play, keeping our defense on the field is a double whammy. It keeps us from threatening, and it takes us out of rhythm offensively.

I realize it's unchangeable at this point, but if I had one philosophical change I could make, it would be greater focus on 3-and-outs. I couldn't care if we ever get a turnover, I just want to see three and out on 50% of possessions. But that's not who we are right now, so we may need a couple of turnovers to swing things in our favor. I expect we'll play defense with the soft zones and using just four to pressure, while occasionally bringing two extra through the gaps. Being able to disrupt the flow with just four will be key, but I think that'll be tough as UNI is pretty coherent on the line.

Defensively, I like what UNI does. They aren't nearly as big of a blitzing team as we've seen, but given our difficulty dealing with blitzes this year, maybe that'll change on Saturday. They show a lot of mixed zones with one or two high. I expect they'll be showing two high safeties except when they dial up the blitz to guard against our passing game. If so, I expect to see us utilize the flats on shorter routes... maybe a heavy dose of WR screens.

I think UNI brings about the same brand as Montana, so the game could theoretically be similar. They're not easy to score against, and they do enough on offense to make life difficult. Interestingly, UNI, Montana, and Eastern all shared Western Illinois as an opponent. UNI and Montana blew them out, while we were a defensive disaster and damn near lost.

but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs.

Eastern is 24th ranked in 3rd down defense while UNI is 92nd in 3rd down conversions offensively Dopa. Nearly every team we faced is significantly better than that. Not sure what stats you're looking at because your assertion just isn't true. I can't see into the mind of the DC and always wonder why the team reverts back occasionally to poor schemes that have proven ineffective aka PSU last week. Coaches are just stubborn and stick to beliefs regardless of outcomes, like most people do. It's just under a microscope on the gridiron. Believe I've written nearly a book over the past 10+ years on poor scheme, lack of situational awareness, awful personnel choices etc. and would say that this is the first season since the Natty, Eastern is playing smart a majority of the time and several players have improved as well. Without pounding on Ena, will say he's embraced some new concepts that have made the defense better and hope he gets out of his own way this coming week. Every defense wants to get off the field 3 and out. ;-)

Don't think the Eagles have struggled with blitzes and are ranked 48th in sacks allowed (some of this is on EB3 not throwing it away and or seeing the field), Eag's played three teams that had WAY above average DB coverage and aggressive front 7's. The OL is middle of the pack with what seems like constant moves of position and several freshman playing lots of minutes. All in all they've done well though and thought they played better the last two games (maybe I'm wearing rose colored glasses) and Shoemaker's default mode was no outlet, 15+ yard routes after creating long 3rd downs when things got tight IMO. Not a recipe for success.

If it makes you feel any better Eastern is nearly twice as good at getting stops in the red zone as UNI. Ranked 46th vs 96th. Not everything is stats or there'd be no reason to play the games.

 

[eaglesfootball]

Not a team you can allow to stick around. The offense needs to light them up early in the game.

 

[clawman1]

This is from Panther Nation web site;
"Their interim OC is former UNI receivers coach Pat McCann. He was at UNI in 2017-18. He coached Weston and McShane, as well as Daurice Fountain. In 2018, when UNI OC John Bond missed three games, McCann was UNI’s interim OC against MoState (W, 37-0), Lamar (W, 16-13 in the first round of the playoffs) and UC Davis (L, second round)."
https://www.panthernation.com/forum/specific-sports-topic-forums/panther-football/713385-game-12-eastern-washington

 

[luckyintheorder]

This is from Panther Nation web site;
"Their interim OC is former UNI receivers coach Pat McCann. He was at UNI in 2017-18. He coached Weston and McShane, as well as Daurice Fountain. In 2018, when UNI OC John Bond missed three games, McCann was UNI’s interim OC against MoState (W, 37-0), Lamar (W, 16-13 in the first round of the playoffs) and UC Davis (L, second round)."
https://www.panthernation.com/forum/specific-sports-topic-forums/panther-football/713385-game-12-eastern-washington

It's in his bio too... No super negative comments from the Panther faithful so far.

Formerly from Olympia, Wash., McCann came to EWU from Northern Iowa where he was wide receivers coach in 2017 and 2018. McCann, a 2009 graduate of Western Washington University, spent four previous seasons at EWU’s fellow Big Sky Conference member UC Davis.

Interestingly, McCann faced his former team (UCD) in 2018 while he was coaching UNI – with a twist. A family matter sidelined Panthers offensive coordinator John Bond at the end of the season, and McCann filled in. He debut calling plays came in a 37-0 win over Missouri State, then UNI edged Lamar 16-13 in the first round of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs.

However, the Panthers lost 23-16 to the UC Davis Aggies, who would go on to lose to Eastern 34-29 in the quarterfinals. Northern Iowa finished 7-6 in 2018 and were 8-5 in 2017.

https://goeags.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/pat-mccann/401

 

[luckyintheorder]

Northern Iowa vs. Eastern Washington Roos Field Cheney, WA This one won't be close as the Eags sleep off the big Turkey day and come out swinging Saturday. This is the PRIME TIME game of Week 1

Watched UNI @ Missouri State last night and liked both teams. Whoever plays Missouri State will have a handful of trouble. They've got some speed and the QB transfer from Utah a couple of years ago.

UNI has an OL that averages 6'6" and over 320lbs and couple of RB transfers from FBS schools (one is injured, status unknown for Saturday) an All American receiver and a decent defense with several DB transfers from other schools. Farley is a solid, if unspectacular coach per the Panther fans and I recall they have commented on this in past contests.

UNI features a QB with a biggish arm but he has a very long motion, ala the Maine QB. OL is solid and I liked how they ran their offense. Motion, misdirection, counters, lead blockers, slants and stretching the field periodically. They do turn the ball over and the QB isn't talented enough to consistently hurt a good Eastern defensive backfield. Despite the good OL play expect Johnson, Jerome and company to put some pressure on the QB, especially off the right side and blitzes can get home. Definitely have to maintain the edge and upfront line stunts will likely be ineffective (of course, I think they aren't effective most of the time for a multitude of reasons)

If Eastern plays hat on hat with the DL and OL everything else will take care of itself. Would like to see EB3 stretch the field with some deep throws and use his legs to extend drives and generally put the defense on their heels. I think McCann has the running game doing a better job of setting up the passing game and the OL has blocked better in the second half of the last two contests. Tight formations play to UNI's strengths and not sure that screens will be super effective. Misdirection will be rewarded and can see TE's sneaking out the backside of plays being wide open.

Wish I could trust Ena to just believe in his players and let them play. Eag's are more effective in man than zone but moving the safety around in the middle of field could pay off with some TO's and stops. Aside from Sendelbach and Graham, Lindsay and Warren are going to have to step up their game and make sure the edges are maintained. Lindsay has improved a lot this season.

My recipe for success on defense is maintaining the line of scrimmage and taking advantage of long down and distance situations with pressure and letting the offense attack by stretching the field sideline to sideline (formation) and vertically. UNI will move the ball and play solid defense but struggles in the RedZone. If special teams gives up big plays, this one will be closer than it should be.

Is Best better when he is mad a hornet? Seemed like it earlier in the season but I'm not sure he was able to maintain that mode. Someone closer to the program will have to chime in. Eag's need the best out of the coaches and themselves this week. Know they will get back up this week after the committee worked to knock them down. I hate committee's.

I like the Eagles 45 UNI 25

 

[luckyintheorder]

Northern Iowa vs. Eastern Washington Roos Field Cheney, WA This one won't be close as the Eags sleep off the big Turkey day and come out swinging Saturday. This is the PRIME TIME game of Week 1

Watched UNI @ Missouri State last night and liked both teams. Whoever plays Missouri State will have a handful of trouble. They've got some speed and the QB transfer from Utah a couple of years ago.

UNI has an OL that averages 6'6" and over 320lbs and couple of RB transfers from FBS schools (one is injured, status unknown for Saturday) an All American receiver and a decent defense with several DB transfers from other schools. Farley is a solid, if unspectacular coach per the Panther fans and I recall they have commented on this in past contests.

UNI features a QB with a biggish arm but he has a very long motion, ala the Maine QB. OL is solid and I liked how they ran their offense. Motion, misdirection, counters, lead blockers, slants and stretching the field periodically. They do turn the ball over and the QB isn't talented enough to consistently hurt a good Eastern defensive backfield. Despite the good OL play expect Johnson, Jerome and company to put some pressure on the QB, especially off the right side and blitzes can get home. Definitely have to maintain the edge and upfront line stunts will likely be ineffective (of course, I think they aren't effective most of the time for a multitude of reasons)

If Eastern plays hat on hat with the DL and OL everything else will take care of itself. Would like to see EB3 stretch the field with some deep throws and use his legs to extend drives and generally put the defense on their heels. I think McCann has the running game doing a better job of setting up the passing game and the OL has blocked better in the second half of the last two contests. Tight formations play to UNI's strengths and not sure that screens will be super effective. Misdirection will be rewarded and can see TE's sneaking out the backside of plays being wide open.

Wish I could trust Ena to just believe in his players and let them play. Eag's are more effective in man than zone but moving the safety around in the middle of field could pay off with some TO's and stops. Aside from Sendelbach and Graham, Lindsay and Warren are going to have to step up their game and make sure the edges are maintained. Lindsay has improved a lot this season.

My recipe for success on defense is maintaining the line of scrimmage and taking advantage of long down and distance situations with pressure and letting the offense attack by stretching the field sideline to sideline (formation) and vertically. UNI will move the ball and play solid defense but struggles in the RedZone. If special teams gives up big plays, this one will be closer than it should be.

Is Best better when he is mad as a hornet? Seemed like it earlier in the season but I'm not sure he was able to maintain that mode. Someone closer to the program will have to chime in. Eag's need the best out of the coaches and themselves this week. Know they will get back up this week after the committee worked to knock them down. I hate committee's.

I like the Eagles 45 UNI 25

 

[luckyintheorder]

I never get tired of watching EB3 play... about 40 sec mark on this highlight 60 yard pass going to his left. Can we please take the top of UNI this week? Pretty please?

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9KRrCtmek[/media]

 

[LDopaPDX]

UNI is a very dangerous opponent. Just look at our history against them... it ain't good. I could be mistaken, but I think this is only the second time they've come to Cheney... every other game was in the Unidome (one of the better indoor stadiums).

Every team we play that can smash the ball will have the same gameplan. It's exactly what we saw versus Portland State last week. They'll try to dominate possession and play 3 downs at a time. We've been able to keep our scores reasonable, but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs. Given the tempo offense we play, keeping our defense on the field is a double whammy. It keeps us from threatening, and it takes us out of rhythm offensively.

I realize it's unchangeable at this point, but if I had one philosophical change I could make, it would be greater focus on 3-and-outs. I couldn't care if we ever get a turnover, I just want to see three and out on 50% of possessions. But that's not who we are right now, so we may need a couple of turnovers to swing things in our favor. I expect we'll play defense with the soft zones and using just four to pressure, while occasionally bringing two extra through the gaps. Being able to disrupt the flow with just four will be key, but I think that'll be tough as UNI is pretty coherent on the line.

Defensively, I like what UNI does. They aren't nearly as big of a blitzing team as we've seen, but given our difficulty dealing with blitzes this year, maybe that'll change on Saturday. They show a lot of mixed zones with one or two high. I expect they'll be showing two high safeties except when they dial up the blitz to guard against our passing game. If so, I expect to see us utilize the flats on shorter routes... maybe a heavy dose of WR screens.

I think UNI brings about the same brand as Montana, so the game could theoretically be similar. They're not easy to score against, and they do enough on offense to make life difficult. Interestingly, UNI, Montana, and Eastern all shared Western Illinois as an opponent. UNI and Montana blew them out, while we were a defensive disaster and damn near lost.

but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs.

Eastern is 24th ranked in 3rd down defense while UNI is 92nd in 3rd down conversions offensively Dopa. Nearly every team we faced is significantly better than that. Not sure what stats you're looking at because your assertion just isn't true. I can't see into the mind of the DC and always wonder why the team reverts back occasionally to poor schemes that have proven ineffective aka PSU last week. Coaches are just stubborn and stick to beliefs regardless of outcomes, like most people do. It's just under a microscope on the gridiron. Believe I've written nearly a book over the past 10+ years on poor scheme, lack of situational awareness, awful personnel choices etc. and would say that this is the first season since the Natty, Eastern is playing smart a majority of the time and several players have improved as well. Without pounding on Ena, will say he's embraced some new concepts that have made the defense better and hope he gets out of his own way this coming week. Every defense wants to get off the field 3 and out. ;-)

Don't think the Eagles have struggled with blitzes and are ranked 48th in sacks allowed (some of this is on EB3 not throwing it away and or seeing the field), Eag's played three teams that had WAY above average DB coverage and aggressive front 7's. The OL is middle of the pack with what seems like constant moves of position and several freshman playing lots of minutes. All in all they've done well though and thought they played better the last two games (maybe I'm wearing rose colored glasses) and Shoemaker's default mode was no outlet, 15+ yard routes after creating long 3rd downs when things got tight IMO. Not a recipe for success.

If it makes you feel any better Eastern is nearly twice as good at getting stops in the red zone as UNI. Ranked 46th vs 96th. Not everything is stats or there'd be no reason to play the games.

I’ll take your word on the third down stats, but what I’m mostly referring to isn’t so much third downs but the fact we don’t get off the field in general. We are third from last in the conference in time of possession and total number of defensive plays. I tried to find a stat on first downs conceded, but wasn’t able to. My hunch is that wouldn’t paint a rosy picture either. We saw the gameplan Portland State used, and it wasn’t a whole lot different than Montana State or Weber State. They tried to get first down after first down, knowing it keeps our offense on the sideline and gets them out of rhythm.

If UNI is able to control the ball like that, it makes every offensive possession all that much more critical. Even if we don’t score, we need to possess the ball enough to build some rhythm and keep the D from getting drained.

 

[luckyintheorder]

UNI is a very dangerous opponent. Just look at our history against them... it ain't good. I could be mistaken, but I think this is only the second time they've come to Cheney... every other game was in the Unidome (one of the better indoor stadiums).

Every team we play that can smash the ball will have the same gameplan. It's exactly what we saw versus Portland State last week. They'll try to dominate possession and play 3 downs at a time. We've been able to keep our scores reasonable, but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs. Given the tempo offense we play, keeping our defense on the field is a double whammy. It keeps us from threatening, and it takes us out of rhythm offensively.

I realize it's unchangeable at this point, but if I had one philosophical change I could make, it would be greater focus on 3-and-outs. I couldn't care if we ever get a turnover, I just want to see three and out on 50% of possessions. But that's not who we are right now, so we may need a couple of turnovers to swing things in our favor. I expect we'll play defense with the soft zones and using just four to pressure, while occasionally bringing two extra through the gaps. Being able to disrupt the flow with just four will be key, but I think that'll be tough as UNI is pretty coherent on the line.

Defensively, I like what UNI does. They aren't nearly as big of a blitzing team as we've seen, but given our difficulty dealing with blitzes this year, maybe that'll change on Saturday. They show a lot of mixed zones with one or two high. I expect they'll be showing two high safeties except when they dial up the blitz to guard against our passing game. If so, I expect to see us utilize the flats on shorter routes... maybe a heavy dose of WR screens.

I think UNI brings about the same brand as Montana, so the game could theoretically be similar. They're not easy to score against, and they do enough on offense to make life difficult. Interestingly, UNI, Montana, and Eastern all shared Western Illinois as an opponent. UNI and Montana blew them out, while we were a defensive disaster and damn near lost.

but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs.

Eastern is 24th ranked in 3rd down defense while UNI is 92nd in 3rd down conversions offensively Dopa. Nearly every team we faced is significantly better than that. Not sure what stats you're looking at because your assertion just isn't true. I can't see into the mind of the DC and always wonder why the team reverts back occasionally to poor schemes that have proven ineffective aka PSU last week. Coaches are just stubborn and stick to beliefs regardless of outcomes, like most people do. It's just under a microscope on the gridiron. Believe I've written nearly a book over the past 10+ years on poor scheme, lack of situational awareness, awful personnel choices etc. and would say that this is the first season since the Natty, Eastern is playing smart a majority of the time and several players have improved as well. Without pounding on Ena, will say he's embraced some new concepts that have made the defense better and hope he gets out of his own way this coming week. Every defense wants to get off the field 3 and out. ;-)

Don't think the Eagles have struggled with blitzes and are ranked 48th in sacks allowed (some of this is on EB3 not throwing it away and or seeing the field), Eag's played three teams that had WAY above average DB coverage and aggressive front 7's. The OL is middle of the pack with what seems like constant moves of position and several freshman playing lots of minutes. All in all they've done well though and thought they played better the last two games (maybe I'm wearing rose colored glasses) and Shoemaker's default mode was no outlet, 15+ yard routes after creating long 3rd downs when things got tight IMO. Not a recipe for success.

If it makes you feel any better Eastern is nearly twice as good at getting stops in the red zone as UNI. Ranked 46th vs 96th. Not everything is stats or there'd be no reason to play the games.

I’ll take your word on the third down stats, but what I’m mostly referring to isn’t so much third downs but the fact we don’t get off the field in general. We are third from last in the conference in time of possession and total number of defensive plays. I tried to find a stat on first downs conceded, but wasn’t able to. My hunch is that wouldn’t paint a rosy picture either. We saw the gameplan Portland State used, and it wasn’t a whole lot different than Montana State or Weber State. They tried to get first down after first down, knowing it keeps our offense on the sideline and gets them out of rhythm.

If UNI is able to control the ball like that, it makes every offensive possession all that much more critical. Even if we don’t score, we need to possess the ball enough to build some rhythm and keep the D from getting drained.

No one would disagree that if UNI can maintain control of the ball/clock that winning would become more difficult, especially if they are paying off that control with TD's. A good basis for reality is here: https://goeags.com/sports/football/schedule click on the box score for a game and drive summary. IMO the defense has done their jobs this season, even in the two losses. Breakdowns on the offense and special teams were far more egregious. 5 three and outs against Weber in the 2nd half and a missed PAT not to mention the 3 fake punts hno:

Eagle D got Weber off the field 6 times in 3 downs... MSU 4 times... Griz 6 times... WIU 7 times... What's key here is how often was the Eagle offense taken off the field. At WIU 4 times 3 and out in the second half, is that a defensive issue or an offensive issue?

What happened at PSU was a coaching issue in the first half. In the second half, 5 quick outs, 2 fumbles, 2 outs on 4th down and a punt. It wasn't a perfect affair on the offensive side of the ball either. Two late punts and running EB3 towards the end of the game was asinine.

 

[LDopaPDX]

UNI is a very dangerous opponent. Just look at our history against them... it ain't good. I could be mistaken, but I think this is only the second time they've come to Cheney... every other game was in the Unidome (one of the better indoor stadiums).

Every team we play that can smash the ball will have the same gameplan. It's exactly what we saw versus Portland State last week. They'll try to dominate possession and play 3 downs at a time. We've been able to keep our scores reasonable, but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs. Given the tempo offense we play, keeping our defense on the field is a double whammy. It keeps us from threatening, and it takes us out of rhythm offensively.

I realize it's unchangeable at this point, but if I had one philosophical change I could make, it would be greater focus on 3-and-outs. I couldn't care if we ever get a turnover, I just want to see three and out on 50% of possessions. But that's not who we are right now, so we may need a couple of turnovers to swing things in our favor. I expect we'll play defense with the soft zones and using just four to pressure, while occasionally bringing two extra through the gaps. Being able to disrupt the flow with just four will be key, but I think that'll be tough as UNI is pretty coherent on the line.

Defensively, I like what UNI does. They aren't nearly as big of a blitzing team as we've seen, but given our difficulty dealing with blitzes this year, maybe that'll change on Saturday. They show a lot of mixed zones with one or two high. I expect they'll be showing two high safeties except when they dial up the blitz to guard against our passing game. If so, I expect to see us utilize the flats on shorter routes... maybe a heavy dose of WR screens.

I think UNI brings about the same brand as Montana, so the game could theoretically be similar. They're not easy to score against, and they do enough on offense to make life difficult. Interestingly, UNI, Montana, and Eastern all shared Western Illinois as an opponent. UNI and Montana blew them out, while we were a defensive disaster and damn near lost.

but our defense has struggled a ton to get off the field without allowing multiple first downs.

Eastern is 24th ranked in 3rd down defense while UNI is 92nd in 3rd down conversions offensively Dopa. Nearly every team we faced is significantly better than that. Not sure what stats you're looking at because your assertion just isn't true. I can't see into the mind of the DC and always wonder why the team reverts back occasionally to poor schemes that have proven ineffective aka PSU last week. Coaches are just stubborn and stick to beliefs regardless of outcomes, like most people do. It's just under a microscope on the gridiron. Believe I've written nearly a book over the past 10+ years on poor scheme, lack of situational awareness, awful personnel choices etc. and would say that this is the first season since the Natty, Eastern is playing smart a majority of the time and several players have improved as well. Without pounding on Ena, will say he's embraced some new concepts that have made the defense better and hope he gets out of his own way this coming week. Every defense wants to get off the field 3 and out. ;-)

Don't think the Eagles have struggled with blitzes and are ranked 48th in sacks allowed (some of this is on EB3 not throwing it away and or seeing the field), Eag's played three teams that had WAY above average DB coverage and aggressive front 7's. The OL is middle of the pack with what seems like constant moves of position and several freshman playing lots of minutes. All in all they've done well though and thought they played better the last two games (maybe I'm wearing rose colored glasses) and Shoemaker's default mode was no outlet, 15+ yard routes after creating long 3rd downs when things got tight IMO. Not a recipe for success.

If it makes you feel any better Eastern is nearly twice as good at getting stops in the red zone as UNI. Ranked 46th vs 96th. Not everything is stats or there'd be no reason to play the games.

I’ll take your word on the third down stats, but what I’m mostly referring to isn’t so much third downs but the fact we don’t get off the field in general. We are third from last in the conference in time of possession and total number of defensive plays. I tried to find a stat on first downs conceded, but wasn’t able to. My hunch is that wouldn’t paint a rosy picture either. We saw the gameplan Portland State used, and it wasn’t a whole lot different than Montana State or Weber State. They tried to get first down after first down, knowing it keeps our offense on the sideline and gets them out of rhythm.

If UNI is able to control the ball like that, it makes every offensive possession all that much more critical. Even if we don’t score, we need to possess the ball enough to build some rhythm and keep the D from getting drained.

No one would disagree that if UNI can maintain control of the ball/clock that winning would become more difficult, especially if they are paying off that control with TD's. A good basis for reality is here: https://goeags.com/sports/football/schedule click on the box score for a game and drive summary. IMO the defense has done their jobs this season, even in the two losses. Breakdowns on the offense and special teams were far more egregious. 5 three and outs against Weber in the 2nd half and a missed PAT not to mention the 3 fake punts hno:

Eagle D got Weber off the field 6 times in 3 downs... MSU 4 times... Griz 6 times... WIU 7 times... What's key here is how often was the Eagle offense taken off the field. At WIU 4 times 3 and out in the second half, is that a defensive issue or an offensive issue?

What happened at PSU was a coaching issue in the first half. In the second half, 5 quick outs, 2 fumbles, 2 outs on 4th down and a punt. It wasn't a perfect affair on the offensive side of the ball either. Two late punts and running EB3 towards the end of the game was asinine.

I hear you, but in regards to the Western Illinois game specifically, that is 100% a defensive issue. We scored 62 points. We gave 56. That's 100% on the defense, and should be a big pat on the back for the offense.

With Weber, Montana, and Montana State... all of those teams are built around their defense. They are hard to score on. Only FBS top 20 Utah (40) and James Madison scored more on Weber than we did. Only Montana scored more on Montana State than we did. No one scored more on the Griz than we did. The offense has had it's struggles, but it's a light year comparatively better than the defense.

I think our perpetually good offenses give me a different reality. We score a lot offensively, and when we don't, the assumption is we just stunk it up. We give up a lot of points, so even when we only give up a marginal amount of points, it's treated like we played lights out. The defense has also played well at times, but it is a fairly ordinary FCS defense while the offense is closer to extraordinary.

 

[dudeitsaid]

I never get tired of watching EB3 play... about 40 sec mark on this highlight 60 yard pass going to his left. Can we please take the top of UNI this week? Pretty please?

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9KRrCtmek[/media]

Let Barriere create with his legs...and that dynamic will make the offense unstoppable. Really wish we could've seen that more this season, but now that it's the "second season," it's time. It will open things up for every other part of the offense, and we need something extra to negate the special teams liabilities.