Nothing much went right for Eagles in opening defeat

Rarely does everything go right during the course of a football season, but Eastern Washington didn’t expect almost everything to go wrong in the first game.

The Eagles, who entered the season with high hopes, were humbled 37-14 by Nicholls State Thursday night in Thibodaux, La.,

“It’s going to be challenging,” EWU coach Paul Wulff said. “We need to be resilient over this. No season ever goes exactly like you want.

“It surprised us all but we have to move on. We have to get that game out of our system. We have to get better. We weren’t good enough regardless of the conditions.”

Playing in heat, humidity and rain the offense struggled; playing against an option team the defense struggled.

With four turnovers, Eastern was down 30-0 at halftime. The Eagles had just 99 of their 250 total yards late in the third quarter when they trailed 37-0. The Colonels had most of their 359 yards before the fourth quarter.

“Defensively we had some assignment errors in the option game … and they had some big plays on us,” Wulff said. “The kids just didn’t follow through. Offensively we didn’t block well enough up front. Of course, our was passing game was nonexistent, with a wet ball we couldn’t throw it and/or catch it … and I’ve never heard of a team winning if you turn it over six times.”

The loss doesn’t hurt Eastern’s goal of winning the Big Sky Conference, but it does hurt the Eagles’ reputation nationally. That could make a difference when it comes time to pick a second or third team to join the league champion in the I-AA playoffs.

Nicholls State is a well-regarded I-AA program, but the Colonels were short 14 players, including several starters, who were held out while an investigation into academic fraud is conducted. That also cost the head coach and offensive coordinator their jobs a week into fall practice.

“They rallied behind their incident,” Wulff said. “They played a good game. They out-executed us without question, from hanging onto the ball to blocking and tackling. … They’re probably a little more use to the conditions. An option offense is sometimes perfect in those conditions, a muddy field, as long as you hang on to the ball.”

Wulff said Darius Washington, who rushed for 57 yards and a touchdown, and Eric Kimble, who had nine receptions for 66 yards, stood out offensively, though Kimble did have a damaging fumble on a punt return. On defense it was tackles Brandon Myers and Harrison Nikolao.

The Eagles hit the practice field today.

“We’ve got to rally our troops,” Wulff said. “We have to hang onto the football.”

Only time will tell if it is good or bad that EWU’s next foe is also an option team. The Eagles play at Air Force (0-1) Saturday afternoon.

“It’s the first time since I’ve been head coach we faced an option team. Then to do it back-to-back is different,” said Wulff. “It should definitely help out the defense going back against an option team.”