Things to watch: Can Eric Barriere improvise and lead Eastern Washington past Montana State’s tenacious defense?

For the third time this season, the Eastern Washington Eagles host a top-tier defense at Roos Field. That team Saturday is the Montana State Bobcats, whose only loss (19-16) came in the opener against Wyoming. Since then, the fourth-ranked Bobcats (7-1, 5-0 Big Sky) have allowed just 64 points in seven games. The fifth-ranked Eagles (7-1, 4-1), in contrast, have scored 412 points over that span. Both teams are coming off a bye week and should be as healthy as a football team can be at this point in the season.

Here are three parts of the game to watch once the game kicks off at 1 p.m. Saturday.

1. Can ‘scripted’ Eric Barriere beat the Bobcats’ defense? Montana State coach Brent Vigen talked this week about the Eastern Washington quarterback’s ability to hurt defense both with “scripted” plays – as called – and the “unscripted” by scrambling and improvising with his arms and his legs. “What we’ve got to do is understand he’s probably going to make a few plays here and there, but can we make him uncomfortable?” Vigen said Monday. “What can we do to contain him?” In the Eagles’ lone loss, Barriere ran for more yards than he did in all of the Eagles’ seven wins combined. In those wins, he was mostly able to pick apart defenses and rack up hundreds of yards, seemingly with ease. It seems, then, that the Eagles’ offense works much better and more consistently when Barriere is finding open receivers rather than running out of the pocket.

2. Will the Eagles play a more balanced game in all three phases? Against Weber State, the Eastern offense had six three-and-outs and nine drives that lasted, at most, 2 minutes and 5 seconds (including one touchdown drive). That gave Eastern’s defense a number of short rests between series and contributed – along with the Wildcats’ three successful fake punts – to Weber State’s 10-minute advantage in time of possession. The Eagles don’t necessarily need to sustain a bunch of long scoring drives, but their defense could certainly use a few more drives in which Eastern’s offense gets at least a first down or two. Admittedly, the bar at Eastern is high as far as offensive production, and coach Aaron Best said as much on Wednesday: “If we don’t play good football for two series here, everybody wants to know why. That’s a good conversation to have, but we’re about the only team in the land that has that conversation because the expectation is 700 yards, seven touchdowns.” But it also can’t let Montana State – an efficient offensive team – run 95 plays, as Weber State did two weeks ago in a 35-34 win over Eastern.

3. How well can Eastern Washington’s defense contain Isaiah Ifanse? Ifanse, Montana State’s junior running back, leads the Big Sky in rushing and six 100-yard rushing games this year. He’s done that largely because the Bobcats are 7-1 and their defense has been dominant. But there are two main ways the Eagles could force the Bobcats to turn to their passing game: either by getting out to early double-digit leads, as they’ve done in so many games this year; or by shutting down Ifanse early. Junior quarterback Matt McKay has been efficient this year, completing 65% of his throws, but he only averages 194.5 yards per game (his single-game season high is 276). The other wrinkle is freshman quarterback Tommy Mellot. He has played in six games as a change-of-pace quarterback and has 16 rushes for 199 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown.