Quintet of rushers help keep Eastern Washington’s formidable offense balanced
With Eastern Washington ahead by a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday, Matthew Hewa Baddege jogged onto the field with the rest of the Eagles’ offense facing a 99-yard field.
By that point, the Sacramento State defense had been on the field for all but 6 minutes of the second half, and the EWU offensive tackle could sense that the Hornets were wearing down.
“Once you start running the ball a decent amount, you can tell by the demeanor of the defense,” Hewa Baddege said on Monday, two days after Eastern’s 35-28 victory that ended a four-game losing streak.
“They’ll start going slower. They’re not as fast, not as twitchy,” he said. “They’ve had enough.”
It took Eastern Washington 10 plays to drive all 99 yards for a touchdown. Not once did the Eagles face a third down; all but one play that drive was a run.
Conventional Eastern Washington offense? Perhaps not.
Effective? Most definitely.
“Extremely important,” the redshirt senior Hewa Baddege said of the victory. “It definitely boosts the morale of our team, considering that we understand what we’re capable of.
“Once we get the chains moving and we do what we’re able to do, good things will come out.”
The Eagles still have a ways to go toward reaching their goal of getting to the postseason. They are 2-4 overall and 1-1 in the Big Sky with No. 6 UC Davis – one of two Big Sky teams yet to lose a conference game – coming to Cheney for a game at 4 p.m. Saturday at Roos Field.
The Aggies (6-1, 3-0) will present the Eagles with a formidable challenge. But there is little doubt in the minds of Eastern’s players that their offense can keep up with anyone.
“Eastern is known for throwing the ball,” EWU redshirt junior tight end Jett Carpenter said during media availability Tuesday. “But now that we can throw it and run it, it makes it 10 times harder to stop us.”
Through six games, Eastern has averaged 213.3 rushing yards per game. Among Big Sky teams, that is fewer than just No. 3 Montana State, which ranks second nationally in rushing (311 yards per game), and Montana (250.4), which ran for 337 yards against the Eagles on Sept. 28.
The Eagles are doing this with five rushers, led by redshirt junior running backs Tuna Altahir, who has 408 yards and hasn’t been tackled behind the line of scrimmage, and Malik Dotson, who has 315 yards on nine fewer carries.
“They’ve gained a lot more confidence, and in the offseason they put in an immense amount of work,” Hewa Baddege said of the two running backs.
But just as important have been the contributions of quarterbacks Kekoa Visperas (188 yards), Michael Wortham (101) and Jared Taylor (288).
Taylor’s numbers look more impressive considering he didn’t play in the 35-32 overtime loss to Drake and played just one snap of the 28-24 loss at Southeastern Louisiana. Taylor was so effective against Sacramento State that he ran eight times on the Eagles’ final two drives, scoring once on a 23-yard rush to cap the 99-yard drive and rushing for the team’s final first down on the next drive to seal the game.
“He’s very different from putting a running back back there, having a guy that can go in there and throw it but also run between the tackles and run aggressively,” EWU offensive line coach Hayden Mace said Tuesday. “That can be a problem for a defense, and we see different defenses having three different call sheets for whichever quarterback is in the game.”
The emphasis on the run game – and the shuffling of quarterbacks on and off the field – seemingly hasn’t rattled Visperas, whose efficiency rating of 162.0 ranks 10th nationally.
Visperas has thrown for 11 touchdowns and just one interception, which came against Nevada.
Eastern’s offense is averaging 434.2 yards per game, 15th most in the FCS.
The challenge for the Eagles is to keep the offense rolling against a UC Davis defense that has held opponents to 3.6 yards per rush, third fewest in the Big Sky behind Montana State (3.5) and a Sacramento State team (2.9) against which Eastern just ran 54 times for 286 yards.
“When they know what you’re doing, and you know what you’re doing, and you do it better than they think you’re going to do it,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said Tuesday, “that’s very satisfying.”