After falling to Idaho, Eastern Washington must win out to avoid third straight losing season
MOSCOW, Idaho – The Eagles must turn the page.
No matter what happens these last four games, there will be no postseason for the Eastern Washington football team. Idaho made sure of that Saturday night at the Kibbie Dome with a 38-28 victory that propelled the 11th-ranked Vandals (6-3, 3-2 Big Sky) much closer to a playoff bid and flattened any of the Eagles’ slim chances at earning one themselves.
“You have to play really well on the road,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said. “You have to play really, really well when you’re on the road against a top-15 opponent going into a bye week. They’re going to leave everything out there.”
Eastern (2-6, 1-3) played well in pockets, Best said, but it didn’t play well enough to earn a victory when playing against a fourth ranked team in a row, a stretch that will continue Saturday at home against No. 2 Montana State.
The best the Eagles can play for now is to even their record at 6-6 to avoid another losing season. They’ve had two losing seasons in a row, with a 3-8 record in 2022 and a 4-7 finish last season.
“Our record does not define us,” EWU redshirt junior quarterback Jared Taylor said. “What defines us is what we do with our record. We can keep going, always. No one is ever going to stop. We just want to go out and win football games.”
Run game finds space
Eastern executed 63 plays on offense, its second fewest of the season. But it did so while following a script that had worked well two games ago, in a 35-28 victory over Sacramento State: Run the ball. A lot.
“We go in thinking no one can stop us,” Taylor said. “And once we get one good run play then a quick call we get another good run play, it’s like we’re in our mode and they can’t stop us. So we just kept doing it.”
Taylor had 13 of Eastern’s 45 carries and gained 61 yards on them, six fewer than redshirt junior running back Tuna Altahir had (67 yards) on his 13 carries.
But redshirt junior quarterback Kekoa Visperas also rushed nine times for 26 yards, including his team-leading sixth rushing touchdown of the season. And junior Marceese Yetts, playing in his second game of the season, ran seven times for 51 yards.
In all the Eagles ran for 215 yards, 20 more than they had been averaging coming in.
They leaned into the run particularly right before the end of the first half on a 10-play, 48-yard drive that culminated in a 44-yard Soren McKee field goal. Nine of those 10 plays were rushes, and it helped the Eagles drain the clock and force the Vandals to use all three of their timeouts.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, the rushing game wasn’t able to finish with a score on the opening drive of the second half when Eastern was 1 yard from taking a lead.
Instead, it was Idaho’s rushing game that turned around field position a couple plays later with a 72-yard run by Deshaun Buchanan. The Vandals ran for 252 yards, the fourth team to have at least that many against Eastern this season.
Chism keeps climbing
Eastern didn’t throw all that often against the Vandals, but once again senior Efton Chism III was there to take nearly half the targets (8 of 18) and continue his climb in the record books.
Chism caught seven passes – he’s had at least that many in each game this year – for 114 yards, including a seasonlong 65 -yard catch in the first half that set up a McKee 24-yard field goal in the second quarter.
It was his fourth 100-yard game of the season and the ninth of his career. He now has 302 receptions during his time at Eastern, second only to Cooper Kupp (428).
He also passed Aaron Boyce (3,30) on Eastern’s all-time receiving yards list. Chism now has 3,405 and needs another 326 to preach third-place Brandon Kaufman (3,731).
Wortham bides his time, finally scores TD
Throughout the first half, Idaho was able to avoid allowing Michael Wortham to return a kickoff, but it didn’t last through the second.
With the Eagles trailing 31-13 early in the fourth quarter, Owen Forsman was only able to kick the football to Eastern’s 5-yard line, which gave Wortham his first return opportunity of the game, and he brought it back 33 yards. That set up a 12-play, 62-yard scoring drive that helped Eastern get back within 10 points, 31-21.
After Idaho answered with a touchdown, Wortham had an answer of his own. About eight yards deep in the end zone, Wortham caught and returned the kickoff anyway. He found space on the right side of the field and broke through across the 50.
Unlike a handful of times earlier in the season, Wortham was able to juke enough to mislead the last trio of tacklers and get past them, untouched, for the touchdown.
“I knew that at some point it was gonna break one,” Wortham said, referring to the whole kick return unit. “… Those guys blocking, they wanted me to get the touchdown … they were ready to go, and they believe I can take it all the way every time.”
It was the senior’s first kickoff return touchdown in 53 tries during his two years at Eastern, and it marked the first time an EWU player had accomplished the feat since Dre’ Sonte Dorton did so on Sept. 14, 2019, against Jacksonville State.
There’s only been one other kick return touchdown in the Big Sky this season. Weber State’s Noah Kjar brought one back 95 yards for a touchdown against Montana on Oct. 5.