By Dan Thompson The Spokesman-Review
The hope for any football team after any bye is that it gets better and healthier.
The “better” is born from reflection. The “healthier” is born out of rest.
Eastern Washington, now 12 days removed from a 35-27 victory over Portland State, is hoping for some of both as they prepare to face the Idaho Vandals on Saturday in Cheney.
“I think we’ll find out in the first quarter, the first quarter and a half, how well we are up to the challenge,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said during media availability on Tuesday. “I don’t think we’ll back down, but I want us to step up. Now is the time, and no better place to do it than at home.”
With a 2-4 overall record and a 1-1 mark in Big Sky play, Eastern is still in position to go on a run over the final six games of the regular season and to remain playoff relevant. Though the Vandals remain ranked 24th in the FCS Stats Perform Top 25, they are 2-4 overall and winless in two Big Sky games (against Montana and Northern Colorado).
For both teams, this is a crucial game.
“It’s going to be a good game,” EWU redshirt junior safety Drew Carter said. “They’re hungry. We’re hungry.”
Carter is one of the Eagles players for whom the bye provided a chance to get healthier. A hand injury cost Carter one game, though he came back from that and played in both Big Sky contests. He has 34 tackles, third-most on the team.
The Eagles also hope to see the return of redshirt senior cornerback DaJean Wells, grad senior running back Malik Dotson and redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Kyle Stahlecker. Whether they are back this week is uncertain, though offensive coordinator Marc Anderson said Dotson is “hopefully close” and Stahlecker should return “this season at some point.”
Anderson said the offense spent the bye week refocusing and “getting back to some of our core stuff,” like schemes and technique.
“During the bye week you can really take a step back and say ‘we ran this more than we thought we had,’ or ‘we haven’t run this as much as we wanted to,’” Anderson said. “We can maybe use some of those things that haven’t shown up to get our guys the ball.”
Best said that redshirt senior quarterback Jared Taylor is day-to-day, with the expectation that he plays Saturday.
“I think the bye week probably helped him, but again, it’s only a week,” Best said. “I’d love it to be five weeks because then everybody would be healthy on both teams. I think we’ll see a few guys back with more reps than they’ve taken the last couple weeks.”
As for how much better the Eagles play, redshirt junior wide receiver Miles Williams suggested that would be determined by universal factors.
“We’re ready to go out there and play confidently,” Williams said Tuesday. “We just really need to execute and put up points.”
Idaho has been stout against the run this season, allowing 4.6 yards per carry, the fifth-fewest in the Big Sky. Against the pass the Vandals have been more vulnerable, allowing 8.2 yards per attempt, third-most in the league. Only Eastern (8.4) and Idaho State (8.7) have allowed more yards per pass attempt.
Idaho’s health is in question, too, specifically at quarterback. Redshirt sophomore Joshua Wood missed last week’s game due to an injury he suffered the week before at Montana. Wood has thrown for 927 yards and rushed for another 346 while accounting for 12 touchdowns.
Best said he expects Wood – whose first verbal commitment out of high school was to play for the Eagles – to play.
“We want to be at our best,” he said. “We want them at their best. Hopefully they play with all their guys, and that’s the same thing I think about us every single week.”