CHENEY, Wash. — The road to the first victory of the 2023 season gets no easier for the Eastern Washington Eagles as they will travel to Fresno State on Saturday.
Despite a 25 point loss to North Dakota State in week one, there is plenty of optimism floating around Cheney about Saturday's performance.
"Just the belief, the attitudes, the awareness throughout the game, albeit a small sample size and we have a lot of tests in front of us. We passed the test in week one regardless of winning," head coach Aaron Best said.
"We thought we were in it to win that game. It was not the outcome that we wanted, but I like how we battled and stayed together as a team throughout the whole game," senior defensive end Brock Harrison said.
"There was not a point in that game where I thought we were being out-physicaled or outmatched. I thought we were going to win that game, regardless of what the score ended up being, I felt like we were in it," junior wide receiver Efton Chism III said.
Despite the EWU defense stifling the NDSU offense for almost two full quarters, the EWU offense managed just one touchdown.
The Eags believe an improved run game may be the key to unlocking the offense in week two.
"We need to ramp up the run game a little bit more because a better run game opens up the RPO and pass game, so that is the lean this week offensively," Best said.
"I think we need to run the ball better (this week). I think we have a great run game with Tuna Altahir, Justice Jackson, Isaiah Lewis and Malik Dotson, we need to get them the ball and have them open up the front, so we as receivers can explode more in the back," Chism said.
Fresno State is coming off of a big time win on the road at Purdue on Saturday. In a stark contrast from North Dakota State, the Bulldogs did most of their damage through the air from the arm of former EWU recruit Mikey Keene.
"(Keene) is a hell of a player and did a fine job down in West Lafayette last week leading them down the field to score a touchdown to ice the game. We want to make him pull the ball in their read offense and make him run because he did not use his legs much in that game last week. We want to make him beat us with his legs and earn those yards on the ground," Best said.
The Eags and Bulldogs will kick it off at 6:00 pm on Saturday evening. You can catch that game online at the Mountain West Conference website.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.