CHENEY, Wash. — Following Saturday's blowout victory over Cal Poly, the Eastern Washington football team has an opportunity to improve to .500, but they have a Herculean task ahead of them in a trip to Bozeman to face No. 5 Montana State.
"They play great defense, great offense and great special teams. They are a well rounded team. They also play really well at home, especially in their last 25 games in Bozeman, which are unblemished. They do a lot of things very well as a team and have a number of players who can do magical things with the ball in their hands," EWU head coach Aaron Best said.
The Eags have struggled mightily at defending the run in several games this season. Saturday they face the second best rushing attack in the entire nation.
"This week we are going to emphasize being physical. They think they are going to run all over us based off of our performance a couple of weeks ago, but I feel like it is going to be a good game and a fight and our plan is to out-physical Montana State," EWU senior defensive end Da'Marcus Johnson said.
"We have to make them earn yards by playing with great discipline and try and get more than one hat to the ballcarrier on every rush," Best said.
Eastern has played tough against stiff competition this season. The Eags fell in one score games to No. 4 Idaho and Fresno State in overtime earlier in the year.
Players are looking forward to the possibility of shocking the FCS world and upsetting the Bobcats on the road to give EWU a chance at its first winning season since 2021.
"That would be huge for us, honestly. We know they are a ranked team, so to be able to go into their house and beat them would be huge for us," EWU redshirt sophomore running back Tuna Altahir said.
"We know what is at stake and we know what we want to do this year, so I feel like that is plenty of motivation to go into practice this week and continue to get better and try and dominate this team this weekend," Johnson said.
Several things need to go Eastern's way if they are going to pull off one of the biggest stunners of the college football world this season.
"It's an eye discipline piece, it's a physicality piece, it is a little bit of opportunity and it is even a little bit of a luck piece to give ourselves a chance," Best said.
All of that being said, Eastern has one of the top offenses in the Big Sky and Montana State may get caught looking ahead to a gargantuan matchup with Montana the following week.
"It's going to be tough. They are playing for a seed and they are playing at home. They do have their big game next, so maybe they happen to overlook us for some reason. I don't think Coach Vigen will allow that to happen, but we will give it our best shot," Best said.
The Eags and Bobcats will kick it off at noon on Saturday in Bozeman.
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