Grizzlies beat Eagles with consistent, disciplined ball
The more talented team didn't win on Saturday, but the best one did. The Eastern Washington Eagles came into the 2008 season with their sights set on a Big Sky Conference title and a potential deep postseason run. It's been all disappointment so far. After watching Saturday's game, it's easy to see why.
I have not followed the Eagles very closely this year so I do not want to directly criticize head coach Beau Baldwin but on Saturday Eastern played like a team that was poorly coached. Costly turnovers and poor special teams play were only the beginning.
In the second quarter, the Grizzlies moved the ball from close to their own goal line to deep in Eastern Washington territory on a drive sustained mostly by idiotic third down penalties. Other plays that stand out: the Grizzlies moving the chain on third and 10+'s using a lucky Bergquist scramble and a draw. The fact that the Griz got zero points out of what was a completely demoralizing drive speaks volumes towards whether the Griz won this game or the Eagles lost it.
Moving past the complete lack of discipline, let's look at what's killed the Griz the past couple games: the deep ball. Even a D-2 team tore up the Grizzly secondary, you'd think what was once one of the best deep ball combos in the FCS could combine for more than 56 yards. It very well could've been the coverage but I don't remember them throwing the ball downfield nearly as much as they should have.
They opened with an impressive running game and clung to that from that point forward If they rolled the opening series into an play-set featuring a wealth of stretch plays and play-action passes—a la the Indianapolis Colts—things could've gotten ugly. Even without any play action, I was still waiting for things to turn South for the Grizzlies. Eventually Boyce and Nichols would click. Eventually they'd start hucking the ball forty yards at a time. Never happened.
The more consistent, disciplined and detail-oriented team won. That's why we're still playing for a playoff berth and they've essentially resigned themselves to the roll of spoiler less than halfway through conference play.
