Sep. 26—The way the first half went for the Eastern Washington football team on Saturday — the way the Eagles let Cal Poly's turnovers go unpunished, the way their kicking units looked overmatched at the line of scrimmage and the way their running backs simply couldn't find room to run — set up the Eagles to play a second half without a margin.
And in the end, it bit them.
Eastern Washington's season was already in a tenuous spot, but it is now situated on the edge of a precipice following a 31-27 loss to Cal Poly at Roos Field in Cheney, a place in which the Mustangs had never won in 10 previous tries.
"There were enough plays on defense. I don't think there were enough plays on offense," EWU head coach Aaron Best said. "We just didn't strain hard enough on offense up front."
Best, who started his playing days at Eastern 30 years ago as a long snapper and center, bemoaned the Eagles' inability Saturday to create gaps for the team's running backs and to protect their quarterback, redshirt junior Nate Bell.
Bell still did what he could, throwing for 253 yards by completing 23 of 37 passes. He threw touchdowns to David Cabrera — the first of the redshirt sophomore's career — and to Jamai East, the second for the redshirt senior in five career games for the Eagles (1-4, 0-2 Big Sky).
But Cal Poly (3-2, 2-0) was able to bottle up Bell and the rest of the Eagles' ball carriers in the running game, which finished with 87 yards on 43 carries.
And that, Best said, comes down to the offensive line.
"You want to create more 'bite down on your mouthpiece' from the start," Best said, "not when you have to, but from the jump. You're not going to win too many ballgames averaging two yards per rush."
Defensively, aside from some explosive plays, the Eagles were able to minimize the damage done by the Mustangs' offense. After a six-play, 70-yard touchdown drive to start the game, Cal Poly turned the ball over on three of its next five drives and punted on the other two. Over that stretch, the Mustangs ran 20 plays and gained 21 yards.
But over that stretch the Eagles were only able to convert those opportunities into 13 points, despite starting two drives in Cal Poly territory. They could have made two field goals over that stretch, but redshirt senior Soren McKee hooked his first attempt from 38 yards and Cal Poly blocked his second one, which came from 46.
In between those, one of McKee's point-after attempts was blocked, too.
"I thought the lugnuts got a little loose on special teams at times," Best said, noting the positive of Jaxon Bell's 69-yard kick return in the second half. "Much like the game, there were some really good plays and some really un-good plays. And at the end of the day those un-good plays got the best of us."
Still, after all that went wrong in the first half, the Eagles took a 20-14 lead early in the third quarter on a 13-yard touchdown run by Bell, his sixth of the season.
Then, after Jaden Green's 53-yard touchdown run gave the lead back to the Mustangs, 21-20, the Eagles answered once more with a four-yard touchdown run by Kevin Allen III, a run that came four plays after Jaxon Bell's big kickoff return.
The Mustangs responded to that score with a field goal to make it 27-24, but then the Eagles' defense buckled down and forced punts on its next two drives. Each time, the Eagles' offense failed to extend its lead.
On one of those drives, Eastern chewed up 6 minutes of clock and advanced, methodically, over 13 plays, to the Cal Poly 24-yard line. But then, under pressure, as he so often was, Nate Bell threw to his left, where the football was tipped and then intercepted by Jadyn Marshall with 6 minutes and 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Mustangs trailed by three.
Two drives later, the Mustangs reached the end zone on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Grigsby Jr. to Tayvion McCoy, who got behind Jaylon Jenkins in man coverage.
"That was on me," Jenkins said. "Fundamentals. ... He ran a little seam (route) and then I turned around and didn't have my guy controlled. He threw back shoulder. Touchdown."
Best was charitable in his interpretation of the play, which gave Cal Poly a 31-27 lead with 1:03 left.
"That's a ball 9 out of 10 times Jaylon gets a hand on," Best said. "He didn't get a hand on it."
On its final drive, Eastern got as far as the Cal Poly 30-yard line, but Bell's final heave into the end zone — attempted, again, under pressure — was intercepted.
Now the Eagles will go on the road, to play UC Davis, before returning to Roos Field for three straight games.
"I feel like we're a very tight unit," Nate Bell said. "We know we'll have to watch the film, take it on the chin, and move on to Davis."
