Eastern in must-win game versus Portland State

Eastern Washington's football team has lived on the edge this season.

However, two recent humbling losses - 52-30 two weeks ago at home to Northern Arizona and 57-16 at Montana last Saturday - have pushed the No. 18 Eagles over the cliff and they are hanging by their fingers to make the postseason.

But to illustrate just how close and competitive things have been this season, a win Saturday against the 8-2 and No. 11 ranked Portland State Vikings at Roos Field can deliver the Eagles a share of a fourth consecutive Big Sky Conference title. Game time is 2:05 p.m. on Senior Day.

Five teams enter play Saturday with a shot at the title with the possibility of a four-way tie emerging when the last down has been played.

Not even all-everything Cooper Kupp could rescue Eastern (5-2 Big Sky, 6-4 overall) last week at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Kupp had his usual gaudy receiving stats with six catches and 118 yards, including a 65-yard catch and run early that led to an Eastern field goal. With 303 career catches Kupp passed the 301 by Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley from 1981-84.

Kupp also threw his second touchdown pass of the season, this one to Kendrick Bourne that cut the Grizzly lead to 27-9 with 4 minutes, 56 seconds to play in the first half.

Minutes earlier the game suddenly swung fully in Montana's favor. Trailing 20-3 with 10 minutes to play in the half, Eastern had the ball on their own 40 when quarterback Reilly Hennessey was sacked by the Grizzlies and fumbled. Herbert Gamboa scooped it up and ran 33 yards for a touchdown.

Eastern lost the turnover battle in a big way in Missoula, giving up three interceptions, one a pick-six. If one counts fourth down conversions, as coaches do, they were –7.

But the past is the past as far as EWU head coach Beau Baldwin said in his weekly Coaches' Show on Nov. 16. "You don't want to let a team beat you twice."

There's plenty to occupy time in preparation for Portland State who saw Southern Utah miss a two-point conversion with 1:18 to play and earned a 24-23 win at home, the T-Birds first conference loss.

Wild finishes have been the norm this season in conference play. "It's probably going to go down to the wire in terms of who's in, who's out," Baldwin said. "That's why I don't want us to be focusing on that. That part's out of your control."

"If we do a good job and we go earn a win we will have seven Division I wins with an incredibly good schedule," Baldwin said. "Our focus needs to be not playing a great game but having a great week that allows you to put a great product on the field Saturday."

That comes against a Portland State team who shocked the football world in their opening week with a 24-17 win over Washington State. "They beat a WSU team that has won a ton of games in the Pac-12," Baldwin said.

PSU got to 7-1 overall before stumbling in a 35-32 loss at Northern Colorado, a team Eastern needed a field goal as time ran out to win 43-41.

But even when the Vikings have been not as good as they are this year they have given the Eagles fits in the past.

"They beat us in 2011 (43-26, the first loss on the red turf), but the three wins since then have been tough, tough to come by," Baldwin said. "It's come down to the wire for two of those three."

Eastern won 41-34 (2012) and 56-34 (2014) on the road and 42-41 at Roos in 2013 where they outscored PSU 35-20 in the second half, including 14-6 in the final 1 minute, 44 seconds to clinch a second consecutive Big Sky title.

This year's PSU team favors the run first, Baldwin said. "They have a few different running backs that have shown some great ability," led by David Jones with 928 net yards. Quarterback Alex Kuresa has 651 yards on the ground.

Kuresa has thrown for 1,728 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. "They can sting you on explosive plays passing," Baldwin said.

The PSU defense has a secondary featuring two players, Patrick Onwuasor who leads the conference with nine interceptions and Xavier Coleman, who had two last week and five this season.

Portland State reportedly was a program on life support coming into the season but has delivered the message they certainly are not dead. They offer the perfect opponent, Baldwin said, for his team that, as three-time defending conference champions, has plenty to prove.

"Coming off a couple of losses that we felt stung by to a level to where we want to get this taste out of our mouth," Baldwin said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].