Eagles double down on 'leave no doubt' mantra

They certainly left little doubt.

OK, maybe just a little, in the game's opening eight minutes?

But overall - without a doubt from the second time they touched the ball on offense - Eastern Washington's 59-20 win delivered a Big Sky Conference body slam to the University of California-Davis Aggies last Saturday at Roos Field.

The result certainly sent a message. "That's a very good football team," UCD head coach Dan Hawkins told The Davis Enterprise.

And hopefully it also sent one to the rest of the Football Championship Subdivision teams - and the playoff committee.

A year ago at this time, Eastern knew they were likely a longshot for the playoffs. Finishing strong with a pair of wins for a 7-4 record, the Eagles trusted that their postseason pedigree -conference championships in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016 - SHOULD let them in the back door to the playoffs.

The committee, however, took Northern Arizona with the same 7-4 record. How'd the Lumberjacks say thanks? By getting throttled by the University of San Diego 41-10 in round-one.

What the snub did was let the Eagles get an early start with the offseason nurturing the hurt, and growing a healthy crop of hurt that they have dealt out liberally this year. So far in Big Sky play it has been Eagles 341 and opponents 125, a landslide average of outscoring opponents 42.6 – 15.6.

Eastern harvested more of that bumper crop of "leave no doubt" last Saturday. But not before spilling some of it on the way to market during the game's first two series as the Aggies led 10-0 after their first two possessions.

"The first six minutes were not what we envisioned," Eastern head coach Aaron Best said on the Nov. 12 EWU Coaches Show.

Hawkins brought his team to Cheney with a perfect 6-0 record in Big Sky play and 7-1 overall, their lone setback 30-10 to Pac-12 Stanford. Quarterback Jake Maier was one of the best in the Big Sky and his leading receiver, Keelan Doss, gave the Eagles fits a year ago.

But Saturday, Meier was 23 of 42 for 195 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions; he had given up just four to this point. Last year he was 35 for 54 and 367 yards plus a pair of scores in EWU's 41-38 win.

Doss caught just five balls for 70 yards after an 11-catch, 208-yard one touchdown game as Eastern escaped 41-38 on the road last year. But Saturday at almost every snap he was punished by Eastern's defense, led by the 10 tackles each from Ketner Kupp and Chris Ojoh.

Temperatures in the high 30-degree range, a chilling wind, plus the emotion of Senior Day all proved to be at least partial factors Best suggested.

But it was his defense that gave the Aggies' offense - which averaged 43 points per game - fits.

Particularly, Nzuzi Webster who may have provided the turning point play with his pick-six interception with less than four minutes gone in the third quarter that pushed Eastern's lead to 28-17.

Davis closed to within 21-17 with a 69-yard Tehran Thomas touchdown run with 22 seconds to play in the first half. Then, on Eastern's first possession of the second half UCD recovered an Eastern fumble off of a Terrance Grady pass reception and threatened to blunt the Eagles' momentum that built a 21-10 lead with 9:44 to play in the first half.

"It was a great feeling, the first of my career," Webster said on a post-game radio interview. "I'm just grateful to capitalize on my opportunities."

But Webster was not done. His fumble recovery with 8:41 to play either added icing to the Eagles cake, or further salted the many Cal-Davis wounds. After Ojoh stripped the ball from Namane Modise, Webster was there to recover on the Davis' 38. Three plays later Tamarick Pierce scored from the 7 to eventually make it 52-20.

Following that slow start, Eastern scored touchdowns on three of four possessions. Among those were TDs by seniors Antoine Custer and Sam McPherson - along with Pierce, a junior - who each scored twice for the Eagles, all part of a 372-yard collection of rushing yards.

"Mama told me there would be days like this, but she didn't tell me it would be today," Hawkins said. Well-spoken for a man of his pedigree who, among other gigs, once guided Boise State to four consecutive Western Athletic Conference championships from 2002–2005.

"We just couldn't find a rhythm out there, but you have to give them a lot of credit," Hawkins said. "Their defense gave us problems all afternoon and when their offense got rolling they really poured on the coals."

Or buried his Aggies six-feet under with a thick layer of leave no doubt?

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.