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Series History:
EWU leads 14-4

2009: EWU 56-30 (Sac)
2008: SAC 15-13 (Cheney)
2007: EWU 38-30 (Sac)
2006: SAC 21-20 (Cheney)

What home-field advantage?

The eighth-ranked Eastern Washington University football team hosts Sacramento State this Saturday (Oct. 23) in the 19th game of a series in which the home team has won just four times previously. Kickoff at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., is 1:05 p.m. in the 84th annual Homecoming game at EWU.

Making the task even more challenging for Eastern is that Sacramento State has one of its best teams this year -- if not the best -- since joining the Big Sky Conference in 1996. The Hornets are 3-3 this season and 2-2 in the league, and their losses -- namely three-point heartbreakers to Montana and Montana State -- are maybe even more impressive than their wins.

Now 3-3 overall and 2-2 in the league, Sac State had a bye last week and hasn't played since blasting Northern Colorado 42-7 on Sept. 9. One week earlier, the Hornets fell to Montana State 64-61 in overtime in a game in which they scored 35 points in the third quarter. That followed a narrow 28-25 road loss at Montana.

The Hornets also had a bye prior to playing the Eagles last year, but Eastern rolled up a 35-9 halftime lead and won 56-30 in Sacramento.

"I know what we're up against and it's going to be tough," said Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin, whose team has squeaked out victories in their last two outings. "There are certain things that happened in the last two weeks that we won't get away with against Sac State. It's still a matter of coming together and fixing those heading into next week. We're just trying to find a way to get to 5-1 in the league next week -- that's our goal."

Eastern's defense has been the driving force behind EWU's 5-2 record overall thus far -- its best start since winning the Big Sky Conference title in 1997 as the Eagles were the last team other than Montana to win the league title outright. Eastern's 4-1 league mark is its best five-game start since 2004. Eastern finished the 1997 regular season 10-1 overall and 7-1 in the league, and in 2004 EWU was 6-1 in the league and 8-3 in the regular season.

But they face a huge test against a Sac State team currently ranked 15th in FCS in scoring offense (33.3 per game) and 31st in total offense (382.3). Eastern has the 48th-best rushing defense at 139.7 per game and is 36th in scoring defense (27.6 points per game). Interestingly, only two of the 117 FCS schools are worse than the Eagles and Hornets in passing yards allowed per game -- Eastern is 114th (271.3) and Sac State is 115th (278.2).

Whoever has less turnovers will likely win this one. Should also be our second sell-out of the season.

You guys charging $120 EAA membership and $40 a ticket for your second sell-out???

grizfnz wrote:You guys charging $120 EAA membership and $40 a ticket for your second sell-out???

I take it you weren't one of the Griz fans smart enough to realize single game tickets went on sale, without the EAA membership prerequisite, Sept. 1st? Poor fella.

Screamin_Eagle174 wrote:

grizfnz wrote:You guys charging $120 EAA membership and $40 a ticket for your second sell-out???

I take it you weren't one of the Griz fans smart enough to realize single game tickets went on sale, without the EAA membership prerequisite, Sept. 1st? Poor fella.

Nope, you ASSumed wrong

grizfnz wrote:

Screamin_Eagle174 wrote:
I take it you weren't one of the Griz fans smart enough to realize single game tickets went on sale, without the EAA membership prerequisite, Sept. 1st? Poor fella.

Nope, you ASSumed wrong

Apology accepted.

Screamin_Eagle174 wrote:
... Interestingly, only two of the 117 FCS schools are worse than the Eagles and Hornets in passing yards allowed per game -- Eastern is 114th (271.3) and Sac State is 115th (278.2).

Duh!

They both play against Big Sky passing offenses!

This ones in the bag.................for Suck St.


Then ISU will take out the Eags......................tick tock, tick tock........

ALPHAGRIZ1 wrote:This ones in the bag.................for Suck St.


Then ISU will take out the Eags......................tick tock, tick tock........

Keep dreaming.

A vote of confidence from a Montucky fan, how tingly.

I could see Sac beating us, and maybe even PSU or SUU........but ISU....no.

EWURanger wrote:I could see Sac beating us, and maybe even PSU or SUU........but ISU....no.

BetaJizz2 has been "predicting" we lose every week since we beat her beloved team of teddy bears.

EWURanger wrote:I could see Sac beating us, and maybe even PSU or SUU........but ISU....no.

Agreed. Except for SUU. No way SUU beats EWU. Especially on that abominable turf.

45 degrees and raining in Cheney right now. Little over two hours until kickoff. Heading up to tailgate. Enjoy the game everybody.

Damn - hopefully the the rain clears before kick-off.

EWURanger wrote:Damn - hopefully the the rain clears before kick-off.

"I don't think the heavy stuff will start for at least a couple hours, sir."

Yeah, looks like it's broken for a while but there may be some more coming in later.

This rain is good news for the Hornets.

Big Sky tv video feed is up. Looks pretty wet out there, but not pouring just yet. About 23 minutes to kick-off. Go Eags!

SDHornet wrote:This rain is good news for the Hornets.

True, but probably not as big a factor as if we still played on natural grass. Sloppy conditions on real grass really favor a run-oriented offense like Sac. Hopefully this damned rain clears up some. Spokane people are such fair weather fans.

EWURanger wrote:

SDHornet wrote:This rain is good news for the Hornets.

True, but probably not as big a factor as if we still played on natural grass. Sloppy conditions on real grass really favor a run-oriented offense like Sac. Hopefully this damned rain clears up some. Spokane people are such fair weather fans.

I agree. I think that was a big reason why we won in Cheney 2 years ago. But EWU is better than Sac at passing the ball, so this weather could heavily impact the passing game the most.

Baldwin giving big props to Sac State on the pre-game show.

Right now 49 degrees and light showers @ the Inferno. How this rain doesn't put out those flames.

There looks to be about 50 people on the visitor sides and they are singing the national anthem right now. Looks like the rain chased away a lot of people. Someone was saying this game was sold out. Is that true?

Not sure. The rain surely chased a lot of people away, but that side doesn't fill up that much anywas unless we're playing someone fairly close.

EWU wins the toss, defers........to kick off shortly.

Sac returns to the 19yl.

20 yard pass gain for Sac off the bubble screen, first down.

Hilliard out to the Sac 46......Sac offense looking good so far.