Griz in search of statement win against Eagles

WHERE TO WATCH | UM NOTES | EWU NOTES

Following Saturday's loss at Northern Arizona, the No. 16 Montana Grizzlies are seeking a bounce-back victory.

If there were ever an opportunity to get that bounce-back win and make a statement heard 'round FCS football, it would be Satruday against the No. 3 Eastern Washington Eagles.

The marquee matchup features two of the best offenses in FCS football, with the Eagles perched atop the rankings in passing offense (445.6). Montana is right there, however, with the No. 4 passing offense in the nation, producing 348.7 yards-per-game in the air.

With the two best offenses in the Big Sky comes the two best quarterbacks in Gage Gubrud and Brady Gustafson, with Gubrud averaging 412.3 passing yards-per-game and "Gus" averaging 313.6.

THE GAME: The Griz (5-2, 2-2 BSC) will get just that opportunity this week as UM travels west on I-90 to Cheney, Wash. to take on the Eagles (6-1, 4-0 BSC) in a game that could define the Grizzlies' 2016 season.

A win would likely catapult the Griz back into the top-10 and put them in the driver's seat for the chance at a first-round FCS playoff bye. While playoff hopes in Missoula would still be alive with a loss at EWU, a first-round bye week would be harder to obtain from the playoff committee.

Montana enters the game off that tough loss at NAU, while the Eagles took apart the Montana State Bobcats 41-17 last week in Bozeman. The Eagles sit in a three-way tie for first in the Big Sky standings with North Dakota and Weber State, while the Griz sit in the middle of the pack at No. 6 at 2-2 in league play.

Kickoff from Roos Field (8,600) in Cheney is set for 1:30 p.m. MT.

WATCH: The Griz/Eagles game will be the Big Sky's featured game of the week on the ROOT Sports Network and DIRECTV's Audience Network. Tom Glasgow will provide the play-by-play on the broadcast, with Jason Stiles serving as the color commentator and Brad Adam on the Sidelines.

ROOT Sports is available to Charter Communications customers on channel 60 or 122 and HD channel 560. DIRECTV customers can see the game on channels 687, 688 and 687, 688(HD). DISH Network customers can see the game on channels 426 and 426(HD).

Due to the media rights agreement between ROOT Sports and the Big Sky Conference, no web stream is available for this game.

To find ROOT Sports on your cable or satellite package, visit the Where to Watch page on GoGriz.com.

LISTEN: The "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran brings you the call on the Montana Grizzlies Radio Network with longtime color commentator Greg Sundberg in the booth and Adam Painter on the sidelines. Fans can tune in worldwide to hear the audio only stream of the game at GoGriz.com.

OFFICIAL GRIZ TAILGATE: The Grizzly Scholarship Association will once again host a pregame tailgate party for Montana fans traveling over to Eastern Washington for the game.

The GSA tailgate will be held in parking lot P11 on the EWU campus and opens to the public at 10:30 a.m. PT. For a map to the tailgate, visit gogriz.com.

WEEKLY POLLS: The Grizzlies dropped six places to No. 16 in both the STATS FCS media poll and the FCS Coaches' poll after falling to Northern Arizona.

In the media poll, the Griz collected 1,582 votes and slipped behind Cal Poly as the third of four ranked Big Sky Conference teams. In the FCS coaches' poll, the 5-2 Griz picked up 272 points, and sit just five points shy of passing No. 15 Western Illinois.

Eastern Washington is the top Big Sky team in the rankings at No. 3 and received 18 first-place votes in the media poll and one first-place vote in the coaches' poll. North Dakota checks in at No. 17 in the media poll and No. 12 in the coaches' poll. Both of the Fighting Hawks rankings are the highest in program history since joining the FCS in 2008. Cal Poly checks in at No. 14 in the media poll, while the coaches' picked the Mustangs No. 17.

SERIES HISTORY: The Griz lead the all-time series against Eastern Washington 27-15-1. In the last decade, Montana is 6-5 over EWU, including two losses in 2014, one in the regular season, one in the playoffs.

UM leads the series 11-9 against the Eagles on the road in either Cheney or Spokane. In Missoula, the Griz lead the series 16-5-1, with the 14-14 tie occurring in 1984 at the old Dornblaser Field. In 1948, the two schools played for the first and only time at a neutral site in Great Falls, with EWU taking a 12-7 win.

Montana is 4-5 against Eagle head coach Beau Baldwin (since 2008). Montana head coach Bob Stitt is 1-0 over Eastern after blowing them out last season 58-16 in the first-ever matchup between the two coaches.

LAST MEETING: In Missoula, the No. 22 Montana Grizzlies snapped a four-game losing streak against the No. 10 Eastern Washington Eagles in empathic fashion to keep playoff hopes alive with a 57-16 home victory.

Led by a defensive performance that held the Eagles to its second lowest points total since the last time UM beat EWU in 2011 and forced seven turnovers. The game was the debut for current Eagle starting QB Gubrud, who went 7-13 passing for only 66 yards.

LAST MEETING IN CHENEY: The second time was not the charm for the unseeded 11th/12th-ranked as a second-half comeback would fall short, and the Griz would fall 37-20 to the fourth-ranked Eagles in a second-round FCS playoff game in Cheney, ending the Grizzlies season at 9-5.

The Eagles were led by quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. who passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, while senior halfback Quincy Forte rushed for 128 yards and a TD.

FIRST AND 10 WITH THE GRIZ: Montana quarterback Brady Gustafson has passed for 2,195 yards in his senior season, making this the No. 24 best season in school history with four games left to play.

At NAU, Gustafson moved up the Grizzlies' all-time passing chart to become the No. 11 best passer in UM history with 4,219 career yards. Moving up gets tough from here, however, as he needs 1,201 more yards to pass Craig Ochs' career total of 5,419 passing yards.

John Nguyen became the No. 10 best rusher in Montana history in the NAU game with 1,798 career rushing yards.

The Grizzlies currently have the top-two scorers in the Big Sky Conference, with kicker Tim Semenza leading the way with 62 points on the year from 10 field goals and 32 extra points, and running back Jeremy Calhoun close behind at 60 points off ten touchdowns. These two scoring machines have youth on their side, with Semenza being a redshirt freshman and Calhoun a sophomore.

Semenza's 10 of 11 field goal attempts (.909) ranks him as the current No. 3 best kicker in FCS football as well as being the best in the Big Sky.

Montana ranks in the FCS top-10 in seven key categories on both sides of the ball, including pass offense (7), total offense (5), scoring offense (3), third down conversion defense (2), red zone offense (4), red zone defense (3) and team tackles-for-loss (7). Conversely, Eastern Washington is ranked in the top-10 in only three of those categories – passing offense (1), total offense (2) and scoring offense (2).

In the Big Sky, the #GrizD has held opponents to just 17.1 first downs per game so far this season, the most conservative mark in the league.

The Griz are ranked No. 7 nationally in tackles-for-loss, and two big reasons for that are Josh Buss and Caleb Kidder. Buss leads the Big Sky in TFLs with 14.5 in seven games, and Kidder is ranked fifth with nine TFLs. The other three players in the top-five have each played in one more contest, meaning the Griz D is doing more with less.

Buss' career-high of 4.5 TFLs set against Sacramento State is the Big Sky's best mark so far this season.

FOUR DOWNS WITH EWU: The Eagles are 79-31 (54-14 BSC) under head coach Beau Baldwin in eight seasons at the helm. In those eight seasons, EWU has ranked in the top-10 in FCS passing offense seven times and in total offense five times.

EWU's sophomore quarterback Gage Gubrud was named this week's STATS FCS National Offensive Player of the Week after passing for a school-record 520 yards and four touchdowns against the Bobcats last Saturday. His 538 yards of total offense was the second-highest output ever for the Eagles. He also owns that school record, posting 551 yards against Washington State on Sept. 3, a 45-42 win for the Eagles.

Gubrud has also been named the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week three times so far this season, while Eagle wide receiver Cooper Kupp has won the award once.

Kupp also broke the FCS record for career receiving yards when he reached 5,417 yards in EWU's win over UC Davis, passing Elon's Terrell Hudgins 2009 record of 5,250.

IDAHO STATE TICKETS AVAILABLE: Don't miss your chance to see the Grizzlies return to the happy hunting grounds of Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Nov. 5 for a Big Sky Conference showdown against Idaho State. Tickets are still available for purchase by calling 1-888-MONTANA, by visiting GrizTix.com or by stopping by the Adams Center Box Office.

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Players Mentioned

Josh Buss

Jeremy Calhoun

Brady Gustafson

Caleb Kidder

John Nguyen

Tim Semenza

University of Montana Athletics