Eastern Washington's passing attack has gotten off to a slow start this season. Can it return to form against Montana?

Over the past few decades, Eastern Washington has built a reputation based on offenses that, if not unstoppable, were at least capable of keeping the team in nearly every football game.

The program produced a handful of CFL quarterbacks as well as a few NFL receivers. One of them, Cooper Kupp, was later named Super Bowl MVP for the Los Angeles Rams.

After the 2010 season, the Eagles won an FCS national championship behind an offense that yielded 397 yards per game, the only one won by a Big Sky team since Montana, Eastern's opponent Saturday night in Cheney, won a national title in 2001 won.

In the 14 years since, Eastern has produced some of the most productive offenses in college football, including the 2021 team that averaged 44 points and 555 yards of offense per game. That team, which finished 10-3, also posted four of the 12 highest single-game yardage totals in program history.

All of this sets the bar particularly high for every team in Eastern Washington.

But it also makes what Eastern Washington's offense has accomplished – or struggled to accomplish – through four games this season historically remarkable, as the Eagles' offense barely resembles the high-performing units of the past two decades.

Eastern is 1-3 heading into its Big Sky opener at Roos Field this weekend. In the three games since their only win, 42-27 over Monmouth (New Jersey), the Eagles' offense has failed to gain 400 yards in a single game.

The last time the Eagles failed to exceed this threshold in three consecutive games was in 2017. During those three games, the Eagles lost to Southern Utah, beat Weber State and lost to North Dakota. They finished 7-4 overall and 6-2 in Big Sky play and were eliminated from the FCS playoffs.

The Eagles have taken care of the football this season, turning the ball over just twice, and they have run the ball successfully, averaging 4.5 yards per carry, better than last season's average of 4.1.

But the passing game just didn’t keep up.

“If we can be more explosive through the air, not just in the short and mid-game, that opens a lot of doors for us,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said during Tuesday’s media release, “because I think consistently (on offense). ) We were able to run the ball for almost four games.”

The Eagles played non-conference games against one FBS opponent (Nevada, last week) and three FCS teams. They averaged 403 yards of offense per game, which is about the same as the 2010 national team average (Taiwan Jones averaged 160 yards per game).

But the 2010 team also held opponents to 378 yards per game; This year's squad has allowed a .443 average.

Eastern also hasn't thrown the ball very often this season, with 117 pass attempts and 163 rushing attempts, belying its reputation as a thrower-first program.

What Best said he wanted were more explosive plays. If the Eagles could get three or four more long runs against Montana, it would help their play-action and RPO game.

Through four games, the passing attack hasn't created many of these explosive plays, and the Eagles don't seem to have tried to throw the ball deep downfield either.

“Everyone wants to finish some balls up the field and stretch the defense vertically,” said Marc Anderson, EWU assistant head coach and passing game coordinator. “We definitely have the ability to do that. We have the players for it. We all have parts. … Those things will come if we continue to focus on defense and execution.”

One reason the Eagles don't have a deep passing game is undoubtedly the absence of senior Nolan Ulm, who has played little since the season opener, when he caught five passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.

Junior Noah Cronquist has scored touchdowns of more than 40 yards in each of the last two games. One of them came from a one-two pass from quarterback Michael Wortham, who lined up in the backfield during the play.

Starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas has attempted all but 13 of Eastern's passes this season.

He was remarkably efficient, completing 82 of 104 attempts, the best completion percentage (78.8) in the Big Sky.

But he's also averaging 203 yards per game, 72 fewer than last year.

One obvious explanation is that Visperas has shared snaps with Wortham and redshirt junior Jared Taylor, who has 139 rushing yards on 27 carries this season. His presence has made the Eagles' offense more diverse and versatile, forcing opponents to consider the different skill sets of all three quarterbacks. Wortham, for example, ran for 101 yards, threw for 44 yards and caught passes for another 47 yards.

While Anderson has expressed concerns that Visperas' rhythm could be disrupted by substitutions, he said these were overblown.

“Everyone seems to be talking about it except the quarterbacks and the guys on offense,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t seem to affect them. They don’t shy away when they make substitutions.”

Still, the Eagles face a daunting stretch of Big Sky play, with their next five opponents all listed in the FCS Stats Perform Top 25. If there's a time when the Eagles' offense looks as explosive as it has so often in the last two decades, this is it.

“Things haven't gone our way in the last few games, but that doesn't matter,” Visperas said during Tuesday's media release.

“I believe in the team, that we are a really good championship-caliber team and that we will continue no matter what.”