How Eastern Washington is preparing to match up as big underdog at Washington

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Sep. 17—The way Jaylon Jenkins sees it, Eastern Washington is definitely going to face a skilled and talented team on Saturday in Seattle.

That the Washington Huskies (2-0) play in the Big Ten and an FBS conference, and that they are paying the Eagles a significant sum of money to line up against them? Well, those details aren't really on his mind.

"You just take the team for who they are," said Jenkins, the Eagles redshirt junior safety. "You take the players for who they are and what you see on film."

And for as much as Jenkins is looking at what the Huskies can do offensively, he also knows that the Eastern Washington defense need only look at the film of its 41-23 loss at South Dakota last week to know that it has plenty to work on before this next game kicks off at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium.

"We've got to pick up on the things we did wrong last game and make sure those are locked in," Jenkins said.

The Eagles (1-2, 0-1 Big Sky) allowed three touchdowns of more than 45 yards last week to the now 10th-ranked Coyotes (3-0) and conceded 517 total yards of offense. They also were out-possessed by nearly 12 minutes and struggled on third downs: South Dakota's offense converted on 8 of 14 such plays; Eastern did so on 5 of 14.

"I have such high expectations of our team, and we haven't hit those heights yet," EWU defensive coordinator Zach Bruce said. "I am (also) trying to get these guys to understand that (on defense), if you have a bad eight plays, what it leads to is 41 points. We're not allowed to have bad plays, because that's giving up points, and so there's an urgency to chase perfection. We're trying to chase 70 plays out of 70 plays being good enough for our team to win a game."

That's a standard immaterial of the opponent, and anyway, Eastern will be facing a Huskies offense that hasn't yet met its own expectations, either.

Washington head coach Jedd Fisch, in his Monday news conference, pointed specifically at the Huskies running game, which so far has 241 yards through two games.

"Overall, the running game needs to improve for us to be the type of offense that we want to be," Fisch said.

Fisch pointed not just to the Huskies running backs but also to their offensive line, which is starting a first-year left tackle in Kodi Greene, and second-year players John Mills and Champ Taulealea at left and right guard, respectively.

"The offensive line is different at multiple positions, so we need to settle in as a group," Fisch said. "We've got to make sure (everyone) settles into their spots."

The Eagles will also need to contain Demond Williams Jr., Washington's quarterback who two weeks ago against Washington State completed 24 of 35 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown while rushing seven times for 61 yards and another score.

"We've definitely got to contain the quarterback (Williams), who likes to get out and run," Jenkins said. "Sometimes he'll even have a wide-open receiver, but he just wants to get out and run."

Offensively, Eastern is trying to get its own running game going. Sophomore center Dylan Scott said improvement is coming for a group that has so far averaged 128.3 rushing yards per game.

"A big thing is being more patient with our blocks," Scott said. "People have been getting off their double-teams a tiny bit too early for (running backs) to read their holes."

Scott said that Eastern isn't trying to be an offense that produces big rushing plays early on, but, because of its high tempo, it should be an offense that breaks those big runs later in games after wearing out an opposing defense.

"We tire people out," he said, "and we don't get tired."

Scott said he sees a Huskies defensive front that is talented but one the Eagles will be ready for.

The letters F-B-S don't mean much to Scott, either.

"I don't see it any differently," he said. "I prepare for every game the same and compete every game the same. They are just another human being, nothing better than me, nothing worse than me. (Either way), you've got to show up and perform."

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