MSU VS EWU Predictions

[CARDIAC_CATS]

Aside from Fordham, Eastern hasn't played all that well in any game this year. Not sure why anyone is thinking they're turned it around after a rough start. They've merely gone from playing good competition to playing average competition. The results aren't surprising. They beat a UM team that had a frosh QB getting his first start. They barely beat UC Davis.

Who have the cats beaten that has given you such confidence that you can win in Cheney? PSU and UND are arguably 2 of the worst teams in the big sky. One could argue that easterns wins in Davis and in Missoula are much better than any win the cats have...

As far as eastern not playing well, it happens with youth, Eastern is one of the youngest teams in conference so you take the bad with the good...especially with who Eastern played and where they played in their first 4 games

We will find out soon enough how good each team is...

Yep, it is hard to compare other games sometimes due to match ups and style of play. I think the game is going to be a lot like the Weber game with maybe a little more scoring by the Cats. If the Cats can quit making mistakes on special teams and in the red zone they can play with ANYONE in the Big Sky Conference. Here's to a good hard fought game!


...... with a Bobcat victory

[John K]

Aside from Fordham, Eastern hasn't played all that well in any game this year. Not sure why anyone is thinking they're turned it around after a rough start. They've merely gone from playing good competition to playing average competition. The results aren't surprising. They beat a UM team that had a frosh QB getting his first start. They barely beat UC Davis.

Who have the cats beaten that has given you such confidence that you can win in Cheney? PSU and UND are arguably 2 of the worst teams in the big sky. One could argue that easterns wins in Davis and in Missoula are much better than any win the cats have...

As far as eastern not playing well, it happens with youth, Eastern is one of the youngest teams in conference so you take the bad with the good...especially with who Eastern played and where they played in their first 4 games

We will find out soon enough how good each team is...

1. I'll give you Davis as a good Win, but Weber also absolutely destroyed them. Who have the Griz played?

2. We're younger than you, and our Freshman and Sophmore's have been extremely impressive.

3. 4 out of 5 games were against ranked opponents, and we held the current #8 team in ALL of college football to the second lowest offense output this season, only beat by USC.

4. We have 0 to lose, and everything to gain... Does EWU have nothing to lose?

If our Defense hasn't given you any reason to pause, it will Saturday, and you're going to be sweating bullets.

I'd say that we're probably a bit younger overall than the average BSC team, but I still don't really accept the notion that we're extremely young as compared to most of the other teams in the league. I guess I can see how it seems that way, just because many of our best players are freshmen or sophomores (which bodes well for the next 2-3 years), and almost all of our backups are freshman and sophomores, Most teams at the FCS level are going to have a lots of frosh/sophs as backups though, although maybe not quite as many as we do this year. But 15 of our 22 starters are juniors or seniors. When 2/3 of your starters are upperclassmen, I don't see how you can be considered an extremely young team. Again, I'll admit that overall we're a bit younger than most teams, but I think the youth/inexperience factor has been slightly exaggerated. Especially considering that most of our talented sophs saw lots of playing time last year, and many of them even started for at least part of the season.

[catatac]

Aside from Fordham, Eastern hasn't played all that well in any game this year. Not sure why anyone is thinking they're turned it around after a rough start. They've merely gone from playing good competition to playing average competition. The results aren't surprising. They beat a UM team that had a frosh QB getting his first start. They barely beat UC Davis.

Who have the cats beaten that has given you such confidence that you can win in Cheney? PSU and UND are arguably 2 of the worst teams in the big sky. One could argue that easterns wins in Davis and in Missoula are much better than any win the cats have...

As far as eastern not playing well, it happens with youth, Eastern is one of the youngest teams in conference so you take the bad with the good...especially with who Eastern played and where they played in their first 4 games

We will find out soon enough how good each team is...

1. I'll give you Davis as a good Win, but Weber also absolutely destroyed them. Who have the Griz played?

2. We're younger than you, and our Freshman and Sophmore's have been extremely impressive.

3. 4 out of 5 games were against ranked opponents, and we held the current #8 team in ALL of college football to the second lowest offense output this season, only beat by USC.

4. We have 0 to lose, and everything to gain... Does EWU have nothing to lose?

If our Defense hasn't given you any reason to pause, it will Saturday, and you're going to be sweating bullets.

I'd say that we're probably a bit younger overall than the average BSC team, but I still don't really accept the notion that we're extremely young as compared to most of the other teams in the league. I guess I can see how it seems that way, just because many of our best players are freshmen or sophomores (which bodes well for the next 2-3 years), and almost all of our backups are freshman and sophomores, Most teams at the FCS level are going to have a lots of frosh/sophs as backups though, although maybe not quite as many as we do this year. But 15 of our 22 starters are juniors or seniors. When 2/3 of your starters are upperclassmen, I don't see how you can be considered an extremely young team. Again, I'll admit that overall we're a bit younger than most teams, but I think the youth/inexperience factor has been slightly exaggerated. Especially considering that most of our talented sophs saw lots of playing time last year, and many of them even started for at least part of the season.

A agree with you to a certain extent, but the point I would argue is that at last count we had TEN TRUE FRESHMEN getting significant playing time. Admittedly I don't know if that number is accurate but that's what someone told me. If that is true, I would be willing to bet that is not common at all in today's world of college football.

[gtapp]

EWU 41
MSU 24

[rivercat]

Cats won't stop Eagle's passing game. Eagles won't stop Cat's run game, especially if we have some passing attack to keep them honest. I think Cat's defense is better rested in the 4th. Eagles don't pull a win out at the end like they seem to always do, and Cats win this one.

Cats 35
Eags 31

[PapaG]

EWU 31
MSU 30

[catsrback76]

Aside from Fordham, Eastern hasn't played all that well in any game this year. Not sure why anyone is thinking they're turned it around after a rough start. They've merely gone from playing good competition to playing average competition. The results aren't surprising. They beat a UM team that had a frosh QB getting his first start. They barely beat UC Davis.

Who have the cats beaten that has given you such confidence that you can win in Cheney? PSU and UND are arguably 2 of the worst teams in the big sky. One could argue that easterns wins in Davis and in Missoula are much better than any win the cats have...

As far as eastern not playing well, it happens with youth, Eastern is one of the youngest teams in conference so you take the bad with the good...especially with who Eastern played and where they played in their first 4 games

We will find out soon enough how good each team is...

1. I'll give you Davis as a good Win, but Weber also absolutely destroyed them. Who have the Griz played?

2. We're younger than you, and our Freshman and Sophmore's have been extremely impressive.

3. 4 out of 5 games were against ranked opponents, and we held the current #8 team in ALL of college football to the second lowest offense output this season, only beat by USC. I'll give you this,

4. We have 0 to lose, and everything to gain... Does EWU have nothing to lose?

If our Defense hasn't given you any reason to pause, it will Saturday, and you're going to be sweating bullets.

1. Weber struggled with Sac who Eastern absolutely boat raced...

2. Eastern starts 2 seniors, one on each side of the ball, both teams are VERY young

3. You guys played well against SDSU, I think Weber is overrated

4. very true, and I'd be nervous if this game was in Bozeman

As much as your defense should give us pause, our offense should do the same to MSU...

You have every reason to be confident, we are not really that good. We are 2-3 and lucky to be there. Pass the word around to "mail it in" this weekend!

[DriscollCat]

Aside from Fordham, Eastern hasn't played all that well in any game this year. Not sure why anyone is thinking they're turned it around after a rough start. They've merely gone from playing good competition to playing average competition. The results aren't surprising. They beat a UM team that had a frosh QB getting his first start. They barely beat UC Davis.

Who have the cats beaten that has given you such confidence that you can win in Cheney? PSU and UND are arguably 2 of the worst teams in the big sky. One could argue that easterns wins in Davis and in Missoula are much better than any win the cats have...

As far as eastern not playing well, it happens with youth, Eastern is one of the youngest teams in conference so you take the bad with the good...especially with who Eastern played and where they played in their first 4 games

We will find out soon enough how good each team is...

1. I'll give you Davis as a good Win, but Weber also absolutely destroyed them. Who have the Griz played?

2. We're younger than you, and our Freshman and Sophmore's have been extremely impressive.

3. 4 out of 5 games were against ranked opponents, and we held the current #8 team in ALL of college football to the second lowest offense output this season, only beat by USC. I'll give you this,

4. We have 0 to lose, and everything to gain... Does EWU have nothing to lose?

If our Defense hasn't given you any reason to pause, it will Saturday, and you're going to be sweating bullets.

1. Weber struggled with Sac who Eastern absolutely boat raced...

2. Eastern starts 2 seniors, one on each side of the ball, both teams are VERY young

3. You guys played well against SDSU, I think Weber is overrated

4. very true, and I'd be nervous if this game was in Bozeman

As much as your defense should give us pause, our offense should do the same to MSU...

You have every reason to be confident, we are not really that good. We are 2-3 and lucky to be there. Pass the word around to "mail it in" this weekend!

[iaafan]

I'm not counting on stats to determine how this game will play out, but in their three games vs BSC opponents (Davis, Sac, UM) they're allowing an avg of 549.7 yards per game and 36.7 ppg. Two of those opponents average 5.9 per play in league games, MSU averages 6.6.

[clawman]

Of the 1200+ yards rushing this season over 500 were by their QB. The Cats average 250 yds per game rushing and 134 YPG passing. They have averaged 24 points per game, why is that going to increase dramatically this game??? While Murray is quick and evasive I do not see him able to break big plays like one of our receivers can. Given the nature of their offense I do not believe they can keep up with our offense.
Can Cats slow our offense down to their level? Doubt it. They would have to cut our offensive production in half. The Griz did a good job of keeping a lid on our receivers but they ran wild under that lid. . I stand by my earlier prediction, I think we can score 50+points and our defense can keep them in the 20's.

[DriscollCat]

Of the 1200+ yards rushing this season over 500 were by their QB. The Cats average 250 yds per game rushing and 134 YPG passing. They have averaged 24 points per game, why is that going to increase dramatically this game??? While Murray is quick and evasive I do not see him able to break big plays like one of our receivers can. Given the nature of their offense I do not believe they can keep up with our offense.
Can Cats slow our offense down to their level? Doubt it. They would have to cut our offensive production in half. The Griz did a good job of keeping a lid on our receivers but they ran wild under that lid. . I stand by my earlier prediction, I think we can score 50+points and our defense can keep them in the 20's.

Why would you expect to score above your average (47 in conference) against the second best scoring defense in the conference? Let alone the fact that those defensive numbers were achieved in, hands down, the hardest opening schedule of the conference.

Also, why would you expect to keep us below our average (32 in conference), with the second worst scoring defense in the conference?

[exppi]

Of the 1200+ yards rushing this season over 500 were by their QB. The Cats average 250 yds per game rushing and 134 YPG passing. They have averaged 24 points per game, why is that going to increase dramatically this game??? While Murray is quick and evasive I do not see him able to break big plays like one of our receivers can. Given the nature of their offense I do not believe they can keep up with our offense.
Can Cats slow our offense down to their level? Doubt it. They would have to cut our offensive production in half. The Griz did a good job of keeping a lid on our receivers but they ran wild under that lid. . I stand by my earlier prediction, I think we can score 50+points and our defense can keep them in the 20's.

Why would you expect to score above your average (47 in conference) against the second best scoring defense in the conference? Let alone the fact that those defensive numbers were achieved in, hands down, the hardest opening schedule of the conference.

Also, why would you expect to keep us below our average (32 in conference), with the second worst scoring defense in the conference?

Lots of changes for this game too. Josh Hill appears to be back, Jalen Cole is on the 2 deep and Andersen could be in at LB as well.

[exppi]

Of the 1200+ yards rushing this season over 500 were by their QB. The Cats average 250 yds per game rushing and 134 YPG passing. They have averaged 24 points per game, why is that going to increase dramatically this game??? While Murray is quick and evasive I do not see him able to break big plays like one of our receivers can. Given the nature of their offense I do not believe they can keep up with our offense.
Can Cats slow our offense down to their level? Doubt it. They would have to cut our offensive production in half. The Griz did a good job of keeping a lid on our receivers but they ran wild under that lid. . I stand by my earlier prediction, I think we can score 50+points and our defense can keep them in the 20's.

Why would you expect to score above your average (47 in conference) against the second best scoring defense in the conference? Let alone the fact that those defensive numbers were achieved in, hands down, the hardest opening schedule of the conference.

Also, why would you expect to keep us below our average (32 in conference), with the second worst scoring defense in the conference?

Lots of changes for this game too. Josh Hill appears to be back, Jalen Cole is on the 2 deep and Andersen could be in at LB as well.

[iaafan]

MSU has played two of the top 4 defense in league play and is averaging 319.7 rushing (not 250) per game. MSU is the more physical team and should run at will in this game. Weber leads the league in run D, but we averaged 7.9 per run on them. The only team to stuff our run was Washington State and you're no Washington State.

[BleedingBLue]

Eastern fans are becoming almost as unbearable as Griz fans. Soon enough they will be claiming they started the colored turf craze, and that God has proclaimed them the Masters of the Big Sky.

Also all you EaGal fans who think you're going to blow us apart defensively, you scored 41 last year, and our D is better this year.

[Hi-Line Bobcat]

This off-topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread. I see the game is on my directv guide under Kulr8 and I also see on SWX guide its scheduled to air there as well. Do any of you know if it will actually be on the local Kulr8 channel here in billings, or is it actually going to be on SWX, or is it in fact airing on Kulr8 and SWX? Thanks in advance.

[DriscollCat]

I think SWX is just a content group. Usually produced by SWX, aired by local affiliate (like KULR8).

Short answer, look for it on KULR8.

[Hi-Line Bobcat]

I think SWX is just a content group. Usually produced by SWX, aired by local affiliate (like KULR8).

Short answer, look for it on KULR8.

I hear ya on that. The one thing different this week is that the game is actually on two tv guides. Its on direct tv showing it will air on Kulr8 and if you go to SWX website its on their tv guide as well. Trying to decide if I can go up to Red Lodge and watch the game at a cabin or if I need to stay in Billings in order to watch it .

[marceag]

Eastern fans are becoming almost as unbearable as Griz fans. Soon enough they will be claiming they started the colored turf craze, and that God has proclaimed them the Masters of the Big Sky.

Also all you EaGal fans who think you're going to blow us apart defensively, you scored 41 last year, and our D is better this year.

I understand that, but you have to look at what Eastern fans see. Eastern is 30-10 all time against MSU, 21 out of the last 26. Eastern hasn't lost a conference game since 2015, has won 4 out of the last 5 conference titles, has won 4 in a row this year and is ranked #9 in the country playing at home. MSU is 2-3, not ranked or getting votes and your two wins are against PSU who hasn't won a game all year and UND who is basically playing their JV team.

I think nearly every fan on eastern's side completely respects MSU, we love the game and the small rivalry it has turned into. I also think both sides are underestimating how good the other team really is. Nearly all MSU fans on this board are predicting the bobcats win, and nearly every EWU fans is predicting a blowout. Hopefully we see a good game saturday between two good teams...

[The MICKSTER]

Here are some stats;
UCD@EWU…UCD +14 min TOP, UCD +50 total yards, UCD +2 turnovers, UCD +27 # of plays (104-77)….UCD lost 38-41. EWU had 5 receivers that had receptions of 20+ yards.
NDSU@EWU…NDSU +25 min TOP, NDSU +328 in total yards, turnovers even, NDSU +31 in # of plays (85-54)…NDSU won 40-13. EWU had 1 reception for over 20 yards.
EWU@um... EWU+3 min TOP, EWU +79 total yards, EWU -1 turnovers, # of plays even…EWU won 48-41. EWU had 6 receivers with receptions of 20+ yards.

Conference stats;
EWU averages 47 ppg(1st) & allows 37 ppg(7th)…. EWU 590 ypg(1st) & allows 550 ypg(12th).
MSU averages 32 ppg(8th) & allows 23 ppg(3rd). MSU 430 ypg(9th) & allows 348 ypg(1st).

The CATS should win the TOP by a lot, limit the long ball but give up the underneath, and rack up the rushing yards. From the stats above and the fact that the CAT defense game plan is to prevent the big play but give up the short passes, it does seem like a recipe for success against EWU, but I don’t see us winning on the road. Both teams will score in the low 30’s, but ewoo eeking out the win at home. I hope I'm wrong. GO CATS!