Losing streak continues

When the Portland State Vikings and the Eastern Washington Eagles faced off Saturday, a lot was on the line for both teams: The Viks looked to end a three-game losing streak and the Eagles looked to claim sole possession of first place in the Big Sky Conference. 

After a 50-17 Eagles victory, Eastern Washington stands alone atop the conference standings and the Vikings stretch their losing streak to four games.

An impressive offensive performance led by running back Taiwan Jones sealed the deal for the Eagles (7-2, 6-1 Big Sky). With just one league game remaining on the schedule—against last-place Idaho State—Eastern Washington has all but a lock on a playoff bid. 

“[Jones] is a good football player. I think we magnified it with poor tackling,” Portland State head coach Nigel Burton said. 

The Vikings (2-6, 1-4 Big Sky) have now lost six games in the season and have not tasted victory since Oct. 2. They will need to win their last three games, all against conference opponents, to have a chance to lend legitimacy to the season.

During the Vikings’ first offensive series, junior quarterback Connor Kavanaugh injured his throwing hand on a quarterback keep that resulted in a fumble and an Eagles recovery at the Portland State 44-yard line.

With Kavanaugh out, senior Tygue Howland took the snaps for the remainder of the game. As of press time, it is not confirmed whether Kavanaugh’s hand is broken, but all signs point to his season ending prematurely.

“Right now the preliminary [diagnosis] is that it is not good,” Burton said of the junior’s left hand. “We won’t know until we get MRIs and X-rays,” Burton said. 

The Vikings were not only plagued with ill-timed injuries, but they were also self-defeating. Down 21-3 in the second quarter, the Viks started a drive that began at their own 12-yard line and would take them deep enough into Eagles’ territory for sophomore kicker Zach Brown to have a shot at a field goal.

After a 23-yard bomb to junior running back Cory McCaffrey, the Viks had position at Eastern Washington’s 22-yard line—just outside of the red zone. A holding penalty against the Viks took the ball back to the Eagles’ 32, and the ensuing play—a reverse rush by sophomore receiver Keitrell Anderson—resulted in a loss of 13 yards. On third-and-33, all Howland could muster was a 5-yard pass, leaving the Viks with nothing to do but punt.  When given the chance to kick, Brown made good on one of three field goal attempts. After putting up three points on a 50 yarder, he missed from 34 then 54 yards out.   

The Viking run defense was never able to restrict Eastern’s ground game, and by halftime had allowed the Eagles 210 rushing yards. In the second half alone, the PSU defense allowed EWU to run five times for 141 yards.

Jones, with three first-half touchdowns, was clearly the star of Eastern Washington’s show. Two of his touchdown runs, for 71 and 65 yards, accounted for nearly half of his 199 total rushing yards. For his performance, he was named the conference’s Player of the Week yesterday.

Late in the third quarter, PSU scored on a 33-yard touchdown run from McCaffrey. Complete with broken tackles and skillful maneuvering, the run was a thing of beauty, and it accounted for 33 of his 36 rushing yards at the time. McCaffrey ended the game with 100 rushing yards, keeping his streak of triple-digit days going for the fifth straight game. 

Eastern Washington’s special teams proved that it wasn’t only the offense that could put points on the board. Early in the second half, the Eagles blocked a Viking punt and recovered the ball in the end zone. They also turned a Howland interception in the third quarter into a touchdown.   

Howland never seemed to get the timing down with his receivers. He threw for an impressive 323 yards, but completed just 28 of 55 passes. The sole exception was senior wide receiver Nick Hutter, who posted his second day of over 100 yards receiving—one week after accomplishing the same feat against Weber State.

Howland spread the ball around and hit nine different receivers, but there were far too many dropped balls. Watching the passing offense in action, it was clear that the Viks are a run-first team, and without their mobile quarterback, they found themselves in serious trouble. This was the first game in over a year in which Howland took more than just a couple of snaps.  

“It’s always fun,” Howland said about returning to action. “Obviously, when you lose by that much it’s not as much fun the first time you get back out there, but that’s what I’m here for. I love Connor [Kavanaugh] more than anyone in the world, and I hope he can get back in there,” Howland said. 

One subplot of Saturday’s game was the continued competition with Eastern Washington for the Dam Cup, a five-sport rivalry that takes place over the course of the year. With the win in football, Eastern Washington is in the driver’s seat four points to PSU’s three.

The Viks will try to right the ship next Saturday on the road at Sacramento State before returning to Hillsboro for the final home game on Nov. 13. Saturday’s kickoff is set for 2 p.m., and the game can be heard on the radio at KXFL, Freedom 970 AM. ?