edstile said:
Many have been so focused on the Alabama vs. Clemson FBS national championship game that they have forgotten about the FCS game... North Dakota State vs. Eastern Washington -- tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. on ESPN2. Should be a great one.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2019-01-04/fcs-playoffs-bracket-schedule-scores-and-how-watch-2018
Who ya got, guys? I'm going with Eastern Washington in an upset.
This is definitely a matchup of two completely different teams.
NDSU and has been for well over a decade a powerful ground and pound team. Yes they've consistently had high tier NFL quarterbacks leading them, but they run such a traditional NFL style offense. They will run it down your throat and then throw it over your head with play action and teams just can't stop them. NDSU has been the model of FCS recruiting and consistently fields what would be a very competitive FBS team.
EWU does kind of what we used to do and what Sam Houston does now. They spread the field and throw it all over the place. When they run it's traditionally into open space every time, but they make it work. Very fast team, but it's a very high risk, high reward system as opposed to NDSU's very safe "I'm not fancy, I'm just better than you" offense.
Both teams have solid defenses, but NDSU's defense is scary good. They would absolutely shut out most SLC teams most days. EWU is good enough at limiting mistakes that they will make it competitive. But NDSU is an FBS team masquerading as an FCS team. And they will be for many more years to come.
NDSU- 35
EWU- 21
