CHENEY, Wash. \u2014 The Eastern Washington Eagles got their first true test of the spring last Saturday, holding a live scrimmage that offered an early look at how the roster is taking shape ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
The offense struck on the very first play from scrimmage, breaking free for a 75-yard touchdown. But after that early miscue, it was the defense that controlled the day \u2014 forcing three interceptions and setting the tone for the remainder of the scrimmage.<\/p>\n
Head coach Aaron Best credited his defense for its response after the opening play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first play was a busted play on defense, so it goes for 75 yards,\u201d Best said. \u201cWhat I was really, really appreciative of is those guys didn\u2019t hang their heads. They came back, had a strong performance, turned the offense over three times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Best emphasized that the breakdown was self-inflicted \u2014 and just as importantly, so was the recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you respond like that after the first play, knowing it was what you did, not what they did, that\u2019s a confident feeling,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not what they did to us, it\u2019s what we did to ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defensive front, anchored by a group of experienced seniors, played a key role in that turnaround. Senior defensive lineman Justis La’ulu said the early touchdown only added fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat first play got us, but it didn\u2019t affect anything mentally,\u201d La\u2019ulu said. \u201cIf anything, it just fueled us to attack every other play harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the defense found its rhythm, the offense continued to look for consistency beyond its explosive start. Senior wide receiver Cole Pruett said the unit is focused on improving its tempo and execution heading deeper into the spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just as an offense, we can come out faster and just really have more fun,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cThe defense is doing great. We\u2019re just all competing a lot and getting each other better every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eagles will look to build on those takeaways in their second spring scrimmage this Saturday, continuing preparations for the annual Red-White Game at Roos Field \u2014 the final public showcase before turning attention to summer workouts and then fall camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHENEY, Wash. \u2014 The Eastern Washington Eagles got their first true test of the spring last Saturday, holding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,3141,5230,5227,5229,9,5228,5231],"class_list":{"0":"post-872971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-local-sports","10":"tag-local-sports-news","11":"tag-spokane","12":"tag-spokane-sports","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-spokane","15":"tag-wasington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116455554786249110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}