After the Chadron State football team was stymied during the second half of Saturday's 23-13 loss to Colorado Mesa on Saturday, Eagles' head coach Jay Long said he and his staff have been doing lots of evaluating about what went wrong.

He said the CSC defense played well, but the special teams had a punt partially blocked and the offense struggled, managing just 83 yards of offense in the second half.  

"We could not run the ball like we had been all season and our pass protection was not good," Long told those attending this week's Coaches Corner. "Our quarterback was hit 10 times. We made too many mistakes up front (in the offensive line)."

The Eagles are expected to start a different quarterback Saturday when they will play Western State in Gunnison, Colo.  Redshirt freshman TD Stein suffered an injury to his left hand (he's right-handed) in the second half against Mesa and was replaced for the final series by sophomore Matt Vinson.

It is anticipated that Stein will be sidelined several weeks.  Vinson is tabbed to start against at Western State.  Currently, the only other varsity quarterback is senior Chris Conroy, who also holds for the placekickers. 

"We're coming off three tough losses," Long said.  "We expect to win tough games.  We won't make excuses and we won't pout.  We're just going to work like the blue collar team we've always been."

Western State also has taken its lumps this fall.  The Mountaineers are 0-4 while playing some rugged opponents.  Northern Colorado, an FSC team, edged them 42-34 in the season opener.  Angelo State, which was ranked 12th in Division II at the time, won 48-20, defending DII national champion CSU-Pueblo prevailed 20-10 and Adams State staged a huge second half rally last Saturday while pulling out a 52-51 triumph in double overtime.

Western State led 42-6 with 32 seconds left in the first half, but Adams State went 75 yards and scored on the last play of the half. 

The Grizzlies also tallied four touchdowns to knot the score at 42-all.  Both teams kicked a field goal in the first overtime, Adams State scored a TD on the 14th play of the second overtime and kicked the extra point.  Western responded with a touchdown, also on its 14th play, and tried to pass for a two-point conversion, but failed.

Western possesses an exceptional running back, junior Austin Ekeler.  He did not play against Angelo State, but in three games has carried 75 times for 554 yards and five touchdowns.  Last year, he set a Mountaineers' record by rushing for 1,676 yards and rolling up 2,093 all-purpose yards.

During the first half against Adams State, Ekeler scored on runs of 31, 61 and 39 yards.  

Last fall during their 40-7 win at Elliott Field, the Eagles limited Ekeler to 63 yards on 14 carries.  The year before, he broke loose for a 65-yard touchdown run and finished with 154 yards in 22 rushes versus CSC.

The Mountaineers also have a solid quarterback in junior Brett Arrivey.  He has completed 106 of 169 passes for 1,094 yards and nine touchdowns and has thrown just two interceptions this fall.

The game in Gunnison will kick off at 1 p.m.