Every week, we’ll cover every game from around the Big Sky, going beyond the box score with analysis and thoughts on every team. This week on the Big Sky Scramble: some crucial moments from Montana’s loss and Montana State’s win.
MONTANA
When I said in the game story that what Idaho did to Montana on Saturday was a reflection of the Grizzlies’ own early-season dominance, this is what I mean.
I haven’t seen a Griz return man get swarmed like that all year. Meanwhile, I’ve seen the Griz do it to every team they’ve played. It’s a hunch that got even stronger on the drive after that, when the Griz tried to run a tunnel screen on third down. It’s a nice little play and Lucas Johnson holds onto the ball long enough, but Idaho’s defense is all over Keelan White.
Gevani McCoy won Big Sky offensive player of the week for his efforts and got most of the publicity coming out of the game. I thought the biggest reason behind Idaho’s win was that defense. When Montana’s defense is rolling, they can keep up that intensity because they’re always rolling players in and out of the game. When Idaho is rolling, the Vandals can keep up that defensive intensity because the offense is grinding out drives and getting the D a rest after every possession.
It’s time to start thinking of Idaho’s defense, if not quite on par with those of Montana and Weber State, as on that same level. The Vandals are third in the conference in total defense behind those two teams, and although they’re giving up 40 yards per game more than the Griz, they’re closer to UM than the fourth-place team (Montana State) is to them. And they’ve played the toughest schedule out of the three. Idaho has just one more game in which they’ll likely be an underdog – at Sacramento State on October 29 in what could be a huge game. If the Vandals avoid an upset against Portland State, Eastern Washington or UC Davis – three teams that were assumed to be on their level before the season but are now clearly a class below – Jason Eck’s team could be looking at a national seed in his first year.
MONTANA STATE
With 11:45 left in the second quarter of Saturday’s game in Greeley, Montana State was facing…well, not a crisis, exactly, but the seed of a calamity. Northern Colorado was leading 14-3 after a highlight-reel touchdown catch by Noah Ford. The Bobcats had a long drive on their previous possession that ended on downs at the UNC 5, but at that point, returning starting quarterback Tommy Mellott was 2 for 5 for 32 yards. On the play before, Mellott had damn near run into Lane Sumner on a handoff, leading to a 2-yard loss.
Northern Colorado’s Nick Norris was flexing on them, they were facing third and 9, and surely the calls to take Mellott off the field and go to Sean Chambers permanently were growing louder by the second back in Bozeman. In that crucial moment, the Bobcats went to what’s worked in the past. Mellott faded back and lofted a back-shoulder fade up the left sideline to Ravi Alston.
Plays exactly like that were the majority of Montana State’s passing offense in last year’s run to the national title game. It’s Mellott’s best throw and the one he’s best equipped to make, and Alston had a six-inch height advantage on defensive back Uryan Hudson. In this case, a well-placed ball drew a pass interference penalty for a crucial first down. On the next play, Mellott went play-action and found tight end Derryk Snell for 44 yards over the middle.
Two plays after that, the Bobcats were in the end zone and Mellott went on to throw for 217 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-14 win. The next drive after the big pass interference penalty, Mellott was back in his element – hitting Willie Patterson for 23 on a slant, running for 16 up the middle with a dirty spin move thrown in, then connecting with Patterson for a 16-yard touchdown on (what else?) a jump ball in the end zone. That’s the kind of quarterback Mellott is. He throws a great fade and he works well off play-action, and when Montana State needed to get back on track, it was those throws they went to.
– Weber State handled Portland State easily with a 42-7 win at Hillsboro Stadium. After a tight 17-12 win over UC Davis, the Wildcats have scored 45 and now 42 points in the next two weeks. Whether the offense can match their top-tier defense is always a huge question for Weber State.
Well, they’ve scored 35 or more points in every game this season except that UC Davis slugfest. Since some struggles in the Utah State upset win, sophomore quarterback Bronson Barron is 82 of 122 (67.2%) for 1,080 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions. Weber State will always be defense-first. That unit is what wins them games. But if Barron is this guy, that will change the look of the team completely and take pressure and stress off the defense. He hasn’t yet put together a good performance against a good defense, so maybe it’s just a mirage. The Vikings’ only touchdown was scored by – who else? – Mataio Talalemotu, who now has seven scores on 14 touches this year.
– Sacramento State went up 21-0, let Eastern Washington come back to tie it 21-21, and then scored back-to-back touchdowns to re-establish themselves – all by the end of the second quarter. Fun stuff from the two most all-offense, no-defense teams in the conference. The Hornets also scored the first touchdown of the third quarter and went on to roll, 52-28. After going a million miles an hour and trading scores with Eastern in the first half, Sac State completely shut things down to kill off the game. The Eagles got the ball just four times after halftime, and Sac State’s final three drives took 5:55, 6:06 and then 6:38 to end the game.
The Hornets rolled up 385 rushing yards and 36 first downs. The former was the most in a game in the conference this year and the latter was the second-most, one behind Sac State’s performance against Northern Colorado the week before. The Hornets and Montana State are the only two teams in the league to go over 300 yards rushing in a game this season, and they’ve each done it three times apiece.
– UC Davis ran Northern Arizona off the field, scoring 42 unanswered points across the second and third quarters to win 56-27. Do the Aggies have a late playoff push in them? Their next three games are at Northern Colorado, vs. Cal Poly and vs. Idaho State, which should get them back over .500 at 5-4 with two tough games to close the season at Idaho and at Sacramento State. It’s still a longshot – I think they end up just barely on the wrong side of the bubble if they split those last two games and end up at 6-5 – but Dan Hawkins and his team aren’t dead yet. They’ll have a couple very quality losses in one-score defeats against current No. 1 South Dakota State and current No. 5 Weber State, and don’t have a non-DI win on the schedule that could hurt them.
As for Northern Arizona, is Chris Ball’s seat starting to warm up? The loss dropped the Lumberjacks to 2-5 and 14-21 in his four seasons at the helm, which is…not bad, but the lack of progress is troubling. As opposed to earlier in the season, NAU’s offense is now OK – R.J. Martinez threw for 314 on Saturday – but the defense had its worst performance of the season. UC Davis averaged 9.2 yards per play.
– Idaho State was the last Big Sky Conference team to get off the winless schneid, beating Cal Poly 40-31 in Pocatello. The Bengals tried to give away a 37-14 third-quarter lead by letting the Mustangs score 17 unanswered points, but came up big by forcing a punt and then grabbing interceptions on Cal Poly’s final two drives. For teams like these – Cal Poly has a second-year head coach and ISU’s Charlie Ragle is in his first year – finding an identity is crucial.
The Mustangs’ is obvious under Beau Baldwin, and they threw for another 392 yards on Saturday. Likely because they went down early, Cal Poly quarterback Spencer Brasch had a terminal case of main-character syndrome on Saturday – he threw for 392 yards and four touchdowns, but also threw four interceptions and was sacked six times. Between his 48 pass attempts and 13 carries (including sacks), he was involved in 61 of the Mustangs’ 77 plays. Late-career Russell Westbrook hours.
For Idaho State, the win also hinted at a potential identity – the Bengals ran for 293 yards on 46 carries, with five players going over 35 yards apiece. That’s the first time all season ISU has run the ball effectively, but there’s something there, especially with all the quarterback troubles they’ve been having – run, run, run, then take deep shots to Xavier Guillory, who had another five catches for 120 yards and a touchdown.
