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: I almost did power rankings again, just so I could rank both Idaho AND Weber State ahead of Montana State this week (that’s a joke, Bobcat fans). Anyway, here’s some analysis on a couple of teams that didn’t get a lot of shine in this space last week.
– I wrote in my Notes app early on in Saturday night’s Montana-Cal Poly game, “The final score will be whatever Cal Poly can stop it from being.” Even if they wanted to, the Griz coaches can’t really stop things from getting out of hand when the momentum starts rolling in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, and it was obvious the Montana players, no matter who was out on the field, were all loving it and weren’t going to stop playing hard. That’s a hopeless situation for the Mustangs; they were completely outclassed, everybody knew it, but that wasn’t going to make the game end any sooner, so were they going to give up or keep fighting for the full 60?
And, yeah…turns out it was pretty uniformly the former, so that’s how you give up 57 points (and it could have been more, Montana bricked two extra points and kneeled inside the Cal Poly 20 to end the game).
I thought that if Montana ran up the score that badly, it would be with a couple big defensive plays, maybe a pick-six or a blocked punt. Instead, Spencer Brasch played turnover-free after Marcus Welnel’s early interception, and the Mustangs got their punts away (although not very well, at just over 32 yards per boot). It was the same on offense — Montana’s longest play was just 43 yards. Cal Poly just…couldn’t tackle anyone, and didn’t look all that interested in trying. There are plenty of clips, but it’s not fair to single out any one player. I don’t think I saw a Cal Poly player bring down Griz running back Nick Ostmo (221 yards rushing) one-on-one all night. We knew going into the game that Cal Poly’s defense was a long, long way away. If it was a talent issue, that would be one thing (and fixable). After getting to watch them up close, that might be the least of the Mustangs’ issues.
– This week’s column started out pretty cynical and it’s going to continue that way, so let’s take a minute to highlight an electric and encouraging performance from Saturday. This season has been a struggle for the reigning Freshman of the Year, R.J. Martinez, as well as for Northern Arizona. That’s a pity, because Martinez looked like a long-term star in the league last year and the Lumberjacks looked like a potential playoff team going into the season.
They’re now 3-6 and their only two Big Sky wins are over Cal Poly and Idaho State, but a slim 41-38 loss to Montana State gave Martinez the chance to roll back the clock a little bit. NAU was down 17-0 before the end of the first quarter, thanks in large part to two fumbles by Martinez as he struggled to deal with the pressure the Bobcats were bringing, mostly straight up the middle. Plus he was missing some throws on early downs to put the Lumberjacks behind the sticks, so things were snowballing a little. But when they made adjustments to counter that, Martinez and the NAU offense shined. Check out this play, where he bails a little earlier to get out of pressure and then improvises to get the ball to Draycen Hall for the first down.
After the slow start, Martinez looked like he was processing a little quicker and NAU was able to make things happen by getting the ball out to the perimeter to neutralize Montana State’s pass rush, including on a wide receiver screen to Coleman Owen for their first touchdown shortly after the play above. Once the ‘Jacks got on the board, Martinez looked way more comfortable, piloting them to a 21-17 halftime lead. The sophomore from Austin, Texas, throws maybe the prettiest ball in the league, with a quick release as well.
He can vary his release point with accuracy…
And also escape the pocket and find receivers downfield while throwing on the run.
Martinez hasn’t had a bad 2022, with Saturday’s 452 yards lifting him to second in the conference in passing yards. He’s also completing 64% of his passes, third among starters. Turnovers have been an issue – Saturday was only his second interception-free game out of nine – and obviously he hasn’t carried NAU to many wins, which has caused him to slip a little out of sight, out of mind. But in almost knocking off the Bobcats, he reminded everybody that on pure tools, he might be the best quarterback prospect in the league, and that a year ago at this time, everybody would have taken him over the guy who narrowly beat him on Saturday, Tommy Mellott.
– Idaho State coach Charlie Ragle was pissed after the Bengals lost 43-3 at UC Davis, which is fair since that’s probably the least competitive the 1-8 Bengals have been this season. It’s worth reading the entire transcript of what Ragle said in his postgame press conference, courtesy of the Idaho State Journal’s Greg Woods. Ragle spent most of the early part of the week walking the most incendiary of those comments back – ISU will, for example, be taking a full travel roster to Weber State – but that’s a box you can’t really close once it’s opened.
Ragle’s passion has been the defining characteristic of his otherwise muddled, depressing and possibly cursed first season at ISU. He spent parts of the non-conference schedule – in which the Bengals got blown out by two Mountain West teams and lost a home game to ASUN mediocrity Central Arkansas – preaching that ISU was going to win a lot of Big Sky games if they played as hard as they were back then. Six Big Sky games – and five Big Sky losses – later, he’s vowing to replace big parts of the roster because they’re not playing hard?
Ragle is, as previously mentioned, clearly passionate, he can be very articulate, and ISU’s results this season actually aren’t far behind what most neutral observers would have predicted. But it’s clear he doesn’t have much of a foundation, however shaky, going into his first real offseason at the head of ISU’s rebuilding program, and now that crucial offseason will come with a lot more drama than previously thought.
– Not to dwell too much on it, but Ragle’s running the risk of what happened to Ed McCaffrey after his first season at Northern Colorado, when a bunch of players not only entered the transfer portal, but also had a bone to pick with the coaching staff and aired their grievances in the media on the way out. I’m sympathetic to the point that if you need to clear out the roster, it doesn’t really matter how the players you think aren’t good enough feel when they leave, but then again McCaffrey’s results haven’t really taken a step forward after the purge.
The Bears went up 14-0 on two great drives – a quick-hitting four plays, 83 yards and a grinding nine plays, 84 yards – in Hillsboro against Portland State last week but then gave up four unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter in a 35-21 loss. This column’s favorite statistical anomaly, Mataio Talalemotu, had two of those scores – a 64-yarder and a 37-yarder – and went for 103 yards on just three catches. He now has 10 touchdowns – eight receiving, two rushing – on 24 touches from scrimmage. The Vikings are back to .500 in Big Sky play at 3-3 and should finish there with games remaining against Sac State and Cal Poly.
– Sacramento State stayed winning with a 33-30 away triumph over Weber State. It wasn’t quite as close as the score – Weber State’s last touchdown came with 16 seconds left to provide the final margin and the Hornets out-gained the Wildcats 431 to 319. Weber State had another punt snap into the end zone for a safety, but will also rue some questionable decisions.
The Wildcats kicked a field goal on fourth and goal from the 4 on their second-to-last drive, which was probably the right call since it cut a 10-point deficit to a one-possession game. The calls that really hurt them came earlier in the game, when Jay Hill called for the punt team twice on fourth and short inside Hornets territory. Especially against Sacramento State’s great offense, points and possessions are way more valuable than field position, and Weber gave them away cheaply on Saturday.
One more note: six of Weber State’s 28 first downs were picked up by penalty. Sac State finished the game with nine penalties for 78 yards. If you’re looking for an under-the-radar weakness for the Hornets that could cost them a deep playoff run, that’s it: Sac State has both the second-most penalties and second-most penalty yards in the conference (behind only Weber State on both counts, ironically, so the same thing goes for the Wildcats).
– Idaho got revenge for last year’s 71-21 beatdown by running Eastern Washington off the Kibbie Dome turf with a 48-16 win. Hayden Hatten scored four touchdowns in 15:04 of game time across the first and second quarters and after taking a 35-10 lead into the break, Idaho shut things down.
Gevani McCoy attempted just 28 passes but the Vandals ran for 308 yards on 5.9 yards a pop. The score actually looked a little better than it was for Eastern Washington – the Eagles averaged 1.8 yards per carry, had just nine first downs and, outside of Gunner Talkington’s two touchdown throws of 87 yards to Nolan Ulm and 75 yards to Freddie Roberson, had just two other plays of 10 or more yards (none after their first drive). For a point of comparison, EWU’s four plays of 10 yards or more were three fewer than Cal Poly had while getting shut out at Montana.
