MOSCOW, Idaho – Last year, Idaho’s win over Montana at Washington-Grizzly Stadium was the beginning of a beautiful dream for the Vandals, one that’s seen them return to the FCS Playoffs and the top 10 of the national polls.
Saturday’s rematch at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow wasn’t, quite, a cruel wake-up call delivered with the force of a bucket of ice water to the face. The Vandals are still likely to be in the top 10 of next week’s poll, and still control their own destiny for making the FCS Playoffs.
But it was, at least, a harsh reminder of the consequences of playing at Idaho’s new, elevated level. Here – and particularly in a game between two bitter rivals – you’re not special.
And regardless of how many fans pack your stadium – over 14,000 for the Vandals on Saturday, announced as their first sellout in over a decade – at this level, your flaws will get exposed just like anyone else’s.
That’s exactly what happened to Idaho on Saturday, as the Vandals’ defects – a patchwork offensive line that couldn’t keep the Griz away from electric quarterback Gevani McCoy, inconsistent tackling that helped Montana score on its first four possessions and, yes, head coach Jason Eck’s riverboat-gambler aggressiveness – all conspired to send them to a 23-21 loss as Montana reclaimed the Little Brown Stein.
As Idaho heads into its bye week with No. 2-ranked and seemingly unstoppable Montana State waiting on the other side of the break, the Vandals have tough questions to answer as they come off a loss to an FCS team for the first time all season.
After Montana recorded just one (disputed, at that) sack through the first two weeks of Big Sky Conference play, the Griz brought down McCoy six times, flushed him from the pocket countless others, and also pressured the Vandals O-line into multiple crucial procedure penalties.
According to Eck in the postgame, Idaho lost lineman Eli Sanchez for the season in practice this week, resulting in the Vandals moving players around. But the sack fest for the Montana defense only exacerbated what’s been an issue already this season – before the Montana game, Idaho had already allowed 11 sacks in six games, near the middle of the conference, and now sits at 17 allowed in seven games, ahead of only, ironically, the Griz.
“We’ve got to improve fundamentally and you know, hats off to them (Montana),” Eck said. “I think they did a great job of getting pressure and playing hard, and they have good blitz packages, which we knew. I thought protecting Gevani and finding a way to run the ball was critical to our success, and we didn’t do those things.”
While Idaho’s offense struggled to get going – the Vandals failed to score on their first drive for the first time all season, and had just 61 yards in the first quarter – Montana shot out of the gate.
The Griz went on a grinding 49 yards for a Grant Glasgow field goal on their opening drive, then struck quickly on their next possession when Junior Bergen ran by his man out of the slot and Clifton McDowell hit him for a 76-yard touchdown to cap a 95-yard drive after a great punt by Idaho’s Ricardo Chavez.
Montana added another touchdown – an 8-yard run over left tackle by McDowell – and another Glasgow field goal to make it 20-0 before Idaho finally got on the board with under a minute left in the first half on an 11-yard touchdown run by Anthony Woods.
The Griz out-gained Idaho 286 to 144 in the first half, running for 142 yards before the break as McDowell, Eli Gillman and Nick Ostmo continually slipped out of tackles and tacked on extra yards at the end of runs.
On one representative play to start Montana’s third drive, Gillman eluded a tackle at the line of scrimmage, broke several others and rumbled for a 53-yard gain that moved the Griz from their own 7 to the Idaho 40.
Montana converted 7 of 9 third-down attempts in the first half, and it was enough to get the Griz the win despite only two first downs after halftime.
“I think one of the biggest problems was they had a lot of third and shorts, you know, so we have to do a better job of keeping people behind the sticks more and creating some more disruption,” Eck said.
Last year, Eck’s surprise onside kick to start the second half was a turning point in the win that put Idaho back on the map. But with the Vandals trying to close the deficit in the second half, the coach’s aggressive tendencies cost them, not once but twice.
On the first drive of the second half, Idaho got as far as the Montana 12-yard line, but a false start backed the Vandals up into third and 15. McCoy hit Jordan Dwyer for nine yards, and Eck elected to go for it rather than take the points with a short field goal for Chavez.
McCoy’s throw to the end zone was tipped and intercepted by Ryder Meyer.
“We were just kind of in a max aggression scenario there,” Eck said. “I was still kind of getting a feel for how many stops we were gonna get, too. Knowing what I know now, that we didn’t have to score 30 points to win, that might have changed my thought. But at that time, I was kind of anticipating we were gonna have to score 35 or something. Our analytics book was like, fourth and seven was a go there. I thought we had to be aggressive and try to find points.”
When Hayden Hatten’s second touchdown catch in the final six minutes – McCoy and Hatten connected on scramble drills for a touchdown, a 2-point conversion and then another touchdown – brought Idaho back to 23-21 with under two minutes to go and gave the Vandals a chance to tie it with a 2-point conversion, Eck opted to take the ball out of McCoy’s hands on the fateful play and put it in Hatten’s, dialing up an end-around receiver pass for his star.
Montana got in the backfield almost immediately, Hatten slipped as he tried to make an evasive cut, and his desperate flipped throw to the end zone while falling was incomplete.
“I think it’s a good play,” Eck said. “Hayden kind of lost his footing. It’s a run-pass option where we give him the reverse. If he hadn’t slipped, I think he might have had a decent chance of running it in. What you’d like to do is try to get up near the line of scrimmage, you want to try to attack the line of scrimmage downhill because you put those defenders in limbo. Should we come off and try to make the tackle or should we cover?”
That led to a wild ending – yes, even wilder than a wide receiver pass on a do-or-die 2-point conversion – as Hatten initially appeared to recover the ensuing onside kick, only to be called offside by the slimmest of margins.
Idaho then got a fourth-down stop with under a minute left as Montana coach Bobby Hauck opted not to kick a field goal to go up five points – but on the Vandals’ first play, Kale Edwards broke through the line to force a McCoy fumble, and Levi Janacaro scooped up the loose ball to ice it.
“Hats off to Montana,” Eck said. “I expected them to come in and play really hard and they certainly did. I thought their staff put together a really nice game plan that caught us off balance in the first half. So hats off to them.”
That leaves the score in this renewed rivalry at 1-1 since Eck got to Idaho last season, both classic games, although the Battle for the Little Brown Stein will not be played next season.
And, as the firework pops of discarded Thunderstix being violently deflated faded from the Kibbie Dome early Sunday morning, that realization became the worst thing about Saturday night’s game, even from an Idaho perspective.
Saturday’s loss will sting – harshly for a week, fading to numbness after that. Flaws – fatal though they were – will be worked on and hopefully corrected and forgotten.
But not getting to see this wild, unpredictable, fevered spectacle – one that’s clearly regained its juice as one of the top rivalries in the conference – for another two years?
That’s what really hurts.
