MISSOULA – On Saturday night, not even a month-and-a-half after the lowest point of their season, the Montana Grizzlies re-emerged, transformed, as a legitimate national contender, turning a top-10 showdown under the lights into a runaway with a 34-7 win over No. 7 Sac State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Just four days after Halloween, it was a beating that served as Montana’s audition as the scariest team in the nation.
The Griz rolled up a season-high 547 yards – 242 passing, 305 rushing. They held Sacramento State to 267 – a season-low for the explosive Hornets. Montana averaged 20.1 yards per completion, and 6.1 per carry, rolling off 34 straight points after Sac State went up 7-0 early.
But none of those facts are the reason that other teams around the country will be looking uneasily over their shoulders in post-Halloween fright.
Instead, the scariest thing about Montana’s performance on Saturday might be what Bobby Hauck said after the game.
“They went out and took that game, and took it strongly,” said Hauck, who broke Jerome Souers’ all-time Big Sky Conference record with his 124th career win. “I’m very proud of my football team and the guys in my locker room. I can tell you, I can’t wait for next week, because I think we’re getting better every week.”
That’s been the case for the Griz every week since their nadir, a 28-14 loss at Northern Arizona to open conference play.
Three weeks ago, before their bye, the Grizzlies went on the road for a sliver-tight 23-21 win over No. 3 Idaho. Last week, after their bye, they clobbered winless Northern Colorado in Missoula, 40-0.
On Saturday, they combined the two, walloping a Sac State team that, even with losses to the three top contenders in the conference – Montana, Montana State and Idaho – still looks likely to make the FCS Playoffs.
“I thought they played well on offense, defense and special teams,” Sac State head coach and former Griz linebacker Andy Thompson said. “Give them credit. They’re a good football team. They’re 7-1 for a reason, and they made more plays than us.”
In a microcosm of their season – one in which the Griz have, at various times, managed to look like both the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals, if all of their arms were replaced with pool noodles – it took two possessions worth of struggle and failure for Montana to get rolling.
The Griz gained negative-one yards combined on their first two drives. Montana’s best play in that span – a 16-yard run by quarterback Clifton McDowell – was immediately called back for a hold, and McDowell then took two sacks in three plays to kill the drive. Meanwhile, Sac State took a 7-0 lead on its second possession with Marcus Fulcher, who returned from injury, running through huge holes blasted open by the Hornets’ O-line.
But, down 7-0, Montana answered Fulcher’s short touchdown run with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that included four straight third-down conversions and ended with an 8-yard touchdown run by Eli Gillman, the ninth of the season for the surging redshirt freshman.
“It starts with the fact that they’re trained in a manner that develops physical and mental toughness,” Hauck said about his players bouncing back. “It shows up in situations like that. When we were at Washington a couple years ago and beat them, they went right down the field in less than two minutes and scored, then we shut them out for 58 minutes. That’s the mettle of this team, it’s how they’re trained, and it’s not surprising to me.”
That kicked off a run of touchdowns on three straight drives for the Griz. After having negative yards (counting penalties) on nine plays through their first two drives, McDowell led the Griz to 185 yards and three touchdowns on their next three.
A 9-yard run by Nick Ostmo after a long Junior Bergen punt return and a 9-yard throw from McDowell to Aaron Fontes gave Montana a 21-7 lead at halftime.
After its five-play, 55-yard touchdown drive on the second possession of the game, Sac State gained just 20 yards on its final five drives of the first half as the Hornets rotated between starter Kaiden Bennett and freshman Carson Conklin at quarterback.
“I just think they started off hot and they hit a few plays on us,” Montana linebacker Tyler Flink said. “Then we just got together and did what we needed to do to get back to it. We trusted the game plan and stuck to it, and eventually came out.”
Neither team scored in the third – although the Hornets threatened to make it a game by driving inside the Montana 5, only for Zach Schreiner to miss a 23-yard field goal, his second miss of the game – before Montana’s offense reignited with a bang in the fourth.
On second-and-8 from his own 3-yard line, McDowell faded back, pump-faked once and hit Keelan White perfectly in stride up the right sideline. White kicked out of a diving ankle tackle attempt and coasted to the end zone for a 97-yard touchdown. It was the longest play from scrimmage in Griz history.
“We had seen that look earlier in the game,” White said. “Cliff (McDowell) said, next time we get that look, he’s going to pump the out route to Junior (Bergen), because that boundary corner was biting on it. So he pumped it, and it was open over the top. It was a great throw.”
Ostmo added a 10-yard touchdown run later in the fourth to provide the final margin.
Gillman ran for 113 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, while McDowell had 83 yards on 15 carries and Ostmo had 68 yards on 11 carries, plus the two scores.
McDowell completed 11 of 21 passes for 218 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and also caught one pass for 24 yards on a trick play in the first half.
White’s two catches were good for 103 yards, while Aaron Fontes had six grabs for 88 yards, all in the first half.
Braxton Hill led Montana’s defense with nine tackles.
With No. 2 Furman narrowly beating Chattanooga and No. 3 Idaho – who the Griz own a win over – not putting Northern Colorado away until late in the fourth (27-13 final), it might be enough to boost Montana into a top-three spot in the polls.
And, if Hauck is to be believed, that’s not even the Grizzlies’ ceiling.
The Griz play at Portland State next week, their last game before the season-ending rivalry clash with Montana State.
