CHENEY, Wash. – In the end No. 2 Montana State prevailed but it was another whirlwind of a game against Eastern Washington, which gave the Bobcats a challenge for the first time since MSU’s season opener against New Mexico.
And once again, despite throwing his first interception of his stellar senior season, senior quarterback Tommy Mellott led the way for the bobcats.
The 42-28 final score wasn’t indicative of how close the game was as the Eagles fought back from a 14-point halftime deficit to time the game at 28-28 when running back Tuna Altahir, who scored on consecutive possessions, dashed into the end zone from the MSU 11 late in the third quarter.
With the score tied late in the third, EWU became the first FCS opponent to spent any game time not trailing MSU after halftime all season. Suddenly, the Bobcats, now 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the Big Sky, were staring their first loss of the season in the face.
Then Mellott added yet another chapter to his formidable Montana State legend. The Bobcats’ all-everything quarterback took the first snap after Altahir’s TD, kept the football on a zone-read and sprinted past the entire EWU defense for 76 yards to put the Bobcats back ahead. The game was tied for a scant 19 seconds.
Mellott also ran into history with his latest 70+ yard burst. He surpassed 3,000 yards on the carry, passing “The Iron Tumbleweed” Don Hass and Steve Kracher into third on MSU’s all-time leading rushing yards list. Only Isaiah Ifanse and Ryan Johnson have more rushing yards in MSU history.
“We needed something to happen, and Tommy makes the big play,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “That’s something that we’ve seen time and time again. For him to make that the next play and get it to 35-28, credit to him. It wasn’t over there at any rate either.”
Still, the Eagles were in the game. Yet it strangely seemed to turn around when Mellott threw his first interception of the season. EWU took over on the MSU 32 and it looked like the game would soon be tied again. The Bobcat’ defense was up to the task after struggling to find footing most of the first three quarters against an EWU squad missing starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas with an injury.
The Bobcat defense bowed up, forcing a turnover on downs after Jared Taylor and the Eastern offense only gained eight yards on four plays.
“It was on us, and we didn’t want it any other way,” MSU safety Dru Polidore, who had an interception late in the first half, said of the defense’s mindset after the interception. “Honestly, we were excited to get back on the field. We never want to dodge any adversity.”
Four plays later, Mellott showed his mettle and why he’s a Walter Payton Award front-runner. He threw a dime to a streaking Ty McCullouch for a 61-yard touchdown that proved to be the dagger as MSU moved to 9-0 for the second time in program history.
The moment wasn’t lost on Mellott, who acknowledged that the defense let him know they had his back as he left the field following his first interception thrown since right before halftime of MSU’s 35-34 double-overtime loss to North Dakota State in the second round of last year’s FCS Playoffs.
“I was pretty frustrated there but as I came off our defense was pumped up to be on the field and that was great to see,” Mellott said. “They really lifted me up and they went out and got a stop just like that and gave us the ball back.”
The Bobcat defense, down three starters to season-ending injuries, rose to the occasion following Mellott’s pick and throughout the rest of the game.
“That’s critical,” Vigen said. “It’s huge. Gut-check. Whatever word or phrase you want to use. To know that they’re in scoring range, we’re up a score, it’s all on the line. No panic. A highly confident group went out there and made the plays to get us off the field.
“For all the things that happened, to have that be the end – the defensive performance – credit to them just hanging in there and being able to make plays no matter the situation.”
EWU only managed 65 yards on its final 22 plays after collecting 328 yards on 47 plays prior . A lot of that success may have been, oddly enough, due to the fact that star quarterback Kekoa Visperas didn’t play. MSU prepped for Visperas all week and when he didn’t start the Bobcats had to reel in their game plan a bit for backup Jared Taylor.
While Taylor doesn’t possess the passing prowess of Visperas, he is a better runner, and the Bobcats looked lost at times. Taylor and Michael Wortham combined for 153 of EWU’s 225 rushing yards, including Wortham’s 75-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
“Given the situation with Visperas not playing, it does force you to pick and choose a little bit,” Vigen said. “I thought by and large Jared Taylor had to go the long way – 25 carries – he had the hard-earned (yards), but then Wortham comes in hits the big play. Credit to them, they did some things and made it more challenging.”
MSU opened the day with a delay of game penalty that led to a three-and-out that served as a portent of things to come. The Bobcats looked strong after the defense got a three-and-out of its own and drove 87 yards on 11 plays to get on the board first after Scottre Humphrey scored the first of his two touchdowns.
On the Bobcat’s ensuing kickoff, Max Murphy stripped the ball from Wortham and freshman Carson Williams recovered. Mellott hit Taco Dowler from 19 yards on the next play and it looked like MSU was going to pick up where it left off from last year’s 57-14 rout in Bozeman.
The teams traded scores the rest of the half as EWU’s star wide receiver Efton Chism III helped the Eagles regain their footing when he caught a four-yard touchdown pass, his 9th TD catch of the season. MSU’s Adam Jones scored from 20 yards out, then Wortham busted his 75-yard touchdown run and Humphrey finished the flurry with a four-yard TD run to culminate a 16-play, 70-yard drive over that covered 9:33.
Humphrey rushed for 110 yards and two scores, giving him seven 100-yard games this season. He’s up to 1,062 yards and 12 touchdowns during his standout sophomore year.
Mellott led the Bobcats in rushing with 125 yards on just six carries and became the fourth player in MSU history to surpass the 3,000 career yards rushing plateau. He also completed 13 of 20 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns.
MSU has won in Cheney three times in a row over the last four years and is now 4-3 since 2011 on the red turf of Roos Field, which is the best record by a visiting Big Sky team over that span. MSU won 38-35 in 2022, and 23-20 in 2021 to snap a seven-game losing streak to the Eagles. The Bobcats also won in 2011 over the reigning national champions 36-21.
“If it’s you get the best version of Eastern Washington when they are playing at home, I would say it’s that,” Vigen said when asked about the close games in Cheney since he took over as MSU’s head coach. “It’s as simple as that. They were fighting and scratching for everything. It’s not easy when you get to November and it hasn’t’ gone your way so credit to Coach Best and that crew for continuing to fight.”
The Bobcats return to Bozeman this Saturday at 1:00 to take on Sacramento State. MSU, No. 2 at the time, beat the then No. 7 Hornets 42-30 in Sacramento last year before dropping three of its last five games.
