Big Sky Scramble: McCoy, Chambers, Chachere light up defenses

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: quick redemption in Pocatello, a closer look at an emerging Idaho star and much more.

MONTANA

My game story from Montana’s win over Idaho State was all about the inherent unpredictability of playing a game with a ball that’s pointed on both ends, and the way that ball often seems to find its way to players who aren’t quite prepared for it. Young Grizzlies Kale Edwards and Keelan White found that out in about a five-minute stretch of game time at the end of the second quarter. Edwards, a defensive end playing on the kick return team, fielded a short kickoff and actually side-stepped the first man before getting the ball punched out from behind. It was the second time in two weeks a short kickoff had forced a turnover for Montana. A few drives later, White, spelling the injured Junior Bergen at punt returner, seemed surprised by the distance and height that ISU punter Ian Hershey got on a sidewinding kick, and very nearly misplayed the ball into another turnover (Note: I’m not saying that White touched the ball – I really couldn’t tell and I think it would have stood whichever way it was called on the field – but he was lucky both that it wasn’t called the other way originally and that the bounce didn’t hit him as he was awkwardly trying to get away).

But another one of the truths about football is that, if the game is uniquely designed to put players in position to make a mistake, it’s also uniquely designed to offer redemption. Two ISU drives after Edwards’ fumble, he pulled a great move to beat the left tackle to the inside and sacked quarterback Sagan Gronauer for a loss of nine yards, and then teamed up with Robby Hauck to make the tackle on third down the play after (this is the play that forced the punt that White nearly muffed).

As for White, 10 plays after his miscue, the two ISU defensive backs on his side bit on a post route and Lucas Johnson found him wide open in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown with five seconds left in the first half that eventually proved to be the game-winner. Redemption narratives are fun to follow. It’s just rare that they happen so quickly – but then, that’s football.

Idaho State will take plenty of positives away from the loss, including the play of third-string sophomore quarterback Sagan Gronauer. Wide receiver Xavier Guillory is as legit as his stats say he is, and was a few steps away from putting up an all-time game – he was inches away from multiple 60-plus-yard touchdowns. The Bengals went after former ISU cornerback Jayden Dawson, mostly because, with Corbin Walker out, he was the guy across from All-American Justin Ford. Dawson played decently but got beat on some great throws and catches.

IDAHO

After admitting my mistake on Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy last week, I figured it was time to examine his game a little more closely. In a 55-35 blowout of Northern Colorado, McCoy finished 22 of 27 for 298 yards and four touchdowns, and had four carries for 18 yards. McCoy is a challenging visual evaluation – his mechanics are a little bit long and, even more importantly, his release can be low. He puts his whole body into throws; it definitely doesn’t look effortless. But he didn’t miss many throws at all, and every throw was on time despite those mechanics. Impressively, that stayed true whether he was throwing quick screens, timing-based intermediate routes or deep balls.

As a runner, he’s quick, shifty, good at breaking the pocket but not quick to do so and willing to take a hit, as he did on a gutsy first-down run to keep a drive alive the play immediately before Elisha Cummings’ 27-yard touchdown in the second quarter. He’s clearly comfortable in Jason Eck’s up-tempo offense. Like I said last week, he’s way better than I thought he was coming into the season. I still have questions about McCoy against the top teams in the league because I think that his size (6 feet) and low release will lead to a lot of passes getting knocked down, especially against teams that can get pressure up the middle (hello Montana!), and I think his athleticism/escapability is well above-average but not otherworldly enough to make a difference on every play.

The Vandals’ win over Northern Colorado provided a great contrast and counterpoint for evaluating McCoy because, as he was driving the ball downfield, the Bears were struggling to hit anything more than checkdowns. For a team with a former four-star quarterback recruit starting, UNC’s scheme is too cute by half – lots of screens, jet sweeps, even a (well-executed, admittedly) Statue of Liberty. Dylan McCaffrey played really well in the first half – 11 of 12 for 178 yards – but even then I saw him throw the ball more than 10 yards downfield only twice. That’s workable when everything is clicking but because the Bears’ defense was struggling, it wasn’t enough to hang in a shootout, especially when McCaffrey regressed to 6 of 14 for 86 yards and two picks in the second half.

Here are some more notes from the rest of the week’s games:

– Sean Chambers averaged 10.8 yards per pass attempt and 11.3 yards per carry as Montana State ran over UC Davis in a 41-24 win, which got the former Wyoming quarterback a co-Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week award. I thought UC Davis’ defense would test Chambers in his first start in relief of the injured Tommy Mellott. It definitely didn’t. I said last week that having a quality backup who can run the same things to the same effectiveness as the starter is a positive, no matter how much controversy it brings. And I don’t think there’s a quarterback controversy in Bozeman now anyway, not least because Mellott should be out for at least another week with his head injury. After that? I think Brent Vigen showed last year that he can manage this exact situation, I think they’ll have both quarterbacks on the field a lot and I think everything will be fine.

– For the second-straight week, Northern Arizona lost to a team that’s in the same middle tier of the conference as the Lumberjacks. This time it was 35-27 to a Portland State team that picked up its first win of the year. Young Vikings quarterback Dante Chachere, who I thought showed some good things against Montana last week, was absolutely electric against a defense that actually gave him space to breathe, winning a co-Big Sky Player of the Week award after throwing for 274 yards, running for 128, leading PSU to four touchdowns on five first-half possessions and accounting for five total touchdowns in all. Chachere’s carrying skill is his escapability and downfield running ability, which showed up in places against the Griz but was absolutely electric against NAU.

Portland State will likely be eliminated from realistic playoff contention in two weeks against Weber State (the Vikings play D-II Lincoln in between) but have a very fun run of what should be competitive and winnable games after that in Idaho, Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado. Northern Arizona set a new season-high in points scored but has now lost three straight, and the run of three games that could have put NAU in playoff contention (vs. North Dakota, vs. Idaho, at Portland State) has instead taken the 1-4 Lumberjacks right out of it.

– Eastern Washington took a 3-0 lead at Florida after grinding out a 13-play, 49-yard drive to start the game. It took the Eags’ defense one play to give it back, allowing Anthony Richardson to hit Justin Shorter for a 75-yard touchdown, and EWU was down 35-3 at halftime in an eventual 52-17 loss. The Eagles have played a brutal schedule – two Power 5 teams and No. 4 Montana State included – but are last in the conference in both scoring and total defense. It’s one thing to give up a lot of points, but so far EWU can’t even make offenses work for their touchdowns. In addition to the opening touchdown, Florida also had another one-play, 76-yard “drive” later in the game, as well as a two-play, 71-yard drive.

– Sacramento State kept rolling by scoring the first four touchdowns of the game in an easy 49-21 win over Cal Poly. Cameron Skattebo continued his run at the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year award with 101 yards on 12 touches and three total touchdowns, and is still averaging 8.5 yards per carry through four games.

Cal Poly was the latest team to poke at the Hornets’ weakness, though, with 387 yards of total offense, and it didn’t all come in garbage time, either. The Mustangs had back-to-back-to-back drives in the first half that ended with turnovers on downs inside the Sac State 40. It’s pretty clear that Sacramento State can score with anybody. It’s less clear if the Hornets can get a stop against a good team when they really need to – and given they have national championship aspirations, that feels like a scenario that will come up at some point.