DAVIS, Calif. – Harangued all season by the media and fans for not looking like a championship
caliber team, the Montana State defense took center stage in a win for the first time in 2024 and
the timing couldn’t have been better.
After giving up a touchdown and two-point conversion on their second trip to the field, the
Bobcats all but shut down the second-best offense in the Big Sky for nearly 45 minutes before
all hell broke loose in a 30-28 nail-biting win over UC Davis.
“Credit to Davis,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “They really continued to fight, and they
got good players. We left the door open, and they made some plays that were really difficult.
Whether we beat them by two or 22, it doesn’t matter. We get another win and keep things
moving.
“We couldn’t get off the field on offense. It starts there. I know we got ourselves in a fourth and
two and we punted there. Defensively, you go into a little bit of a different mode. We didn’t tackle
well. On that long play (77-yard completion by UC Davis quarterback Miles Hastings) we gotta
tackle that guy (Chaz Davis). That should’ve been half the yards gained there that they actually
gained. Chaotic play before the two-minute timeout and it flipped the field.”
“They had dudes all over the field on offense,” MSU defensive end Zac Crews said. “Absolute
testimony to our guys on the outside. They had their work cut out all day long. They made plays
when they needed to step up.”
MSU had a season-high six sacks – one area oft criticized – and had held Aggie’ quarterback
Miles Hastings well below his season averages before the senior connected on several long
completions as UC Davis made a desperate comeback attempt and nearly sent the game into
overtime.
“Just attacking and hunting together,” Crews said of the six sacks that were all made by
Montana players. “We didn’t make a lot of mistakes, and we capitalized when their offense
made mistakes.”
“Starts with the guys up front,” Vigen said. “We got good pressure when we rushed four. Mixed it
up with linebackers. By and large shut the run game down for bulk of the game. I thought we
defended th ball in the air from time to time really but that didn’t happen at the end. They made
a couple plays too. We had a really good plan for them, but we just left the door open for them
at the end.”
This time the two-point conversion was intercepted by McCade O’Reilly. It was the second
interception of the game by MSU, even though interceptions on two-point conversions don’t
count on the stat sheet for a player. MSU also forced and recovered a fumble in the midst of
dominating the core of the game when Crews knocked the ball loose and Neil Daily pounced on
it.
“Ultimately it came down to a couple plays and our defense came up with those plays when they
needed to,” Crews said. “It’s easy to get down on yourself when they score like that. You bounce
up and get the play call and the next down is big.”
The Bobcats are now 11-0 for the first time and have a chance to at least tie, if not set, a Big
Sky record by winning their 12 th regular season game this Saturday against rival Montana.
“It feels amazing but we gotta go ‘one-and-oh’ next week,” Crews said. “We’ve had an amazing
season so far, but the season’s not over yet.”
