MISSOULA – A college football blowout can be an awful thing. The score gets wider and wider, the afternoon stretches on and on, and suddenly you realize that instead of accentuating all of the pomp and circumstance and ceremony and fun of the sport, the action on the field is a somnolent counterweight to all those trappings, turning them sour and turning the entire affair into an interminable inevitability.
Shortly after Montana went up 14-0 when Nick Ostmo – having already taken his second touch of the game for an 18-yard catch-and-run touchdown – took his fourth touch of the game for an 80-yard scoring right up the middle, the Grizzlies’ game against Eastern Washington on Saturday entered that drowsy twilight zone.
It made the week’s Monte Movie – a rumination on the sleeping habits of the famous bear – a little too on the nose. By the time the production aired on GrizVision, heading into the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies led 56-7.
In fact, the injury status of Montana quarterback Lucas Johnson going into next week’s titanic rivalry matchup against Montana State – which the Griz have to win to be assured of a playoff spot – will be the biggest flashpoint coming out of this comprehensive rout.
Johnson stayed down on the field after being dragged down while escaping to his right late in the second quarter, and although he eventually walked off the field, he never returned to the game and spent the second half on the Griz sideline on crutches.
There was no update on Johnson’s status in the postgame press conference. The Griz are 7-1 this year when Johnson plays a majority of the game, and 0-2 when he misses significant time.
For fans (and, worse, writers) who like to pick and prod and analyze, there was very little else to take away from the final score, which eventually turned out to be 63-7.
Does Ostmo’s 471 total yards and six touchdowns in the last two weeks – against two of the worst defenses in the country – make him the true focal point back the Griz have been looking for all year?
Does smoking – rolling up and lighting on fire – two teams with a combined three wins mean the Grizzlies have recovered from the three-game losing streak that threatened to sink their season?
Does scoring 121 unanswered points over three separate games mean Montana has regained its prideful place in the upper reaches of the FCS firmament?
Bobby Hauck thinks so: “If I was going to summarize it,” Hauck said postgame, brows knitted together solemnly, “I’d just say that the reports of the demise of the Montana Grizzlies were greatly exaggerated.”
Hauck’s verdict aside, some teams, even in a loss, might have pushed the Griz towards answering those questions.
On Saturday, the Eastern Washington Eagles, a mess of bad drops, missed throws and stuffed run plays – and that was just on offense, their better side of the ball – were not that team.
A simple 5-yard touchdown throw from Johnson to Keelan White gave the Griz a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Ostmo added 2-yard and 23-yard touchdown runs in the second quarter, and Isiah Childs crashed over the goal line from 2 yards out on the play after Johnson’s injury to make it 42-0 at halftime.
It is easy to be cynical about a game that’s decided by the end of the first quarter and decidedly over by halftime. Watching it, covering it, it’s easy for the next two suspense-less hours to feel like a chore, easy to grumble and sigh, turn away and lose attention.
Luckily, even in the turgid mess of a second half with a 50-point spread, we were reminded of the fundamental unfairness of that inclination, ignorant and dismissive as it is of the players on the field.
The game is boring? Sure. Try telling that to the discerning Griz fan’s favorite obsession Daniel Britt, who replaced Kris Brown as Montana’s backup quarterback and played the entire second half, knifing around tackle on read-options for 73 yards on eight carries, and recording both his first career passing touchdown (on a lofted 15-yard ball to Cole Grossman after Garrett Graves nearly returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown) and rushing touchdown (on a 22-yard scamper up the middle).
Or to Bozeman High’s Brady Lang, who ran two inside slant routes early in the fourth quarter for the first two catches of his career.
Or to hyped freshman running back Eli Gillman, who bulled over a defender in the hole on the first carry of his career and then, on the very next play, turned his second carry into his first-ever touchdown, breaking through the right side of the line and going 19 yards for the score.
“We put them in because we think they can succeed. These guys play every game,” Hauck said, indicating safety Robby Hauck and center A.J. Forbes to his right and left. “All of those guys are training, and have the same requirements. So if Pad(raig) Lang gets in at safety, subs (Robby) out, he’s been working just as hard as he has all year long. So when Brady went in and made that catch, you saw the eruption on our sideline. You saw how it was when Gillman got the touchdown. They’re fired up for them, as am I.”
Or, especially, Alex Hurlburt, sophomore by eligibility but celebrating his senior day as he prepares to move on from his football career, hitting the field for a few final plays on the Washington-Grizzly Stadium turf.
From the ivory tower of the press box or the slowly dwindling ranks of fans in the stands (the attendance was generously announced as Montana’s fourth consecutive sellout – 25,403), Saturday’s game might pass in and out of memory as quickly as Nick Ostmo slicing through the hole.
But, when you think about it, they’re not the ones whose memories will matter.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Right Reserved.
