BOZEMAN, Montana — The Bobcats wasted little time dispatching of the Bengals.
Sean Chambers continued to do Sean Chambers things in Montana State’s homecoming game in front of more than 21,000 at Bobcat Stadium Saturday, scoring three times on the ground in the first half alone to stake MSU to a 34-6 halftime lead.
The hosts cruised from there the second half en route to a 37-6 win over Idaho State to stay perfect in Big Sky Conference play.
Chambers scored on runs of 4, 13, and 6 yards and now has 15 rushing touchdowns on the season. The MSU record is 21 set by Troy Andersen in 2018. Chambers also completed 16 of 22 passes for 150 yards, almost all of them in the first half.
The Bobcats, now 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Sky Conference, forced five turnovers and didn’t allow any to keep ISU at bay.
“Anytime you’re plus five like that, you’re gonna be hard to beat,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said after moving to 17-4 during . “We had a great drive to answer (ISU’s opening score) and then James (Campbell) got the pick the next time and we kept taking the ball away.”
Unlike every game they’ve played this season the Bobcats had no plays over 23 yards. A week after Chambers scored on 78 and 65 yard runs MSU was much more methodical, yet still dominant offensively. MSU’s opening drive went 71 yards in 11 plays. The Bobcats had four more possessions of 12 plays or more before the day was over.
“You want to be able to handle whatever situations you’re put in,” Vigen said. “If it’s got to be a kind of grind it out game, then you get yourself into third down situations and you gotta be able to convert that. We grew situationally today.”
Likewise on defense the Bobcats, after the opening drive, never allowed a play over 22 yards. ISU connected on a 36-yard pass play for a touchdown on the fourth playoff the game. MSU has been gashed by huge plays on defense all season.
“At times they’re going to complete some balls in front of us and we got to tackle it and I thought we did a lot better with that today,” Vigen said.
Other than the first 1:36 of the game, everything went right for MSU. The Bobcats rattled off 34 points in scoring on all six if their first half possessions. ISU took the opening kickoff and scored in just four plays but missed the extra point in what was a portend of things to come for the Bengals.
MSU answered with a contrasting 11 play, 71-yard drive culminated by RJ Fitzgerald’s second career touchdown run to give MSU a lead it would never come close to relinquishing. The Bengals (0-6, 0-3) had just 75 total yards the rest of the first half.
Blake Glessner kicked two first half field goals (40, 27) to account for the rest of the scoring. He added a 48-yard field goal in the third quarter.
The Bengals seemed content to run the clock in the second half as they ran the ball on nearly 80 percent of their plays.
Lane Sumner ran for 100 yards on 15 carries in his first action since the season-opening Gold Rush game. Elijah Elliott had 16 rushes for 68 yards. Backup quarterback Sean Austin was impressive in the fourth quarter after replacing Chambers. He was eight-for-eight passing for 60 yards and drove MSU into field goal position in the waning moments only to come away empty after Glessner had a his 27-yard attempt partially blocked.
ISU’s quarterback Sagan Gronauer was solid in defeat. He completed 16 of 23 passes for 173 yards, but was intercepted three times.
The Bobcats have begun to feature a triangle backfield called “Delta” formation. MSU puts 6-3, 300-pound offensive lineman Omar Aigbedion and 6-3, 285-pound defensive lineman Devin Slaughter, an Army veteran, on each side of Chambers, who’s in the shotgun. MSU converted two first downs against the Bengals in that formation.
Along with Campbell’s interception, safety Jeffrey Manning and linebacker Callahan O’Reilly also snared picks. O’Reilly forced a fumble in the first half, which was recovered by Ty Okada. The final play of the game saw Nolan Askelson force a fumble and Level Price, Jr. recovered.
“It felt great to finally get one,” Manning said of his first interception after having three near misses this season. “Hopefully they start coming in bunches. We knew they’d put the ball in the air, so we knew we had to attack it.”
MSU finished the game with a 4.9 per rush average, which is its lowest of the season. Oregon State held MSU to 5.1 yards per carry. This game saw the Bobcats in a short field on several occasions, which likely had an effect on their average.
“We have the utmost confidence in whoever’s running the ball,” MSU center Justus Perkins said. “Whoever’s toting the rock we’re going to get them moving.”
MSU was able to use two running backs (Elliott and Sumner) as a core of its running game for the first time since the season opener due to having a slew of injuries at the position. They combined for 168 yards on 31 carries. Freshman Garrett Coon was impressive in the fourth quarter where he ran for 34 yards on just five carries and also caught a team-high four passes for 34 yards.
For the first time since the Gold Rush game MSU got more rushing yards from its running backs than its quarterbacks. The running backs had 202 yards on 39 carries, while the quarterbacks had 46 yards on 13 rushes.
The Bobcats finished with 465 total yards and allowed just 254, including just 178 after ISU’s first possession. MSU had the ball for over 40 minutes as the run game had 52 carries for 255 yards to monopolize the clock.
MSU is back in action next week when they travel to Greeley, Colo. to take on Northern Colorado. Game time is set for 1:00.
