Montana State knew it had to find No. 44 before each snap on Saturday evening.
The Bobcats entered Saturday night’s matchup with Sacramento State with a specific game plan to slow down Darnell Sankey. The Hornets’ middle linebacker came into the game leading the nation with 14.2 tackles per game. Sac frequently uses stunts and variations along its defensive line in an effort to keep blockers off Saneky and let the 6-foot-2, 255-pound converted defensive end run sideline to sideline.
Sac State linebacker Darnell Sankey (44) pre-snap vs. MSU
Sankey finished Saturday night with nine tackles but only two solo stops. The burly middle linebacker was largely unnoticeable until the fourth quarter. Montana State rushed for 234 yards on 38 carries, averaging 6.2 yards per carry and scoring four of its five touchdowns on the ground.
“Our game plan was to get a hat on him every play. He came up to me after the game and he was like, ‘Man, I had so many dudes blocking me,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that was our game plan’ and he turned to his buddy and was like, ‘I told you they was doing something weird,’” said Montana State junior quarterback Dakota Prukop after totaling 346 yards of total offense. Prukop and Sankey spent time together at the Big Sky Kickoff media conference in Park City, Utah in July.
Montana State jumped out to a 14-0 lead and cruised to a 35-13 victory on Saturday night. MSU totaled 511 offensive yards despite possessing the ball for just 24:59. MSU notched 19 first downs — the Bobcats entered the game averaging nearly 29 a game — but moved the ball when it needed to thanks in large part to a priority on blocking Sankey.
“Sankey was all over the place in the beginning,” MSU head coach Rob Ash said. “I know they blitzed him a couple of times and we were able to pick him up a couple of times and get away from him. They didn’t blitz much after that. We really settled them down into a very basic defensive scheme because when they did try to bring pressure, we were getting some big plays on those.”
MSU running back Gunnar Brekke breaks a run
Gunnar Brekke’s key 44-yard burst inside the Sac 10 on fourth down from midfield helped set up MSU’s third touchdown late in the second quarter and occurred against the blitz. Late in the third, Prukop scrambled against Sac blitzing pressure and, after three or four full seconds, found senior tight end Beau Sandland for a 48-yard gain to set up Brekke’s first touchdown of the season to give MSU a 28-13 lead.
“We had that mentality that we can handle these guys,” Sankey said. “We are the same caliber, Division I, same kind of team. We had to lock in and once we did that, we hung with them. But we couldn’t keep up.”
Montana State scored a 79-yard touchdown on the second play of the game as sophomore Mitchell Herbert took an intermediate pass, broke a tackle, turned on the jets and then hit the brakes. Herbert slowed down to wait for senior slot receiver Mitch Griebel to get in front of him. Griebel pancaked the final Sac defender and Herbert celebrated his fifth touchdown of the season.
“I was just trying to set up my blockers,” Herbert said. “Mitch did an awesome job blocking. I just had to run. I think Justin Paige made a huge, key block on that too. They made my job easy.”
“It was really nice (to score), but the most important part was we got the win.”
The Bobcats shot out to a 14-0 lead before the game was four minutes old. But the Sac State defense locked in for a good portion of the next two quarters. Montana State punted on four straight possessions, a rare occasion for a team averaging 582 yards of total offense and 46.5 points per game.
MSU running back Chad Newell rumbles through a slew of Sac State defenders
“They had some keys on some of our formations and were doing some stunts that crossed up our blocking scheme,” Ash said of Sac’s good streak of stout defense. “Our run game got stopped for a minute. I thought (offensive line) Coach (Jason) Eck and (offensive coordinator) Coach (Tim) Cramsey did a good job of figuring out what was going on, what they were doing and then we went to another set of adjustments to run some of those plays. That was a concerning stretch of the game right there.”
Montana State used its speed on the perimeter to build the big lead. With the inside run game stuffed for most of the rest of the first half, MSU needed a big play. On fourth down and four yards to go, Brekke ripped off his 44-yard run. Two plays later, Prukop waltzed into the end-zone on a perfectly executed naked bootleg quarterback keeper.
“(Brekke) read it perfectly,” Prukop said. “It was a little birthday run we call it, since it was his birthday. He had an awesome game and he read power extremely well.”Jason
During the offensive drought, MSU’s defense allowed a 23-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Kolney Cassel to senior wide receiver Nnamdi Agude. Sac earned a field goal to cut the lead to 14-10. The Montana State defense buckled down for the rest of the half. The Bobcats allowed three points the rest of the game.
The defense just kept coming, stop after stop. After two of them, you start thinking, ‘Well, our defense is a brick wall today.’ It’s nice to know they can do that,” Prukop said. “It takes a lot of stress off. It doesn’t turn into a situation where you feel you have to score on every single drive, every single play.”
“We got pressure on the quarterback and I think it was a combination of some things we did with our coverage — we changed things up a little bit — and they weren’t able to just pull the trigger knowing exactly where they wanted to go with the ball,” Ash said. “We also dialed up some pressure that were unusual that I don’t think they had seen.”
Montana State defenders Joe Naotala, Zach Hutchins, and Mac Bignell line up in odd front
Montana State notched three sacks and six more quarterback hurries, amounting to the most pressure the Bobcats have put on an opposing Division I passer this season.
“(Defensive line) Coach (Bo) Beck really motivated us this week, really got us going and we also ran some of our odd blitzes, which was really nice,” junior defensive end Zach Hutchins said.
“The young guys are starting to figure it out but more it’s the DBs and the d-line are more on the same page. We are helping them out, they are helping us out. That’s the biggest difference.”
Sac State running back Jordan Robinson rushed for 108 yards on 17 first-half carries before pulling his hamstring. He did not receive a second-half carry.
With Sac trailing 21-10, sophomore quarterback Kolney Cassel led the Hornets on a 17-play drive. Midway through the possession, senior defensive tackle Nate Bignell and junior defensive end Jessie Clark smeared Cassel, separating his shoulder. He stayed in the game only to take another big hit, this one by senior defensive tackle Taylor Sheridan. Sac mustered a field goal and Cassel did not return to the game. Following the game, he wore a sling and Sac head coach Jody Sears said he suffered a third-degree separation.
Sac State running back Jordan Robinson
Cassel, an SMU transfer, was making his second straight start after starter Daniel Kniffin injured his shoulder in a 28-20 loss to Eastern Washington. Sac has seen an injury plague across the board as all three levels of its defense have seen starters miss starts. Offensively, the Hornets appear to be down to fourth-string quarterback Nate Ketteringham, a true freshman. Alexis Robinson, a freshman transfer from Baylor, is not on the Sac State travel roster.
“Never. I will never make excuses,” said Sears when asked if he felt snake bitten with his team’s slew of injuries. “We have good kids, good leadership, the kids kept fighting their hearts out.”
Montana State had an injury scare for a brief moment on its first offensive play of the second half. Junior All-America guard J.P. Flynn went down in an apparent amount of pain following a Chad Newell five-yard gain. He was carried off the field. The MSU drive resulted in a punt. Sac’s long drive ensued. Almost seven minutes of game time later, the MSU offense took the field with Flynn back in the lineup.
“That’s one of the benefits of having a sixth man. We have trust in (sophomore) Dylan Mahoney,” Prukop said. “In the moment, you have a lot of stuff going on. Really, it wasn’t a revenge thing but we were like, ‘Let’s get one for J.P., let’s get this drive back for J.P.’ He ended up being all right. We were real thankful, real blessed for that.”
Sophomore defensive end Tyrone Fa’anono was called for taunting after Sheridan’s night ending hit on Cassel. The penalty awarded the Hornets a first down inside the MSU 5. The Bobcat defense rallied thanks a tackle at the line of scrimmage on the very next play.
MSU defenders Mac Bignell, Tucker Yates & Des Carter stuff Sac running back Jordan Robinson
“I thought one of the big plays of the game was the play right after that taunting penalty when Mac Bignell beat his blocker, came underneath, tackled the running back in the backfield and seemed to say to everybody, ‘Hey, even though we just gave up that first down, we are still not going to cave in,” Ash said. “I thought Mac’s play right there was pivotal. We got them stopped and held them to a field goal, which was a good job.”
Entering the game, Montana State was surrendering 44 points per game to Division I opponents. The Bobcats were giving up 526 yards per game over their last three. On Saturday, MSU allowed 142 yards after halftime.
With a 35-13 lead and 10:16 to play, Sac took possession and began to march. The Hornets used a few first-down completions by Kettingham and a pass interference call to move to the MSU 6. On second down, MSU true freshman cornerback Tre’Von Strong broke up a pass. On third down, Kettingham threw incomplete. On fourth down, MSU sophomore Blake Braun pushed Kettingham out at the two for MSU’s final stop.
“I think the goal line stand at the end was big for our defense,” Ash said. “To be able to do that and show at the end of the game there that we are going to win with a big defensive play, I thought that was big for our confidence, big for our guys feeling good about ourselves on that side of the ball.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reversed.
