Big Sky Notebook: Bobcats making a habit of tight wins
Nov. 9—The Montana State Bobcats are 8-1, ranked third in the Football Championship Division and if all their wins aren't of the blowout variety, they're still wins.
That number eight looks really good.
"To have it play out where we're in these tight games, and continue to find a way to win... I suppose it is a good thing, I guess," Montana State coach Brent Vigen said Monday, a couple days after the Bobcats beat Northern Arizona 41-38. "I'd rather not give up a 17-point lead and all of sudden find ourselves down at halftime.
"If it's character-building or hardening us for something down the road, I don't know. But I do appreciate that our guys are fully bought into that mindset of. 'Hey, every game is its own, and every opponent is going to give us their best shot.'"
The Bobcats had lost five straight "dome" games heading to the Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, though to be fair a couple were in North Dakota State's FargoDome. And you figured NAU, coming in at 2-3 in Big Sky games and 3-5 overall, might be cannon fodder for one of the best running offenses in the FCS.
Instead the Lumberjacks got 451 passing yards from sophomore RJ Martinez and traded touchdowns with the Cats most of the second half. Blake Gessner's chip-shot field won it as the clock hit :00.
A day and a half later Vigen didn't grade the Bobcat offense highly.
"Offensively did we need to go for all those deep balls? I think not," he said at one point. Later Vigen added: "They played more man-to-man, and press man in particular. So that creates on some of those calls, the "go" ball. The one inside fade to Willie (Patterson), we go up 21-0 if we hit that, and we should hit that in our sleep."
That said, the scrambling throw Tommy Mellott made to true freshman Taco Dowler for 64 yards, setting up that Glessner game winner? You can't do it better.
"That's unscripted, and that's what the play was from that point, that Tommy gets loose," Vigen said. "Taco did the right thing; he got on top of the defense. And fortunately Tommy saw him and really threw a perfect ball."
Can't SLO down
The Bobcats next have a road game to Cal Poly, which was pushed around by the Montana Grizzlies 57-0 Saturday.
Vigen noted that Beau Baldwin coached current Cal Poly quarterback Spencer Brasch when both were at Cal, Baldwin as offensive coordinator. Now both are in San Luis Obispo.
"They're dangerous. Passing-wise," Vigen said of the Mustangs. "And you look at what we gave up passing wise, we'd better figure it out."
Brasch managed just 150 yards with an interception against the Grizzlies.
"That game got away from them pretty quickly," Vigen said, before adding the Mustangs lost narrowly at NAU (31-29) and Eastern Washington (17-10). The Cats won both places, by three points each time.
"They're dangerous and they're going back home," he said of the Mustangs.
Storm Squared
Having a far easier time was Montana, which ran roughshod over the Mustangs to the tune of 412 yards rushing and 695 total while snapping a three-game losing streak.
The Griz weren't running it up — Marcus Knight didn't have a carry from around 5:00 of the second quarter on (a gain of 7 yards; he seemed to have been shaken up) — they were just running it. Sixty-two times, including six runs by third-string QB Daniel Britt.
It was a game where punter Patrick Rohrbach wasn't called upon and fellow Glacier High alum Patrick O'Connell didn't play (leg). They weren't needed.
Montana safety Nash Fouch called it a double-storm, a combination of at times heavy snow and angry Griz.
"There's a couple things that go into the energy we had," Fouch said Monday. "One, we had a tough month of October and I think we came out and everybody had some pent-up aggression to get out.
"That was part of it, but I think the snow was huge for us. Me personally, that's the coolest game I've been a big part of. I think it kind of just kick-started us when it started coming down pretty hard in the first quarter."
Eagles Fly in
Looking ahead, the Grizzlies next host Eastern Washington at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Eagles still throw the ball a ton but have slipped to the bottom of the Big Sky (2-7 overall, 1-5 in league) with five straight losses.
That's despite some big numbers put up by Eagles quarterback Gunner Talkington.
"They aren't going to be way different. There's a lot of big plays both in the run and pass game, but a lot of them in the pass game," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said. "No. 1, (Freddie) Roberson, is a big-play guy, but he's not the only one.
"We're really concerned with their screen game. It's prevalent throughout, in every down and distance. We have a big week ahead."
Vandals Rocking
Eastern is coming off a 48-16 loss at Idaho, which continues to impress under first-year head coach Jason Eck.
Hayden Hatten, who people forget was really good in the spring of 2021 but was injured most of last fall, caught four TDs, tying a school record held by three Vandals: Jerry Hendren (1966), Yo Murphy (1992) and Justin Veltung (2010).
The Eagles led the game 3-0 and picked off a Javani McCoy pass on Idaho's second possession. But they gave the ball back on downs on back-to-back stops by Idaho's "Takeaway Tommy" McCormick. Hatten and the Vandals (6-3, 5-1 in the league) were soon off and running — and by the way Idaho rushed for over 300 yards Saturday.
"With six wins, we clinch a winning season for our program," Eck told the Spokesman-Review. "But we're not done yet."
