As the sample size grows, it seems Montana State’s defensive struggles have as much to do with where the Bobcats play as any other factor.
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With Saturday’s dominant 63-7 victory over East Tennessee State in the final non-conference game of the season, the Bobcats moved to 4-0 at Bobcat Stadium. Although the home slate has been much more forgiving in terms of quality of opponent — MSU has played just two Division I teams, a pair that have combined for three Division I wins — the Bobcat defense still seems to excel at home and flail on the road. MSU is giving up 15.5 points per game at home in wins over ETSU, Division II Fort Lewis and Big Sky Conference cellar dwellers Sacramento State and Cal Poly. Montana State is surrendering 53.5 points per game on the road as MSU has lost all three of its road games this season, five straight road games overall and seven of their last nine road games dating back to 2013.
On Saturday, Montana State hits the road again to face North Dakota team mired by a three-game losing streak. Montana State’s last road win came more than a year ago when MSU put a 77-37 whooping on UC Davis. The situation this season has become dire; Montana State has three Division I wins with four games to play, meaning the Bobcats cannot lose if they hope to qualify for the FCS playoffs for the fifth time since 2010.
“These guys have to understand that it doesn’t matter where we are playing, when we step on the field, we are competing,” Montana State first-year defensive coordinator and longtime assistant Kane Ioane said. “We just have to continue to instill good habits in our guys every single day.”
Since a 54-29 loss at Eastern Washington in which the Eagles scored on all eight of their possessions and sent Montana State into a three-game tailspin that kept them out of the playoffs, the Bobcats have had a hard time finding their footing away from Bozeman. Montana State’s two road wins came in back to back weeks in California as Dakota Prukop piled up nearly 1,000 total yards of offense and accounted for 14 touchdowns as MSU scored 136 points. Still, the defense struggled, MSU needed 59 points to win at Sacramento State by three points and the 77 points at Davis was partially because the Aggies were able to stay in the game until midway through the third quarter.
Montana State is surrendering 46.4 points per game during its current five-game road skid. MSU lost a close game at Cal Poly (35-27) before suffering a lopsided loss in Missoula to Montana (34-7) last fall. Montana State’s 55-50 loss at Eastern Washington and 49-41 loss at Northern Arizona were not as close as the score indicates. And two weeks ago against Portland State, MSU surrendered touchdowns on eight consecutive drives while allowing a PSU school record 465 rushing yards in a 59-42 loss.
Montana State ninth-year head coach Rob Ash fielded several questions about his team’s road struggles during Tuesday’s weekly meeting with the media. As is becoming commonplace, he deflected them all.
“I’m going to address this question like I always do when there is a reference to the past: We don’t really operate like that. We don’t talk about past situations,” said Ash, who is 27-22 on the road during his time at MSU. “What we are doing is addressing this practice plan right now, this trip, the details of this trip, what we are trying to do on the field, how we are going to motivate our guys, what sort of strategy we want to use in this game. That’s really the focus right now. We think the previous trips have no bearing on this trip. We have to learn from them. We have carried on some, gotten some ideas out of each of the game plans and each of the trips but right now we just have to look forward.”
When asked what his team might be able to learn from its previous road trips, especially the three losses on the road this season that have been characterized by a sputtering second-quarter offense and a defense that looks hopeless to ever earn a key stop, Ash again referenced nothing but the present and the future.
“I don’t even go there,” Ash said when asked what he has learned from this season’s three-game road losing streak. “Really. Whatever we have in the past. You can go back eight years and pick out numbers on the road and maybe it’s not as bad. To me, they are meaningless statistics because those games have happened and you can’t change what happened. We do need to learn from every game we play and we try to do that but we really don’t focus on it. We’ve got to emphasize what’s in front of us.”
Montana State has played one time in Grand Forks, North Dakota since UND joined the league. The Bobcats saw the surprise return of starting quarterback DeNarius McGhee from an injury that had cost him the past two weeks. McGhee provided a spark as MSU jumped out to a 42-7 first-half lead behind five Cody Kirk touchdowns. McGhee sat during the second half as MSU cruised to a 63-20 victory.
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
