OGDEN, Utah — Over the last handful of years, Weber State has established a reputation as the bullies on the Big Sky Conference block.
Montana State had other ideas on Friday night at Stewart Stadium.
“We knew there was a new sheriff coming to town,” Montana State safety Ty Okada said.
In a nationally televised game in a picturesque yet modestly filled stadium along the Wasatch Front, Montana State’s defense laid down the law against a program that has used that exact formula to win four straight Big Sky titles.
The visitors went blow for blow with defending champs Wildcats. And when Daniel Hardy came off the edge for his fourth sack of the night, smashing WSU quarterback Bronson Barron for Montana State’s 11th third down stop in 13 Weber tries with 90 seconds to play, MSU could taste the knockout.
The final blow came when Bobcat quarterback Matt McKay kept the ball for the most important of the nine first downs Montana State earned to help the Bobcats secure the signature win of first-year head coach Brent Vigen’s tenure, at least thus far.
In the end, MSU’s unrelenting defense carried the night as the visiting Bobcats won in Ogden for the first time since 2013 by posting a 13-7 win over Weber State that pushes the Wildcats to the outside of the playoff picture at the midpoint of the season.
“That’s a huge win and we have a lot of respect for this program (Weber State), Coach (Jay) Hill, what they have been able to do,” Vigen said. “To come down here on a short week, they are coming off a bye, it wasn’t pretty and some would say we maybe beat them at their own game.
“We got the two turnovers and that was the biggest difference in the game. Credit to our guys to continue to fight and believe in each other. Big W down here, huge W.”
Montana State’s sixth straight victory came to a comprehensively dominant effort by a defensive unit that continues to show that its self-proclaimed, collective goal of being recognized as the best in the FCS is attainable.
Okada rolled up 11 tackles as WSU’s normally potent running game averaged 1.7 yards per carry. All-American senior Troy Andersen made tackles in open space, at the line of scrimmage and in the backfield, finishing with 10 total stops, a sack and three tackles for loss.
“This was no surprise to us but this feels good,” Okada said. “I knew we were ready. We normally get Sunday off but because of the short week we came in and the electricity went down in the building as soon as we started watching film.
“We were like, you know what? The cards are stacked against us and nobody complained. There was no excuses all week. I knew we would come in prepared.”
After the game, Okada could only joke, “The only guy you need to interview tonight is No. 44 (Hardy). What did he have, five sacks and 30 tackles?”
In truth, Hardy was credited with three sacks officially but arguably had 1.5 to two more than that once the official film is reviewed and scorekeeping corrections are made. That gives the wiry, explosive senior defensive end between eight and 10 sacks at the midpoint of his final season.
“He was one of those guys back to when we got hired in February, going back to training in the south dome, where I said, ‘That guy is going to be something,’” Vigen said. “The change in scheme and put him in a position to play d-end, put his hand down, I think we have a prototypical pass rusher. He plays with such passion, such energy and terrific effort.”
During one third quarter series, Hardy came off the edge, blew by the Weber offensive linemen whose efforts to block him proved futile. He over-ran the edge but still doubled back to chase Barron down from behind, punching the ball out so hard that it fluttered in the air until it landed in Andersen’s hands.
That forced turnover, one of two forced fumbles in a second half that saw MSU allow just two first downs in each the third and fourth quarters, set up the second of two Blake Glessner field goals.
Those kicks, the MSU redshirt freshman’s 12th and 13th field goals this season, served as the only points after the first quarter and the only points in a game that featured none in the final 18 minutes, 11 seconds of action.
“Phenomenal when you know the quarterback has about two seconds back there max and he’s getting hit in the face by Daniel Hardy,” Okada said. “That makes our job easy. All those guys up front, they make our jobs easy. You have guys like Chase (Benson), Amandre (Williams), Daniel, you know the quarterback has no time.”
The loss for Weber State drops the Wildcats to 2-4 this season and the brink. WSU has qualified for the FCS playoffs five consecutive times and won or shared the league title four times in a row, including during the most recent truncated spring season.
Weber State will need to win out and likely get help to qualify for the post season.
“This obviously comes down to not being as good as we need to offensively, “Weber State head coach Jay Hill said. “I also don’t think special teams did anything really to impact the game, which we need to do.
“We knew going in this was going to be two very good defenses going at it.”
Weber’s defense, spearheaded by All-American caliber defensive linemen Jared Scheiss and George Tarlas, stuffed Montana State’s Isaiah Ifanse for no gain on a fourth down try with 2:20 left.
Weber State held MSU’s league-leading rushing attack to 146 yards, nearly 70 yards below its average. WSU limited Ifanse, the league’s leading rusher entering the game, to 81 yards on 25 carries. He came into the game averaging 110 yards per game and 6.7 yards per carry this season.
Yet it wasn’t enough as Montana State won in Ogden for the first time since DeNarius McGhee was MSU’s quarterback in 2013 and for the first time since Hill’s first season in 2014 (a 23-13 WSU to MSU in Bozeman).
“I think Montana State is a very good team. They deserve a lot of credit,” Hill said. “They came in here and played hard-nosed, physical football and found a way to win.”
Friday’s action was featured on ESPN U, marking the second time a Big Sky Conference game has been picked up by the national sports broadcasting giant. As the Big Sky football watching world that lives in the Twitter-sphere bemoaned the seemingly endless string of punts, Montana State just kept on smacking Weber State around.
The Bobcat offense mustered not much of anything, gaining 222 yards and converting just one of its 14 first down attempts. Yet following Weber State’s 10-play, 97-yard drive to open the game, Montana State gave up six more first downs, 11 more rushing yards and 170 total yards. Ty MacPherson caught five passes for 95 yards and notched three of Weber State’s four second-half first downs. Other than that, the Wildcat offense ran into a brick wall.
“We just had to circle the wagons,” Hardy said. “Nobody flinched. We knew what we were in for. We knew this was going to be a fist fight and we just had to buckle down.”
Weber State All-American running back Josh Davis rushed four times for 26 yards on the opening drive, scoring Weber’s lone touchdown from nine yards out on a nice outside zone run in which the former Utah Gatorade Player of the Year showed his exceptional speed.
But with 8:32 left, he was stood up on an inside run play and blasted by a host of Bobcat defenders led by Okada, one of the most sharp and impressive tacklers in the league. Davis had to be carried off the field and appeared to be in serious pain while heavily favoring an apparent injury to his left leg.
“I thnk that was the mark – could we be the more physical team? Who would win the battle at the line of scrimmage?” Vigen said. “We got them into third and long all night and we got a lead so they were forced into pass mode and we could turn our guys loose and really make it hard on them.”
MacPherson’s final reception, a 17-yard gain, marked the only other offensive production for the Wildcats the rest of the game following Davis’ injury. Instead, Hardy rolled up a pair of fourth quarter sacks and the Bobcats slammed the door on the fourth and most impressive league win of Vigen’s young tenure leading the Bobcats.
“We just tell each other, that’s our job,” Okada said. “We play defense for Montana State and we take great pride in our tough, hard-nosed defense. We are going to play fast, we are going to play physical because that’s what we do. That’s the expectation. They have the ball, we are going to go out there and stop them.”
Photos contributed by Montana State and Weber State athletics. All Rights reserved.
