MISSOULA, Montana — The list of ways to go toe to toe with Montana in the first half, or even the first three quarters, of a football game continues to mount.
And the variety of ways the Grizzlies are finding to dominate the fourth quarter of those football games also continues to grow.
On a beautiful, breezy homecoming Saturday in Missoula, Cal Poly shut out the explosive Grizzly offense over the first 30 minutes. Montana did not score a point in the first half of a football game for the first time since a 35-3 loss at Oregon in September of 2019.
But in the second half, Montana’s defense put down the clamps, harassing Ty Dieffenbach relentlessly and causing the 6-foot-6 smooth yet erratic Cal Poly quarterback to throw four interceptions and eventually get benched.
When Diffenbach went to the sideline and Bo Kelly came in, the song remained the same as Cal Poly’s “other” starting quarterback went 1-of-6 for 0 yards before Dieffenbach came back in the game.
Kenzel Lawler’s interception return for a touchdown early in the third quarter got Montana on the board. And once the Griz regained the momentum, UM leaned on Eli Gillman and the run game to bury the Mustangs.
After halftime, Montana forced three turnovers as Lawler, senior cornerback Prince Ford and senior linebacker Geno Leonard all picked off Dieffenbach. That helped contribute to a defensive effort that saw Montana give up 21 second half yards and one first down before putting in its reserves.
And Gillman rushed for 50 of his 123 yards on one defining touchdown drive that pushed the UM advantage to an almost unsurmountable 21-9 before punching in another 13-yard touchdown with 1:55 left that proved to be the final nail in the upstart Mustangs’ coffins.
Montana possessed the ball for nearly 24 of the 30 second half minutes and used that advantage to score 28 unanswered points in a game that went from an upset bid to a runaway for a 4th-ranked Griz team that has now won six games in a row following the 28-9 homecoming win.
“It was two halves differently for us offensively, but the defense played exceptionally well throughout,” UM head coach Bobby Hauck said after moving to 13-1 on homecoming as the head coach at his alma mater. “The defense was just terrific today.
“Finding different ways to win is maybe a hallmark of what this program is built on. We did that again today. I think we have a good football team. I think we met up with a team that was really ready to play and had a good plan for us and we were ready to go as well. We had to finally get to the point where we were executing on the offensive side but we played exceptionally through the game on the defensive side and that carried us.”
Montana found itself trailing late in the first half of its opener against Central Washington only to score 28 straight points to win going away.
The following week, Montana trailed by nine points in with 10 minutes to play against North Dakota but operated its hurry-up offense impressively in scoring 10 straight points down the stretch to gut out a 24-23 win over a Fighting Hawks team that should move up from No. 13 in the national polls after moving to 4-2 with a 35-17 win over No. 20 Youngstown State on Saturday.
Montana dominated Indiana State in a 63-20 runaway and controlled the game from start to finish of a 41-30 drubbing of No. 8 Idaho, a pair of wins that helped accelerate the hype and subsequent national championship aspirations for a program that hasn’t claimed a national title in nearly a quarter century.
When the Griz scored 42 in a four-point win at Idaho State last week, plenty of questions lingered about the Montana defense but the juice behind the offense seemed different than any Grizzly team in recent memory. Keali’i Ah Yat threw for 350 yards and Michael Wortham rolled up all-purpose yards in bunches as the Griz moved the ball up and down the field at will.
So when Cal Poly’s defense stifled the Grizzlies on Saturday, many of the 26,347 fans (11th-largest crowd in Washington-Grizzly Stadium history) were probably left wondering what was messing with the Grizzlies’ mojo.
Once Montana figured out Cal Poly’s pre-snap looks and switching coverage on the back end, and once the Griz started leaning on the Mustangs with their run game, the hosts flipped the script and ran away with the win.
“They might’ve beaten us on a couple of plays in the first half but we knew they couldn’t hang with us, so we’re just wearing and tearing them down,” said Gillman after rushing for 123 yards and three touchdowns, giving him 713 yards and 11 rushing touchdowns already this season. “And that’s kind of what you saw in the second half, is us just keeping our foot on the pedal.”
Lawler’s pick-six flipped the momentum in Montana’s favor. And Gillman-heavy touchdown drives in the fourth quarter helped lay the hammer down on the Mustangs. But perhaps the most pivotal possession of the game came early in the fourth quarter.
The Montana defense forced a 3-and-out that resulted in a punt even though Cal Poly started the possession at mid-field. Jesse Ehlrich, who had an up and down day as CP’s punter, pinned UM at their own 4-yard line with five minutes to go in the third quarter.
After Ah Yat endured one of the two sacks the sophomore QB took on Saturday, he gave the Griz some breathing room by hitting Stevie Rocker Jr. for a 41-yard catch and run in which the running back glided over the middle of the field and into Cal Poly territory. The methodical drive continued as Ah Yat completed passes to Michael Wortham and Brooks Davis.
But UM faced a third and 9 from the Cal Poly 34 and Davis’ eight-yard reception came up a yard short of the sticks as the third quarter buzzer sounded.
Montana executed its version of the “Tush Push” or the “Brotherly Shove” or whatever you want to call the Philadelphia Eagles’ version of the quarterback sneak as Ah Yat gave the Griz a new set of downs. Four plays later, Ah Yat threw a perfect pass to a streaking Wortham who beat a Cal Poly defensive back out of the slot with a beautiful fade route that resulted in a 24-yard touchdown and gave Montana its first lead, 14-9. The 96-yard drive gave the Griz a lead it would not relinquish.
“The third and long was big and the fourth down was big,” Hauck said. “When they downed the ball on the four, we talked about ‘Hey, let’s put a drive together, what do we like, let’s go take the lead for the first time in this game.
“It was sort of like that a week ago. When you are playing behind for a long span of time, it’s a relief to get the lead and that’s why we went for it on fourth down. We were trying to get that play off before the third quarter ended because we had the wind with us. It became a go for it play going into the wind because Ty (Morrison) wasn’t hitting the ball particularly well today, so that was part of the factor of going for it.
“I know we should kick a field goal, take the lead 10-9, but college kicker, not hitting the ball well, cross wind into his face, said go for it, let’s see if we can get it. Analytics don’t take those sort of things into consideration.”
By the time the final buzzer sounded, Montana had a convincing with because of a convincing fourth quarter. UM piled up 11 first downs and Cal Poly had one in the final frame. Montana had the ball for almost 12 minutes, converted four of its five third down tries and its lone fourth down conversion, and the hosts scored 21 unanswered points thanks in part to rushing for 103 of its 177 yards on the ground.
It all amounted nearly 40 minutes in time of possession, 27 first downs and 434 yards of total offense in a game where production was almost non-existent in the first half.
And it all amounts to a Griz team that has looked vulnerable at times and appears to have some defined weaknesses at certain position groups that is also a Griz team that is showing its among the best in the country at playing a full 60 minutes and finishing games.
“That’s how we are trained, that’s how we practice is to keep going for every single second of the clock,” Gillman said. “At some point, they are going to break. And we’re not quitting until the clock hits zero.”
