Analysis

BIG SKY SCRAMBLE: Griz and Wildcats keep rolling, Chambers fills in for MSU

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I finally remembered what I called this piece last year, so welcome back to the Big Sky Scramble! Every week, we’ll cover every game from around the Big Sky, going beyond the box score with analysis and thoughts on every team. This week: chaos in Missoula, dominant defense at UC Davis and Sean Chambers sending messages in Cheney.

NOTES COLUMN

I wrote after Montana’s win over Portland State about how disorienting and overwhelming covering the Grizzlies in full flight was, let alone going against them. In that spirit, I don’t have an overarching analysis of the Griz from Saturday, but here are some unconnected, random thoughts, with accompanying video:

Portland State’s opening touchdown was so sweet, especially coming the play after the Vikings lined up in the same two-back formation and handed it to the back going left. Watch all the over-pursuing Griz defenders wheel around in synchronization like a pack of golden retrievers watching a squirrel run past.

This play shows how badly the Griz want to keep and ratchet up momentum at all times (click here for more on that from Nuanez). On PSU’s first offensive play after Junior Bergen’s great punt return touchdown brought the energy into Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Montana brings six and Marcus Welnel rockets up the middle to sack Dante Chachere and turn up the noise even more.

Portland State had an awful time picking up that specific blitz, with Welnel getting free up the A-gap at least three times in the first half. Here’s another example. Montana is bringing more guys than Portland State can block, but the linebacker attacking the A-gap is the one you absolutely have to get a body on. Make one of the defensive ends go around the edge untouched instead. On this play Chachere actually escapes Welnel and gets a couple yards. I was impressed with Portland State’s young quarterback in the first half. Montana was bringing pressure and overwhelming the Vikings offensive line, but Chachere was usually making the first person miss. The issue is that Montana’s defense brings waves after that first guy.

One of my notes just says, “Junior Bergen would be terrifying (to tackle) in a phonebooth lol,” and it wasn’t even about his 72-yard punt return touchdown, but about this 3-yard gain later in the first half.

Montana’s offense continues to evolve to take advantage of the Grizzlies’ stable of playmakers. Check out this play from late in the first quarter. There’s a running back releasing to the flat out of the three-back “pod” formation, but that’s really just a max-protect two-man passing concept with Malik Flowers and Aaron Fontes running deep crosses. And why not? Flowers and Fontes are primo athletes, just give Lucas Johnson time and let those two guys run away from the coverage. Loved it.

This is just mean. With Mike Irwin taking over at quarterback for Chachere early in the second half, the Griz dialed up a corner blitz with safety Garrett Graves immediately filling the space left by the blitzing Jayden Dawson. Montana DC Kent Baer figures that Irwin is going to see the blitz and immediately do what you’re taught to do, which is throw to the vacant space – right where Graves was filling in. That’s a sadistic defensive coordinator not just trying to get a stop, but scheme up a pick-six against an inexperienced quarterback, and Graves nearly made the play.

Color commentator Marty Mornhinweg was on top of it during the replay: “Graves was right there for what we call a hot route, or a quick route. The Griz are so smart, they know that if they bring a corner off the edge from the boundary, Graves was right on top of the receiver. They knew what was coming.”

Fontes picking up his buddy Xavier Harris – they both went to Oxnard High School in Southern California – and the duo making a synchronized first-down signal after a late run by Harris was the Heartwarming Moment of the Day.

SWING, BATTER

It took UC Davis quarterback Miles Hastings 57 attempts to get 256 passing yards against Weber State’s defense, and despite those numbers (and only leading the Aggies to one touchdown in a 17-12 loss), I don’t even think Hastings played that badly. Weber State’s defense is just as scary as Montana’s, although in a different way. With the Griz, you think a quarterback is going to get hit every time he drops back. With the Wildcats, you think he’s going to throw a pick every time he drops back. Weber State’s defensive backs are so good and so confident that nobody will get behind them that they’re able to drive on everything in front of them and, if they’re not getting to the ball, they’re getting to the receiver and forcing weird deflections and bounces. Even with that aggressiveness, they don’t get beat deep and they especially don’t miss tackles – which made it weird when Dan Hawkins, on a crucial third down, decided to throw a swing pass to get his running back one-on-one two yards behind the line of scrimmage.

So bad. That ball is only ever going one place and Maxwell Anderson (it is Anderson, not Marque Collins – commentator got it wrong) realizes it immediately and leaves his man in the slot.

Maxwell Anderson, who burnished his Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year resume (six tackles, a pass breakup and a blocked field goal) came screaming up to drop Trent Tompkins for a 4-yard loss, Hastings threw incomplete to the end zone on the next play, and that was that. After scoring a touchdown in the third quarter to cut Weber State’s lead to 17-12, the Aggies had five chances to drive for the go-ahead score. They gained a total of 84 yards and punted four straight times before the final turnover on downs. UC Davis is a good team with a good defense that held Weber State out of the end zone for the final three quarters, but at 1-3, the Aggies need a win in a primetime showdown at Montana State this week.

BULLPEN BRUISER

Brent Vigen made one of the biggest gambles of the offseason when Sean Chambers, his former quarterback at Wyoming, transferred in to Montana State, ostensibly to back up emerging star Tommy Mellott. Vigen was surely confident in the fit, but there are plenty of ways that asking Chambers, who started double-digit games with the Cowboys, to back up Mellott, who hadn’t started a regular-season game when the season started, could have gone wrong. On Saturday, though, we saw the winning side of Vigen’s gamble. With Mellott out of the game after a scary first-quarter injury, Chambers came in, ran for two touchdowns and threw for another to lead the Bobcats to a 38-35 win at Eastern Washington. Chambers threw for just 69 yards but carried the ball 28 times for 160 yards and the two scores, shades of Mellott’s heavy usage rate during his breakout playoff run last year. That’s why you bring in a guy with the exact same profile as your starter, and with Mellott likely out for a while, Chambers will have to keep things going. He’s currently second in the conference with 345 rushing yards. I like the way Chambers runs – he’s bigger than Mellott, he’s tough and he likes sending messages. Just a few plays after Mellott went out, he stiff-armed Anthany Smith to the ground as they were going out of bounds.

GET. OFF. ME! Your starting quarterback has just gone down after an awfully scary hit, you’re playing a close game against a tough team on the road, everything’s way more uncertain than it was five minutes ago — that’s the way you want the new guy to make an entrance.

After scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to take the lead but not holding onto it, Eastern Washington is in the same situation as UC Davis – the Eagles look like a pretty good Big Sky team, but at 1-2 (and almost certainly 1-3, given they play Florida this week), they’ll need to start winning games now to get into playoff contention.

Here are notes from the rest of the weekend’s games:

Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy throws during a game against Montana in 2021/Blake Hempstead, Skyline Sports

Idaho had the most important win of the week in a matchup between two playoff hopefuls, smoking Northern Arizona 27-10. At home in Flagstaff, NAU gained just 179 yards. I don’t think I’ve been as wrong about a player this year as I have been about Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy, who finished 18 for 20 for 184 yards and a touchdown, comprehensively outplaying fellow second-year signalcaller R.J. Martinez. Basically, in limited snaps last year McCoy looked like a gimmick quarterback who could run a little bit but couldn’t throw anything besides play-action deep shots (this evaluation might have been biased by watching him against Montana, an overwhelming situation for a true freshman QB if there ever is one). Anyway, in four games so far this year he’s completing 70% of his passes and hasn’t thrown an interception in the last three games. He’s not responsible for huge volume – under 25 pass attempts per game – but that combined with two good running backs in Roshaun Johnson and Anthony Woods and what looks like a very good defense makes the Vandals dangerous. Idaho is third in the conference in both scoring and total defense despite playing Power 5 teams in half its games. They’re a legit playoff contender. For Northern Arizona, it’s tough to write about anything other than Martinez and running back Kevin Daniels, the two best freshmen at their respective positions last year. Even if the Lumberjacks didn’t make the playoffs this year, positive development from both of them would have set NAU up for a couple good years going forward. Instead, Daniels is hurt (and hasn’t looked good when he has played) and Martinez appears to have regressed, with under 200 yards per game and five picks already. They’ve played four good defenses, but have scored more than 10 points just once.

Sacramento State murdered Colorado State 41-10, cashing a paycheck from an FBS opponent and a big win. The Hornets had their most complete performance of the year, giving up just 253 yards. They’d surrendered more yards just through the air in each of their previous two games. The Rams had just 10 first downs. It’s unclear whether that was the product of Sac State’s defense actually taking a step forward, or Colorado State being one of the worst FBS teams in the country. With Cal Poly and Northern Colorado next up, that question won’t be answered until Oct. 15 at Eastern Washington.

Finally, on a great Homecoming in Greeley, Northern Colorado clinched its first winning streak since 2018 and likely sentenced Idaho State to the bottom of the conference with a 35-14 win over the Bengals. The Bears scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, including a punt return by Elijah Dotson and a fumble return by Elijah Anderson-Taylor, to break a 14-14 tie. After splitting time with Jacob Sirmon in previous weeks, Dylan McCaffrey played the whole game and had his best performance at Northern Colorado, going 23 of 28 for 234 yards and a touchdown. Things are bad at Idaho State, which was forced to turn to third-string quarterback Sagan Gronauer when Hunter Hays got hurt late. The Bengals put up 423 yards and outgained Northern Colorado, but threw an interception, lost a fumble and committed three turnovers on downs. In four games under former Power 5 special teams coordinator Charlie Ragle, they’ve given up two touchdown returns. Xavier Guillory did continue his breakout season for ISU with seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown, and continues to lead the league with 377 receiving yards.

About Andrew Houghton

Andrew Houghton grew up in Washington, DC. He graduated from the University of Montana journalism school in December 2015 and spent time working on the sports desk at the Daily Tribune News in Cartersville, Georgia, before moving back to Missoula and becoming a part of Skyline Sports in early 2018.

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