BOZEMAN – With a trio of offensive stars on the shelf, Montana State still managed to take care of Northern Arizona in one of the grittier wins in recent memory.
With senior quarterback Justin Lamson, senior wide receiver Taco Dowler and senior running back Adam Jones all out with various injuries – all three are also captains — MSU’s second tier reaffirmed why the Bobcats are one of the deepest teams in the FCS, which is a major reason why they’ve won five straight this campaign, 19 straight overall and remain a 19-game winning streak despite NAU’s illusions.
With Patrick Duchien at QB, the Bobcats finished with 498 yards of total offense on just 52 plays – 9.5 yards per play – as they improved to 2-0 on Big Sky Conference play and 5-0 with their school record 19th straight win.
In place of Jones, the venerable starter & captain, Colson Coon finished with 199 yards on just 18 carries. He wrapped up the game with 60 yards on three carries after the defense stopped NAU inside the MSU 10 for the third red-zone stalemate of the game. Coon moved the ball from the MSU 5 to the NAU 35 before Duchein finished the drive with his second rushing touchdown to put the game away, turning 21-14 nail-biter into a decisive Bobcat victory.
Quarterback Patrick Duchein, filling in for Lamson, was Lamson-like as he completed 16 of 20 attempts for 204 yards and a touchdown. He added 77 yards on nine carries and a pair of rushing touchdowns. With Jones and Dowler out, Duchein had to find a source of comfort, and he didn’t have to look far.
“I think the O-line man, they balled out,” Duchein said. “Knowing we can rely on the run game, and we can just go with the run game at will. Do things at will. It made my life very easy back there, it was a huge credit to those guys.”
The Bobcats were also without their top wide receiver as Taco Dowler was out. MSU got a huge game from true freshman wide receiver Carter Dahlke, who had seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown, including 112 yards after the catch, all in the first half.
“I know this: we got more than just those guys and those guys are really important to our team in so many ways, not just their playmaking ability but their leadership,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “But they’d be the first ones to say, Justin has confidence in Patrick to do that job and Taco in Carter, lets say, and Adam in Colson. It’s not that our other guys have to play harder, we expect them to play hard anyways, but it was going to take our O line to do what they did tonight.
“It was going to take our defense to do what it tonight to take up the margins when those guys are out and that’s ultimately what happened.”
Dahlke hauled in a short pass from Duchein and then did the rest as he blew past the NAU secondary for a 47-yard touchdown to start the scoring. The Bobcats then answered with a 15-yard touchdown run by Duchein, who was assisted by his offensive line – namely center Aiden Kaplan, running back Coon and tight end Rocky Lencioni – over the final seven yards.
“The first one Colson had a great block, and I ended up running into him and all I felt was (tight end) Rocky (Lencioni) grab me and I just felt like there’s no way I don’t get into the end zone here,” Duchein said. “That was a fun play.”
Tied up 14-14 going into the locker room, MSU got off to an ominous start to the second half as it went three-and-out and NAU looked to be grabbing all the momentum after scoring just before halftime. The Lumberjacks drove to the MSU 32, and quarterback Ty Pennington connected with Darius Haskin for 18 yards, but a once-ailing Bryce Grebe popped the ball loose. Blaine Downing recovered to thwart the threat.
Grebe, who was slowed by injury in 2025 and recently spent time in the hospital with an infection, was just grateful to be on the field and said making a big play made it that much better.
“They had a lot of momentum at the time,” Grebe said. “They were kind of driving down the field on us. I try to take pride in running to the ball on every single play, and they came out with a trick play, and I ran to the ball, got it out and I feel like it was a pretty game-changing play.”
The Bobcats were still down on defense as well despite getting Grebe and safety JJ Dolan back. Linebacker Neil Daily, safety Caden Dowler and defensive end Dominic Solano were all out. Sophomore defensive end Blaine Downing of Saco came up with the fumble that Grebe forced. It was his second fumble recovery in two weeks.
While Duchein put up great numbers, he had to battle the demons of a pair of his own miscues during the game.
He had the Bobcats on a promising drive on their first possession only to cough up the ball on the NAU 18 after gaining nine yards on first down. A quick three-and-out gave him a reprieve and he cashed in with a 16-yard completion to Dane Steel and then hit Dahlke for the 47-yard touchdown. Later in the first half he had MSU to the NAU 38 but Shoes Brinkley read his pass and intercepted it get the ball back for the Lumberjacks.
Once again, the MSU stopped NAU on three plays and this time Duchein led the Bobcats on an 86-yard drive that he capped off with his assisted 15-yard score. The run was part of a 287-yard rushing effort that was spearheaded by MSU’s offensive line.
“A huge testament to them,” Duchein said. “They work really hard, too. They’re in the film room a lot. (Offensive line) coach (Matt) Smith gets those guys right. We kinda got tested last week in the run game the week before against Nevada. Being able to come in and see what those guys did today was just awesome. They provide a whole new level to our offense for us to expand on.
Pennington is regarded as one of the top passers in the Big Sky Conference and he connected on 26 of 38 passes, but NAU only got 239 yards out of that effort and his 72 yards on 11 carries didn’t produce a score.
MSU stopped him twice inside the its own 10-yard line when he threw incomplete to Myseth Currie on fourth down from the five, then couldn’t connect with Currie once again from the five on the Lumberjacks’ next possession as senior cornerback Takhari Carr knocked the ball away.
The Bobcats would make sure that would be the last time NAU would threaten to take the game away as Coon broke loose for runs of 7, 22, and 31 yards in succession. Jared White got into the fray with a seven-yard run before Duchein put the game away with a 28-yard touchdown run with 2:34 remaining.
MSU has a short week at it prepares for a Friday night road game in Moscow, Idaho against the University of Idaho Vandals.
