Editor’s note: this is the first edition of a season-long weekly series cutting up and breaking down film from specific drives for the Montana Grizzlies football team. First up, Montana’s 26-23 win over No. 13 Northern Iowa.
Bobby Hauck and the Montana Grizzlies knew they had to do two things on the first possession Saturday against Northern Iowa.
First, they had to come out fast and put some points on the board.
“In our regard, we can only look at the personnel and say, Okay, I see who’s back,” Northern Iowa coach Mark Farley said before the game. “Now, we don’t even know where they’re going to line up, because I don’t even know that we’ve got a two-deep yet.”
The advantage that the Grizzlies had because of unfamiliarity with UM’s schemes would dwindle with every play Montana ran, making the first possession the Grizzlies’ best chance to score.
Second, Montana had to do it without asking too much of a young, inexperienced offensive line. Hauck hasn’t hidden that the O-line was a concern going into the season, with three underclassmen and one former walk-on starting for the first time alongside junior left guard Angel Villanueva.
It’s likely that how the Grizzlies work around that weakness will go a long way towards defining how good their offense is, and the first drive from Saturday’s shows a little bit about how they plan to do that.
Here’s how Montana opened the scoring against Northern Iowa in their 26-23 win.
Play 1 (click)
The consensus among media members before the season is that Hauck’s first call would be exactly this — running back Adam Eastwood, up the middle.
A couple things to note here. First, this 4-yard gain would be the longest carry by a Grizzly running back all night. Second, instead of a pulling offensive lineman, tight end Colin Bingham was asked to make the key kick-out block on the defensive end. Third, this was a designed play for Eastwood, but watch quarterback Dalton Sneed make himself a running threat after the play by sprinting out. He’ll have to stay on defender’s minds to open up lanes for the backs as the season goes on.
Play 2
It’s a good bet that Hauck told Sneed to get the ball out quickly at all costs. You can see that here, as the Griz run what looks like a levels concept on the right side with Jerry Louie-McGee and Keenan Curran both running in-breaking routes. The slot corner turns outside to play Curran, opening up Louie-McGee over the middle, but by that time Sneed has already turned his shoulders and dumped the ball off to Eastwood. Time from snap to throw: about 1.75 seconds.
Play 3
This is a counter off the first play, and one of the vaunted run-pass options that have dominated the football strategy conversation this offseason. Bingham cuts across to make the kickout block and the offensive linemen run block, but instead of giving the ball to Eastwood, Sneed pulls it and fires to Samori Toure, who wasn’t being pressed at the line. Watch the other side — there’s a bubble screen to Louie-McGee being set up over there, another quick-hitting concept. Time from snap to throw: about 1.25 seconds.
Play 4
Another run play, but Eastwood runs into a wall at the line of scrimmage. This would be a theme throughout the night. This is a designed run, unlike the last play — watch the play-side receivers look to block the defensive backs right away.
Play 5
Northern Iowa just runs a simple twist stunt with their defensive linemen here and it works incredibly well. Center Cody Meyer whiffs on the rusher coming from the offense’s right, there’s confusion on the other side, and two Panthers meet at the quarterback, but not before he gets the ball out. This is a great play by Sneed — he waits just long enough for Louie-McGee to clear the first defender on his in route and gets an accurate throw away despite having two essentially unblocked rushers coming at his face. It’s equally good by Louie-McGee, who has the wherewithal to sit perfectly in the middle of the three zone defenders to make the catch and then the shiftiness to get away from all three — two of whom were in pretty good position to make the tackle — and pick up extra yards. A facemask penalty was added to the end of this play, giving the Griz 15 more yards. Time from snap to throw: about 2.25 seconds.
Play 6
The Griz show a little different look here, with all three receivers to one side for the first time on the drive, and try to get the ball downfield. It’s a mesh concept, with two receivers crossing each other’s face on crossing routes over the middle and Eastwood running a wheel route down the sideline, but it doesn’t really play out that way. Northern Iowa’s edge rushers, especially Seth Thomas on the offense’s right, just abuse the Griz tackles. With the pocket collapsing around him, though, Sneed shows off the other side of his game, taking off up the middle. Four Panthers are caught up in the junk around the mesh point in the middle of the field, and Eastwood gets just enough of a block on the last defender, allowing Sneed to scoot into the end zone. Time from snap until the decision to run: just over two seconds.
It was just one drive, but Montana’s opening score showed a lot of the blueprint for how the Griz offense operated Saturday — and what it will have to do to succeed the rest of the season. Sneed never has more than about two seconds to make a decision. Because of the shakiness of the offensive and the quality of the skill players, all three throws on the drive were quick and short, designed to get the ball to a playmaker without having Sneed stand in the pocket and face too much pressure. On this drive and throughout the rest of the game, Sneed was really accurate with the short designed throws — an admitted question mark for this reporter coming into the season. With this drive, the Grizzlies did what they needed to do and got the ball rolling. The momentum would eventually carry them to a 26-0 lead and a season-opening win.
Andrew Houghton is a freelance sportswriter providing Griz football content for Skyline Sports for the 2018 season. Photos by Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
