Mitch Griebel called the performance “sluggish”. Tim Cramsey said the Bobcats were “not very clean.” On Tuesday, Rob Ash said his offense needed to “sharpen up.”
The statistics might say otherwise, but make no mistake: Montana State was not clicking on all cylinders offensive on Saturday night in Flagstaff, Arizona. Sure, MSU scored 41 points, notched 25 first downs and Dakota Prukop threw for a career-high 399 yards. But the Bobcats missed plenty of offensive opportunities during a four-possession drought that helped Northern Arizona turned a 14-14 game into a 42-14 contest before MSU came storming back in a 49-41 loss.
MSU quarterback Dakota Prukop throws a jump pass during NAU game
Prukop threw for 278 of his 399 yards in the final 18 minutes of the game. He hit a streaking Justin Paige for a 64-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. He threw an 85-yard touchdown on a broken play to Gunnar Brekke in the fourth.
“We weren’t sloppy but we weren’t clean,” Cramsey, MSU’s third-year offensive coordinator, said after his team piled up 572 yards of total offense. “One time, we ran a play with 10 guys on the field. There was a ball on the ground. It wasn’t a turnover but could have gone the distance. We missed a deep ball that would’ve been a touchdown. We just need to play a cleaner game in all four quarters.”
Montana State answered both of Northern Arizona’s early touchdowns with scoring drives of its own. MSU rushed for 127 of its 173 yards before halftime as Chad Newell rushed for 67 of his 84 yards.
NAU quarterback Case Cookus hit sophomore Kendyl Taylor for a 43-yard gain to set up a two-yard Emmanuel Butler touchdown to put NAU up 21-14. MSU mounted a 10-play drive that stalled out with Jake Casteel’s sack of Prukop. NAU marched 93 yards in 10 plays, set up by Casey Jahn’s 45-yard run on the first play of the possession from the Lumberjacks’ own 7-yard line. Nine players later, Jahn scored the first touchdown of his senior year to put Northern Arizona up 28-14 with 13 seconds left in the first half.
“The thing you go back to was our last drive of the half. We had the ball and we could’ve gone down and scored to make it 21-21 but instead, we gave them the ball back and it’s 28-14. To me, that’s the drive of the game,” Cramsey said.
The drive before the first touchdown, Casteel had a tackle for loss to aid in a three-and-out. The botched exchanged Cramsey referred to came on MSU’s final possession of the half. Later in the drive, senior safety Eddie Horn came up in run support and stuck Prukop for a two-yard gain to set up Casteel’s sack.
“We didn’t play as clean and sharp a game as I would’ve liked,” Ash said. “Looking back on it, we had some penalties on fourth down situations, some missed assignments.
“There were a couple of key opportunities. The first drive of the second half for example, we could’ve gotten a touchdown there that might have put us in better shape to make the comeback.”
On Montana State’s first possession of the second half, the Bobcats came out of the locker room with an aggressive mindset. Prukop threw to Mitchell Herbert on three straight plays, including a 36-yard completion to get MSU into NAU territory. On the next play, the Bobcats employed an array of pre-snap motions to set up a Brekke wheel route up the MSU sideline. Brekke was wide open for a sure 44-yard touchdown. Instead, Prukop sailed the pass.
“You can be right on 79 of 80 plays but you remember that one,” Cramsey said. “We have to be perfect in that position. That’s the lifestyle of an offensive coordinator and a quarterback. We have to make that play.”
MSU running back Chad Newell looks for space against NAU defense
The Bobcats still converted a first down thanks to a seven-yard run by Newell. Three plays later, MSU faced a fourth down and senior tight end Beau Sandland committed a false start. With a 4th down and nine from the NAU 32, MSU went for it. Prukop read a “Tampa 2” coverage and had Jayshawn Gates, perhaps MSU’s fastest player, matched up against a Mike linebacker. Prukop threw and safety help came quickly. The pass fell incomplete.
“We saw them playing two Tampa with a 260-pound middle linebacker guarding our 155-pound speed guy man to man up the shoot,” Cramsey said. “Dakota put a good ball on it but we weren’t on the same page. That was the defense I was hoping they would be in. We just have to hit that.”
The Bobcat defense provided no relief, giving up a 43-yard Jahn run two plays later. NAU ran the ball seven consecutive times, capped by a six-yard Jahn touchdown to take a 35-14 lead.
On MSU’s ensuing possession, the MSU drive began in the Bobcat 27. Prukop executed a play-action fake, then threw the football some 50 yards to a streaking Justin Paige. Horn continued his stellar day by making a leaping one-handed interception.
“Kid made a play on Dakota. Sometimes, they make plays, sometimes we do,” Cramsey said. “They have scholarships too. I don’t want to say that was a force. We went out and tried to get the momentum back and (Horn) made a great play.”
Montana State wide receivers coach Cody Kempt has frequently likened MSU’s offense to a cotton gin, a diverse attack dependent on rhythm and synchronicity. When the attack gets rolling, it can catch fire like when MSU scored on eight of nine possessions during its torrid comeback attempt in a 55-50 loss at Eastern Washington. Montana State jumped out to a 21-0 lead against Cal Poly and cruised to a dominant 45-28 win, the Bobcats’ only Division I win in 2015.
“Montana State beat Montana State on Saturday,” MSU second-year wide receivers Cody Kempt said. “We came out a little bit slow and we fell behind. Each individual was making their own type of mistake. All 11 guys weren’t in sync on the offensive side of the ball and if one guy makes a mistake on offense, that play can become ruined.”
Montana State has managed to be on the same page from the outset of just one game offensively. It’s a surprising start for a team picked to win the Big Sky by the rest of the league’s coaches. MSU came into the season needing to replace explosive tailback Shawn Johnson, versatile tight end Tiai Salanoa and captain offensive lineman Quinn Catalano from unit that returned largely in tact otherwise. Sandland, a 6-foot-6 Miami transfer with NFL measurables, has stepped in for Salanoa. The offensive line features five players with starting experience, four seniors and an All-America in junior J.P. Flynn. But the group is adjusting to life without longtime coach Jason McEndoo.
The Bobcats still have seven games to play, certainly enough time to rally for a Big Sky title. But MSU has scored 136 points over the last three games yet have just one win to show for it, raising question marks.
MSU offense core ft. Chad Newell, Dakota Prukop, JP Flynn, & John Weidenaar
“I didn’t know where we were going to be — I never do, I can’t predict the future — but we thought we had a good team but you have to go play the games,” Ash said. “I like our guys. Our guys are very resilient. They are very positive right now with what we need to do. You can’t change the past. You just can react and respond to it, which is what we are going to do.”
The Bobcats are averaging 45 points per game against Division I opponents and surrendering 44. Prukop is throwing for 337 yards per game and rushing for another 89. He’s scored three touchdowns with his legs and tossed 13 touchdowns with his arm. The offense is putting up 579 yards per game, averaging 28.5 first downs per game and converting 54 percent of its third downs.
It’s only been enough for a single victory. The defense is giving up 526 yards per game to Division I opponents. The Bobcats are giving up a touchdown on one out of every 4.5 passing attempts as opponents have an efficiency rating of 212.5 against MSU. Ash said there is no dissection among the ranks of his team.
“That starts with the coaches and we don’t have any issues on the staff so I don’t think we will have any issues with the players,” Ash said. “They really, truly understand this is a team game.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
