Like an explorer from the days of old, the Montana Grizzlies went on a great journey East and and came back with something valuable — not silks or spices or gold, but an undefeated non-conference run and another confidence-building data point about their evolving offense.
In a 49-14 pasting of Indiana State in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Saturday, the Grizzlies recorded their first win in the Eastern time zone since 2003. More importantly, quarterback Lucas Johnson threw for 232 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score. Nine different receivers had at least one catch, led by a breakout eight grabs for 93 yards from sophomore Aaron Fontes. And the Grizzlies scored touchdowns on seven of their 13 drives while never turning the ball over.
“I thought the offensive coaches had a nice plan, and then they went out and got it,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said on his post-game radio show on the Grizzly Radio Network. “When they gave us what we wanted, we made them pay. It was pretty good by those guys.”
In season-opening wins over Northwestern State and South Dakota, the Montana offense was more or less irrelevant to the proceedings, given that the defense didn’t give up any points until the fourth quarter of the latter game, when the Griz already had a comfortable 22-0 lead.
There were glimpses — a nice drive here, a clever play or good throw here. But without a reason to shift out of second gear, it was impossible to tell if what the Griz had under a sheet in the garage was a Ferrari or a jalopy.
It took the first misstep of the season from the Griz defense to find out, although it was that unit that opened the scoring when senior linebacker Patrick O’Connell forced a fumble on a sack of Sycamores quarterback Gavin Screws and sophomore defensive end Kale Edwards scooped up the loose ball for a Montana touchdown.
On the very next play after the ensuing kickoff, though, Justin Dinka sliced through the right side of the line, caught the Griz pursuing against the grain and went 54 yards untouched for a touchdown, the first non-garbage-time points scored against Montana’s defense this year. Dinka surpassed 100 yards sometime in the second quarter, the first back to do that in a regular-season game since Eastern Washington’s Dennis Merritt last October 2.
After the Griz answered on a wide-receiver pass from Junior Bergen to a wide-open Malik Flowers, the Sycamores then put together another 50-yard drive, although kicker Ryan O’Grady missed the field goal. This, clearly, wasn’t the same Griz defense that shut down everybody for eight straight quarters to start the season – Indiana State ended up running for more yards in the first half than NSU or South Dakota did in entire games – so the offense, pressed into necessity for the first time, shifted into gear.
Johnson floated an 18-yard touchdown pass to Cole Grossman up the left sideline to cap an 11-play, 89-yard drive and make it 21-7 at halftime (Grossman had three catches for 47 yards and a touchdown, doubling his reception total from the first two games combined).
Coming out of the break, Johnson led two more touchdown drives in the first six minutes of the second half, ending them with a nice throw to Keelan White in the back of the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown and then a 1-yard touchdown run, his third of the season. The touchdown toss was the first of White’s career in the fall; his only previous touchdown catch came last spring.
“Probably 60 or 70 percent of our plays on offense were RPOs,” Hauck said. “So when they’re loading the box, or when they blitz people, it’s going to be a throw. I thought we ran the ball pretty effectively, but the RPO game, they were throwing almost all day.”
Montana finished the game with 70 rushing yards and 336 passing yards.
Johnson added another touchdown pass to Ryan Simpson – like White, the first touchdown reception of his career – before leaving the game for good. Indiana State got its own fumble-return touchdown with backup Kris Brown in the game, and Brown also led a late touchdown drive that ended with Colter Janacaro plunging over from two yards out for his first touchdown as a Griz.
Altogether, Montana rolled up 406 yards (appropriate) and 28 first downs, and converted 9 of 16 third downs.
Oh, and the defense’s early-game struggles that got the offense to finally step – and keep stepping – on the gas?
Just an aberration, it turns out. After rolling up 197 total yards in the first half, Indiana State had just 22 in the second, punting on five straight possessions before turning the ball over on downs at the Montana 44 – the only time the Sycamores crossed midfield after halftime.
Robby Hauck led the Griz with 11 total tackles and Patrick O’Connell had 2 1/2 sacks, giving the Buck Buchanan Award finalist five for the year, tops in the Big Sky.
“The defense was special that second half after being not as special the first half,” Hauck said. “They didn’t do anything to really surprise us, they just executed well. … The third quarter, we came out, picked up a couple of things, and we executed on both sides of the ball, it was terrific.”
Malik Flowers broke the school record for kick return yards with his only return of the game, a 28-yarder.
The Griz host Portland State for homecoming next week at 2 p.m.
