The story of Montana’s 22-20 loss to Portland State Saturday was an abysmal offensive performance, especially in the first half.
The Griz punted seven times and lost two fumbles on nine first-half possessions. They had -5 yards in the first quarter and improved from there, slightly, to total 55 at the half.
That complete inability to move the ball, coupled with three short fields they gave the Portland State offense after the two fumbles and a blocked punt, staked the Vikings to a 13-0 halftime lead in a game Portland State ended up winning on a last-second field goal.
The avatar for the offense’s struggles was quarterback Dalton Sneed. After looking like one of the best signal-callers in the Big Sky Conference through five weeks, Sneed reverted way back to the mean against Portland State.
In the first half, he was 1-for-12 passing for -2 yards, and had both taken more sacks and lost more fumbles (two of each) than he had completions. UM head coach Bobby Hauck even replaced his star quarterback with backup Cam Humphrey for a series.
Without question, it was a bad performance for Sneed, even after he righted the ship and led the Griz to three touchdowns in the second half.
But was it as bad as it looked? It’s an important question as the Grizzlies get into the meat of their conference schedule. Was their quarterback forcing and missing throws, or were outside influences dragging down his stat line?
Skyline Sports went back and re-watched all 13 throws Sneed made in the first half (one was called back on a penalty), and the answer was — well, little Column A, little Column B.
Sneed made one really bad throw, airmailing Jerry Louie-McGee in the flat after a play-action fake on second-and-10 late in the first quarter.
Those short, quick throws are what the Montana offense thrives on, and Sneed short-circuited that drive by missing one of his go-to receivers so badly.
But, among his other incompletions were three that were almost instant throwaways under a lot of pressure, and four that could at least be partially blamed on the receiver, including three stone-cold drops.
The second series of the game was emblematic of the offenses’ issues, and why they can’t all be blamed on Sneed.
After giving up a fumble and then a touchdown, the Griz needed a response. Sneed ran for four yards on first down, then threw behind senior Keenan Curran on a option spacing route predicated on feel but thwarted on a lack of communication.
On third down, Sneed had a brief second to throw before a defensive lineman blew up the play, but still managed to get the ball out on time and on target to Curran for the catch right in front of the sticks.
It would have been an interesting decision to go for it on fourth down, but that was rendered moot when right guard Cy Sirmon, who had been beaten on the play, was called for holding for dragging down his man after he’d already gotten in the backfield.
On third-and-long, Sneed made a beautiful throw up the seam to Louie-McGee, dropping it over the trail defender and into JLM’s hands. But the junior wide receiver couldn’t make the catch as a safety nearly took his head off.
As Sneed struggled, his receivers continued to not help him out, dropping several mediocre but catchable balls.
Curran couldn’t adjust in time to pick an under thrown deep ball off the turf on third down.
Backed up against their own goal line on a later drive, Sneed hit a beautiful deep ball to Samori Toure, only to have it slip through the sophomore’s fingers.
On the very next play, the quarterback somehow slipped out of a sack that would have been a safety, scrambled to his right, and unleashed a throw to Sammy Akem on the sideline, where the receiver had gotten lost in the confusion.
The throw carried Akem a little bit out of bounds, but with no one around him, the receiver still should have been able to make the catch and keep his feet inbounds.
He did the second part, but not the first, dropping the ball on his way over the sideline.
In short: no need to panic about Sneed’s first half.
He did miss some throws. But the breakout playmaker got no help, either from his offensive line or the receivers.
Neither did Humphrey in his short stint. The backup quarterback was just 1-for-3, but was under pressure on all three of his throws. On the last, he threw a rope between four defenders. It would have been a tough catch for a leaping Louie-McGee, but he couldn’t come with it.
The Montana offense did find a way to counter Portland State’s pressure in the second half.
Sneed was 9-for-16 for 124 yards in the second 30 minutes of the game.
Photos by Jason Bacaj or Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
