With the Brawl of the Wild two weeks away and existential questions swirling, Montana’s offense got its quarterback back and got the ball to its playmakers.
On the Grizzlies’ second drive of the game Saturday against Northern Colorado, Cam Humphrey hit tight end Cole Grossman on a delayed crossing route for a 21-yard score. On the third, Humphrey himself ran in a 20-yard touchdown.
In his first start since over a month ago at Eastern Washington, Humphrey went on to add two more touchdown throws, both to Sammy Akem, as the Grizzlies (7-2, 4-2 Big Sky Conference) rolled to a 35-0 win over Northern Colorado (3-7, 2-5) in Greeley.
“It was a lot of fun. It’s hard sitting there watching the last few weeks, watching my teammates go to battle without me,” Humphrey said. “Getting out there is a lot of fun. Happy we were able to execute the way we did and happy we got the win.”
The resurgent Montana offense complemented a typically dominating performance by the defense as Montana held Northern Colorado to 245 yards and no points.
But the big story was Humphrey, who got injured late in the Grizzlies’ loss at Eastern Washington on Oct. 2 and returned last week for a few series against Southern Utah before missing the entire second half with another injury.
Against Northern Colorado on Saturday, he was in from the start and went 19 of 25 for 233 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, adding 35 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries despite being sacked five times.
That included seven completions to Mitch Roberts and three apiece to Akem and Grossman as the Grizzlies leaned on their leading receivers.
Grossman had three grabs for 49 yards, all on Montana’s first two drives.
Akem had the play of the game late in the second quarter, jumping over his defender to make a contested catch down the right sideline and then dragging multiple Bears into the end zone for a 42-yard score.
And Roberts was the constant throughout, with seven catches for a team-high 74 yards. His 22-yard catch on third-and-14 in the third quarter set up Akem’s second score of the game, a 17-yarder on another jump ball.
That catch gave Akem 27 scores in his career, all alone in second place in the UM record books behind Marc Mariani’s 29.
Junior Bergen ran for 64 yards on eight carries, continuing to lead Montana’s running attack despite the returns of Isiah Childs and Xavier Harris from injury.
Childs had a 2-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to cap the scoring for the Griz.
If the offense seems to be getting closer to a tenuous ceiling that it hasn’t seen very much this year, Montana’s defense was very close to the high standard it has set.
Northern Colorado quarterback Dylan McCaffrey attempted 40 passes, but completed just 23 of them for 173 yards.
Montana cornerback Justin Ford picked off McCaffrey early on a deep ball that was originally tipped by TraJon Cotton and deflected to Ford, who’s now intercepted a pass in seven straight games.
The Bears ran for 72 yards on 29 carries, failed on a fake punt and turned the ball over again in the third quarter when Montana defensive tackle Alex Gubner forced a fumble and linebacker Braxton Hill recovered for the Griz.
Northern Colorado had two chances to break the shutout late, but turned the ball over on downs inside the red zone before Ben Raybon missed a 44-yard field goal try with under a minute to go.
Montana travels to Northern Arizona next week before hosting Montana State in the season finale on Nov. 20.
