It’s tough to lose one of the best players on your team during the course of the season, but losing five of them and having them all out at the same time is quite problematic.
That’s the situation Montana State found itself in when running back Adam Jones limped off the field early in the fifth game of the season against Northern Arizona. The Bobcats had announced just before kickoff that quarterback Justin Lamson and wide receiver/punt returner Taco Dowler were out. Two weeks prior, MSU lost defensive end Dominic Solano to an upper arm injury, and the week before that, it lost safety Caden Dowler to a leg injury.
All told, that’s four captains who are also All-Americans: the Dowler twins, Lamson and Jones. Solano is a freshly minted starter in 2026, but he has been one of the team’s top pass rushers during the past two campaigns.
This week, MSU gets three of those five back, as head coach Brent Vigen stated he expects Lamson, Jones and Caden Dowler to be on the field Saturday night against Eastern Washington. He added that Taco Dowler is as close to day-to-day as he’s been since the Central Connecticut State game, so there’s a chance he’ll be in action as well.
But just getting Lamson, Jones and Caden Dowler back will bolster many facets of the Bobcats’ game.
Lamson and Dowler are the undisputed leaders of the offense and defense, respectively. Lamson was the most valuable player in the national title game and the Big Sky Conference’s Newcomer of the Year in 2025. Dowler was the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year a year ago, and he wears the helmet earpiece to receive calls from the coaches and set the defense, just as Lamson does as the quarterback directing the offense.
Jones is a fiery competitor who seems to make plays when they’re needed most. In his last full game, he fumbled the ball away, and it was scooped up and returned for a touchdown to put MSU down 21-7. He bounced right back on MSU’s next possession. The first time he touched the ball, he took a short pass from Lamson 37 yards to set up a touchdown. The Bobcats would put the ball in Jones’ hands 13 times in the second half, and he produced 163 yards and two touchdowns. He broke into the clear in the waning moments but took a knee to run out the clock instead of gathering another 20 yards and a touchdown.
“And then Adam, same thing goes. Those other guys performed well. He did try to play in that one game (NAU) without really practicing. The smarter thing was to just set him down, and he looks pretty good. To get one of the better backs in the conference and country back is a good thing, even though the guys performed quite well.”
Lamson is revered for his clutch play, which included the memorable fourth-down, championship-winning touchdown pass to Taco Dowler. That play was preceded and topped only by his 87-yard connection with Dowler on third-and-20 against Montana in the national semifinals.
“You get your quarterback back, even though Patrick (Duchein) performed quite well,” Vigen said. “Justin, we feel, is one of the better quarterbacks in the country. We feel really good about where he’s at. We didn’t rush him back by any means. He had some time last week to get integrated, and he’ll have a full week of practice.”
Caden Dowler scored the go-ahead points in the 2025 regular-season Cat-Griz game when he intercepted a pass late in the third quarter and returned it for a touchdown.
“I think we all know what Caden means to this team,” Vigen said. “It’s not that Colter Petre didn’t perform at a really high level with Caden out, but it brings back our best defensive player. Where our secondary is compared to when he went out, there’s been some evolution, so plugging him back in and being able to move those other parts at those three safety positions will be part of the task that we work on throughout the week.”
Lamson returns with a quarterback rating of 171.2, second only to Duchein’s 173.9 in the BSC. What sets Lamson apart is his ball protection. He’s thrown just one interception this season on 102 attempts and has yet to throw an interception in a Big Sky game. His accuracy is also excellent at 74.5%, second only to Duchein, who’s at 76.6%. No other BSC quarterback is above 160 in pass efficiency or 70% in accuracy.
Jones is averaging 115.8 yards of total offense, combining rushing and receiving, per game. His penchant for making big plays in big games continued against arguably MSU’s toughest opponent to date this season, as he ran for 86 yards and a touchdown while catching three passes for 21 yards against Nevada.
Dowler has played in fewer than 1.5 games this season, yet the Bobcats allowed just three points while he was in the lineup. Dowler’s physical performance isn’t all he brings to the table on defense, however, as his ability to get players lined up as the quarterback of the defense is perhaps just as important as his physical prowess.
There’s a significant silver lining to having some of the team’s top stars on the sidelines. Not only did some backups get starting repetitions, but players who weren’t seeing the field outside of mop-up duty were able to get more significant game and practice reps.
“It raised the level of the team,” Vigen said. “I know the experience that the guys behind them have got over the last couple weeks has ultimately raised the level of this team.”
Along with Duchein, running backs Jared White and Colson Coon had much more significant roles over the past two weeks. True freshman Carter Dahlke has emerged as not only a solid spot replacement but also the go-to receiver over the past two games, catching a team-high 17 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns as he fills in for Taco Dowler. Dahlke also had a 29-yard punt return while spelling Dowler at that position.
Coon had a breakout game against Northern Arizona with 197 yards on just 17 carries. White had 48 yards on eight carries and two receptions for 15 yards against Idaho. His 32-yard touchdown run put the Bobcats up 17-13 in the second quarter.
Some players, however, have been on the field more than they’d like, as Zac Crews has missed having his defensive line counterpart, Solano, on the field.
“I’m a little disappointed in my effort late in that (Idaho) game,” Crews said when asked if he was fatigued in the waning moments. “Need to do my job a little bit better. There’s a lot I can learn from it.”
The Bobcats were effectively working with just five of their eight regular defensive linemen against Idaho, depleting their energy as the game wore on. Solano remains out at defensive end, but MSU will get Hunter Sharbono and Josiah Asuega back at defensive tackle.
The Bobcats have won their last three games at EWU, dating back to a 23-21 win in 2021 that pitted a pair of undefeated BSC teams against each other. The most memorable of the three was the 38-35 win in 2022, when legendary quarterback Tommy Mellott was knocked out of the game with a head injury as backup Sean Chambers rallied the team to victory with a late touchdown before Danny Uluilakepa clinched the game with an interception. In 2024, the Bobcats led by 14 early in the game, but EWU tied it at 28-28 late in the fourth quarter, only to see Mellott bust off a 76-yard touchdown run on the next play from scrimmage and then ice the game with a 61-yard touchdown pass to Ty McCullouch for a 42-28 win.
MSU continues to prepare for its 5 p.m. Mountain Time kickoff against Eastern Washington in Cheney.
