CHENEY, Washington — The game was less than 90 seconds old before Montana State started taking risks. By the end of the afternoon, most of the risks did not pay off as MSU lost for the 11th time in 13 tries against Eastern Washington, falling 55-50 in a game that saw MSU trail by double digits for the entire afternoon save the final four minutes.
The Bobcats went for it on fourth down and two yards to go on the fourth play of the game on Saturday. EWU stuffed junior Chad Newell for no gain and Eastern took over on the MSU 33-yard line. Two plays later, Jabari Wilson ripped off a 31-yard touchdown, one of six rushing plays of at least 31 yards on the afternoon as EWU rushed for 257 yards on just 33 carries, averaging 7.8 yards per carry.
Nic Sblendorio’s 78-yard touchdown catch
The Eastern passing game totaled 10 plays of more than 29 yards, including touchdown passes of 78, 34, 38 and 35 yards. Eastern Washington quarterback Jordan West completed 21-of-24 passes for 410 yards and six touchdowns. Junior Cooper Kupp hauled in 12 passes for 201 yards and two scores. Sophomore Nic Sblendorio totaled 120 yards on three catches, including a 78-yard touchdown in which he was untouched. All told, EWU scored on 11 of 14 possessions, averaged 19.5 yards per completion and 11.7 yards per play in rolling up 667 yards and 55 points on just 57 offensive snaps.
In other words, Montana State had no ability to stop or even slow down Eastern’s offense. Judging by the in-game decisions and the post-game dialogue, Montana State’s coaching staff knew full well this would be the case before the game began. On MSU’s second possession, the Bobcats went for it on fourth down at the EWU 10. Again, Newell was stuffed, this time thanks to a missed block by senior tight end Beau Sandland as Samson Ebukam smeared Newell in the backfield. Five plays and 90 yards later, EWU had a 14-0 lead.
“We took the ball because we wanted to make a drive to start the game and it was obviously a very aggressive decision but we thought going in that we would have to do,” MSU head coach Rob Ash said. “And just think about it: if we punted away from them there and they go down and score, which they did quite easily on the first two drives, it’s still 14-0 whether we went for it on fourth down or not. What did they do? They ripped off that big run. He would’ve scored from 58 as well as 38. Whether we went for it or not, when we gave the ball back they were going to score either way. That’s why you do that kind of thing because they are such a good offensive team, them starting in the minus-40 or the plus-30 isn’t that really that big of a difference. It’s still a good bet to get yards and score so you have to try to extend drives when you can.”
Dakota Prukop evades the pocket against EWU
Montana State would convert its next three fourth-down tries. Behind the outstanding performance of junior quarterback Dakota Prukop, the Bobcats piled up 718 yards of total offense, notched 40 first downs, rushed for 365 yards, controlled the ball for nearly 40 minutes and scored 50 points. Yet MSU found itself with a loss.
“When the defense struggle, the team struggles because this is a team game,” MSU junior captain running back Chad Newell said after rushing for 95 yards. “Like we always say, we are in this together. We’ve been in some bad positions offensively and they’ve battled their asses off to get out and get stops. It’s a team game so when they struggle, we struggle and when we struggle, they struggle.
“We came out and didn’t execute well,” Newell said. “Our offensive line, me, Dakota, our receivers, everybody, we weren’t on the same page. We have to be better than that as a team. I have to convert, I have to make plays on fourth down early in the game. I have to convert those conversion downs with short yardage. That’s on me. I think personally, I get those conversions early in the game, we get rolling and we don’t have a loss to talk about right now.”
Montana State fell behind 28-7 early in the second quarter before beginning a feverish rally. MSU had two stops right out of halftime but were unable to capitalize on the first. The score following the second stop, a brilliant pass in which Prukop looked off the entire coverage to the left then found a wide open Mitch Herbert down the right sideline for a 30-yard touchdown, was the first of five straight possessions in which MSU would score.
Mitch Herbert’s 30-yard touchdown catch
MSU senior Trevor Bolton executed the first of two onside kicks following a Newell 1-yard touchdown run to cut the EWU lead to 55-44 with 7:35 left. MSU also tried an onside kicked after its next touchdown, a highlight-reel one-finger catch with his right hand by a leaping Herbert, that capitalized on Mac Bignell’s strip of EWU freshman Malcolm Williams. MSU also went for two following its last two touchdowns.
“We had to try to steal a possession,” Ash said of the onside kicks. “Ironically, it finally came on the fumble. They stole the possession. But we tried and tried and tried to steal the possession and we couldn’t seem to execute. If we could’ve executed one of those plays somewhere along the line, a two-point play, an onside kick, it would’ve been great. We have to make those kind of efforts in this time of game that’s high scoring. We have to take those chances to steal possessions in order to have a chance to win.”
More than one-fourth (16) of EWU’s 57 offensive plays went for more than 30 yards. West completed five passes of less than 15 yards and did not throw an incompletion following the first quarter. Of West’s completions that didn’t net first downs, four were screen passes to Kupp or Kendrick Bourne and the fifth was a 2-yard shovel pass for a touchdown set up by a 62-yard run by Wilson.
“They are really dynamic,” MSU inside linebacker Fletcher Collins said. “They have dudes on their team. They have a good offense and a hell of a coach. We have to make less mistakes.”
MSU’s Grant Collins misses a tackle against EWU’s Cooper Kupp
“We have to get lined up, make executions. They capitalized when we made mistakes. We have to get into it tomorrow, go over our mistake, get better next week.”
Montana State’s almost-constant lack of tackling and defensive struggle overshadowed a virtuoso performance by Prukop. The cobra-like junior struggled initially before finding a groove and helping MSU storm back.
The captain finished with 196 yards rushing on 28 bruising carries. The former is a record for MSU quarterbacks. He also threw for 353 yards and four touchdowns. His 579 total yards were the second-most in Montana State history and the 13th-most in the history of the Big Sky.
“That guy, honestly, is the man,” EWU junior middle linebacker Miquiyah Zamorah said after piling up 10 tackles and a tackle for loss. “He’s the best in the FCS and he might be the best in the nation, FBS too. He’s so tough. He can run, man. He is FAST. He’s the fastest guy out there. My hat is off to him. I have nothing but respect to that dude.”
The torrid comeback featured a pair of highlight touchdowns that will be hard for Prukop or anyone in the Big Sky to top. Trailing 41-24 with 3:07 left in the third quarter, Ebukam flushed Prukop on a fourth down and 10 from the EWU 22. Prukop scrambled right, looked to get up field, crossed the line of scrimmage, realized he had open turf to the right, stopped on a dime, ran back behind the line to his right, looked up field before finally lofting a pass to a wide open Gunnar Brekke for a touchdown. On MSU’s final possession, Prukop found Herbert, who made a catch that’s becoming customary for the 6-foot-4 sophomore out of Eugene, Oregon.
Still, Ash praised Prukop’s performance cautiously.
Dakota Prukop throws a pass against EWU
“He was a great player the entire day but I hope we don’t have to rely on him running the ball that much in the running game,” Ash said. “That’s a dangerous situation. As the game went along, he threw caution to the wind and said I have to get some yards here for my team. It thought he was smart sliding and getting out of bounds when he did but he did take some shots. He was courageous. But maybe the best thing was he threw the ball extremely well and was very smart with it.”
But Ash was left searching for answers after losing to EWU for the seventh time in nine career matchups against the Eagles.
“Well yeah, (Dakota could’ve done more), I mean we missed a couple of fourth down plays, a couple of conversions,” Ash said. “I don’t know if that’s on him or whatever but let’s just say the offense, yes, there were some missed opportunities out there. We stopped them on the first possession of the second half but then punted. There were missed opportunities. In this type of game, as good as the other offense is, you just can’t afford to have those mistakes. That’s why we say could the defense come up with some stops or made some plays? Yeah, they could’ve but what we are saying is either side could’ve made some changes and helped us win this game.”
Photo by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
