BOZEMAN — Montana State kept pace with Eastern Washington’s high-octane offense for about 10 minutes in MSU’s last game of September. But an errant option pitch in the red-zone forced the Bobcats to settle for a field goal, sparking a chain of mistakes that doomed them in a 34-17 home loss.
The second of those crucial mistakes came after a potentially game-swinging interception by MSU junior cornerback Greg “Munchie” Filer III. Montana State sophomore wide receiver Lance McCutcheon let a deep pass that would’ve netted a gain of more than 40 yards slip through his hands.
On Montana State’s second possession of the second half, the Bobcats had sputtered all but one possession. Idaho sat in man coverage on the perimeter, content to load the box to slow down battering ram quarterback Troy Andersen and MSU’s potent run game.
After an eight-yard Andersen rush that moved the ball to the MSU 46, the running back turned quarterback took a shot down the field for McCutcheon, who beat his defender and had nothing but daylight in front of him. Andersen overthrew the pass as he was taken to the turf by an Idaho rusher. The play drew a roughing the passer penalty.
The flag proved to be of no consequence. On the next play, Montana State head coach Jeff Choate told passing game coordinator Bob Cole to dial it up again.
“We had some things available to us, for sure but we missed on a couple and in that particularly situation, I was like, ‘Hey, just do it again,’” Choate said. “Dial up Poncho and let’s go.”
Andersen lofted a similar pass to a similarly covered McCutcheon. The Bozeman product did the rest, hauling in a 37-yard reception down to the Idaho 2. Freshman Isaiah Ifanse walked in for a touchdown to cut Idaho’s lead to 17-14.
“The whole game, we were trying to capitalize in our shot plays because they are limited,” McCutcheon said. “They are not called that often. If they are, we are always taught to be a dog chasing a Frisbee and go make a play.”
About four minutes later, Montana State’s defense broke up a fourth down pass on an ill-advised try 40 yards from the end-zone by quarterback Mason Petrino and the Idaho offense. On the very next play from scrimmage, Andersen turned a broken pass play into a 60-yard touchdown run, his second of the day and his ninth scoring run of the year. The rip gave MSU a 21-17 lead it would not relinquish.
“From where I was, I ran a little shallow route all the way across the field and once I saw him break the first or second tackle, I was running down with my hand up,” McCutcheon said. “I knew he was gone and I knew nobody was going to catch him. I knew once he took off, he was gone.”
MSU only threw for 93 yards on a day in which the hosts only managed to run 53 plays because of just 21 minutes, three seconds of possession. But McCutcheon had a career day nonetheless. The true sophomore caught five passes for 63 yards. He entered the game with four catches for 67 yards this season and seven catches for 195 yards in his career.
“I kind of had an idea coming up to the game but this whole week of practice was huge for me,” McCutcheon said. “I honestly thought it was my best week of practice in our seven weeks. You never know when your number is going to be called. When it does, you have to go make a play.”
MSU’s two third-quarter touchdowns proved crucial in what would become a 24-23 comeback homecoming victory in the first matchup against the Vandals in Bozeman since 1995.
Despite a limited passing game and a converted running back/linebacker at quarterback, Montana State is 4-2 entering the second half of its schedule. Each win inches MSU closer to snapping a playoff drought going back to 2014.
“A win is a win, doesn’t matter if it’s pretty or not, especially at home and now that we are in conference,” McCutcheon said. “A win is a win and we are pretty happy about this one.”
VANDALS DOMINATE THE CLOCK
Idaho possessed the ball for nearly 38 minutes but couldn’t the control the clock when needed. The Vandals burned all three of their timeouts on the first drive of the game, a nine-play scoring match capped by Isaiah Saunders’ four-yard touchdown run
Quarterback Mason Petrino called most of Idaho’s plays at the line of scrimmage, leading an attack that notched 23 first downs and converted nine of its 18 third down tries. Petrino himself extended multiple drives with his arm and his feet, including throwing three first down strikes on Idaho’s final possession. Petrino finished 21-of-35 for 162 yards and a fourth quarter interception that led to Tristan Bailey’s 42-yard field goal for MSU’s final score.
“I thought Mason Petrino, they put a lot on his shoulders today. He checked a lot of stuff at the line of scrimmage, especially in the first ahlf and got them into some really good plays. I credit the job they did preparing their guys there.
But the Vandals burned their final timeout with 94 seconds left in the third quarter. So when Cade Coffey’s extra point attempt following what should have been a game-tying touchdown by David Ungerer missed, the game was over if MSU earned just one first down despite the clock reading 3:07.
“I was shocked and even in the first half, that was crazy,” Choate said. “At the end of the game, with three minutes left, you are not thinking, ‘Hey, one first down and this thing is over’ but that’s what it was because we were on the take a knee chart after that.
“All we needed was 2:40 on the clock because they had no timeouts left. In hindsight, that was a critical thing that happened. They were doing so much check at the line of scrimmage, Mason was in charge of that it looked like to me – and often times, they were getting up against the play clock.”
MONTANA STATE D-LINE WREAKS HAVOC
The strong-side, quick-side scheme of Idaho’s offensive line did not fluster Montana State’s defensive front. To the contrary, MSU’s veteran front caused chaos in the trenches all afternoon.
“We didn’t really base anything off that, we based it off of tight ends and backfield sets, what their tendencies were to that,” MSU senior nose tackle Tucker Yates said. “But if 74 was toward the tight end, we figured it was pin, pull, stretch, which they were hitting on us in the first half for a little bit. But we figured it out there.”
The Vandals did rush for 185 yards, including 82 on 19 carries for Saunders, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. But Montana State consistently fit the run crisply. Petrino used his legs to avoid pressure for most of the game — Derek Marks notched MSU’s only sack — but the Bobcats flushed Idaho’s quarterback constantly.
In the fourth quarter, MSU adjusted its pass rush, caushing Petrino to stand in the pocket. The adjustment caused Idaho’s quarterback to throw an interception right to MSU safety Jahque Alleyne, his third pick this season.
“We were just going speed rush all game, speed rush, speed rush and he was scrambling around but we decided to squeeze him a little bit,” Yates said. “Tyrone and Derek got after him. There’s games within a game with an o-lineman. If you go speed rush, speed rush, then bull rush, they aren’t expecting it. That’s what we did.”
In his first completely healthy game of his senior year, MSU middle linebacker Grant Collins notched a season-high 10 tackles, including seven solos. Brayden Konkol made his first start at Will linebacker after 11 starts at the position last season and five starts at safety to start this season, finishing with six tackles, including one of MSU’s six tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Yates, junior defensive end Bryce Sterk, senior defensive tackle Zach Wright, senior defensive tackle Tyrone Fa’anono and sophomore linebacker Michael Jobman joined Konkol with the tackle for loss.
“That’s how we’ve always played, our mantra up front is to go through the guy, not around him,” Yates said. “That’s what they teached, knockoff up front, go through the guy, create knockoff so our linebackers can make plays.”
WINTER WEATHER HITS SUDDENLY
Bozeman residents woke up to at least five inches of snow, sub-freezing temperatures and a bitterly cold wind on Saturday morning a day after sun kissed the Gallatin Valley and October temperatures hovered around 60 degrees.
“We practice in this every day,” Choate said. “It’s never nice in the morning. Ask these guys. It’s to our advantage, I guess.”
Beginning in the spring of 2017, Montana State began conducting all of its non-fall camp practices in the mornings. The theory is to help MSU’s student-athletes complete the athletic obligation of their day before locking in to focus on class schedules during the day and study time in the evenings.
This past spring, almost every single one of MSU’s practice featured bitter conditions and snow as one of the longest winters in recent memory in Southwest Montana raged on. The Bobcats got some reprieve during a beautiful August but most of this month has again been plagued by the cold.
Despite making their home on the Palouse in Northern Idaho, the Vandals play their home games in the Kibbie Dome. UI has spent the last three seasons in the Sun Belt, playing road games at places like Georgia Southern and Arkansas State.
UI head coach Paul Petrino, a Helena native, has had his team do its winter conditioning, spring football and many of its practices outside to combat the reputation of being a bowl team. Idaho went through a walk-through outside before the game on Saturday.
Yet Montana State still felt that the Bozeman weather would add to the home field advantage on homecoming.
“We definitely thought that was to our advantage,” McCutcheon said. “When we woke up this morning, we saw it was a blizzard out. Being from here, I’m used to it but I was depressed when I saw it. We can’t control that. It’s our home. They have an arena and they are not really used to playing in the snow. We had an advantage in the weather. We just wanted to come out and play the best we could.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
