If Tyler Bruggman looked confused by North Dakota’s defense on Saturday, that was UND’s intention from the beginning.
Bruggman’s third passing attempt of the day was a strike to Deion Harris. The laser bounced right off the UND junior cornerback’s hands and fell to the turf in the visitor end-zone. Bruggman’s fourth attempt was directly into Torrey Hunt’s coverage. The true freshman broke up his first of two passes Saturday in Bozeman and Bruggman’s Montana State Bobcats settled for a field goal despite reaching the UND 9-yard line on their first possession.
On MSU’s third possession, Bruggman looked for sophomore John D’Agostino on a quick out but instead threw the ball directly to UND senior outside linebacker Brian Labat. The interception sparked UND’s defense to a five-takeaway day.
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Bruggman went on to finish 15-of-37 for a career-high 259 yards. But his three interceptions could’ve been five if not for Harris’ drop and the penalty at the line of scrimmage on Noah Johnson that negated a pick by Zach Arnell that would’ve given him two on Saturday. UND brought pressure from edges all day and the secondary — a unit including Harris, Arnell, Hunt and star junior safety Cole Reyes — disguised pass coverage all day, keeping Bruggman from every finding a rhythm in UND’s 17-15 victory.
“We were just toying with him on pressures and stuff, coming down to the middle third, showing man, getting out, confusing him,” said Reyes, who finished with six tackles, a sack and a crucial forced fumble. “That was the plan. (Defensive coordinator) Coach (Eric) Schmidt gets us ready for all of this. You get comfortable with it, you can play with the quarterback’s head a little bit and it’s really fun.”
Montana State’s defense stuffed North Dakota’s normally-potent running game, especially the production of sophomore All-America John Santiago. The Bobcats brought a two-game winning streak into the Big Sky Conference opener for both teams thanks in large part to forcing five turnovers in wins over Bryant and Western Oregon.
On Saturday, MSU felt the turnover plague themselves. Reyes stripped Chad Newell late in the second quarter to set up the first of two Brady Oliveira touchdowns to stake UND to a 7-6 halftime lead. MSU would turn the ball over four more times, thwarting a spirited defensive effort and falling to 2-2 this season.
“Tremendous amount of credit to the University of North Dakota,” MSU first-year head coach Jeff Choate said. “This is who they are. They win a ton of close games. They are well coached, well disciplined, well conditioned. They have come out on top a lot in the fourth quarter. That’s a mature team right there that was able to overcome some miscues and execute and win the game on the end.
“Conversely, I think that was a young, growing team on the other side who couldn’t get out of our own way. Made too many errors. It wasn’t just the turnovers. There was some other things during critical times in the game.”
Choate credit the Bobcat defense for holding UND to 348 total yards, including just 57 rushing yards on 19 carries to Santiago, the Big Sky’s rushing champion last fall. Oliveira’s 171 yards and two touchdowns, including 60-yarder with 2:27 to play to give UND a 17-9 lead helped lead a Fighting Hawks ground game that totaled 227 yards. UND possessed the ball for 33:50.
“I think we are gritty, I think we are scrappy, but we can’t beat ourselves. We aren’t talented enough to overcome that,” Choate said.
“Gosh dang it man, that’s a really tough one.”
Montana State began the second half with the ball. Three plays into the possession, Bruggman threw into double coverage and Arnell swooped in for an interception negated by Johnson’s 15-yard penalty. Three players later, Bruggman underthrew a streaking Justin Paige on what amounted to a 42-yard gain but could’ve been a touchdown.
“We missed Johnny, we missed the wheel route,” Choate said. “Those are just plays we have to make. Even that one to JP (Justin Paige), that’s behind him, he has to come back to the ball. If that thing is out in front of him, he probably scores on that. We have to be more consistent in being able to hit those shots.
“I’ll tell you right now, I thought (offensive coordinator) Courtney (Messingham) called a heck of a game. It wasn’t calls. It was lack of execution. We have to tighten up and make sure we don’t put ourselves behind the sticks.”
MSU brought in Chris Murray on the next play, the drive stalled out at the UND 26 and Montana State settled for its third Gabe Peppenger field goal when advancing the ball into Fighting Hawk territory.
A Mac Bignell tackles for loss and a Grant Collins sack forced a UND three-and-out. MSU went with Murray for a second straight possession. Two plays in, Murray made a late pull on a zone-read play, fumbled the ball and Donnell Rodgers recovered.
“We made some mistakes out there,” Choate said. “No. 8, bad read, drops the ball. He’s a 17-year-old freshman.”
Bruggman would throw two interceptions in the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter, one a direct shot into double coverage within UND’s Cover 2 zone, the other a bullet that hit D’Agostino’s hands before landing in Hunt’s bread basket.
The turnover barrage negated a gutsy performance by Newell. The senior captain missed the last two games after suffering an undisclosed hand injury against Idaho. He rushed for 68 yards on nine carries in the first half, using an angry burst to bowl over UND defenders. But on his final carry of the first half, he hyper extended his left knee badly, collapsing to the turf in a heap of pain. Senior guard J.P. Flynn helped Newell exit the field.
The hard-nosed running back returned in the second half to carry the ball nine more time for 32 more yards, reaching the century mark for the sixth time. His 23rd career rushing touchdown cut the lead to 17-15 with 1:41 left and moved him into a tie with Travis Lulay for sixth in school history.
“He was tough when he was getting down hill,” UND head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We needed keep him bouncing and make him go east and west. When he gets down hill, he’s a load. Good player, good hard-nosed player and he changes the attitude of their football team.”
Reyes stuffed Newell on the game-tying two-point conversion, helping UND win for a second straight week in a game filled with dramatic ends. UND lost to Stony Brook 13-9 on a blocked punt SBU returned for a touchdown. The Fighting Hawks lost on a failed two-point conversion, losing 27-26 to Bowling Green. Last week, UND rallied from a 34-14 deficit to beat South Dakota 47-44 in double overtime.
“I probably thought that game was over two or three times, but they kept making big plays,” Reyes said. “That was probably one of the most fun football games I’ve ever been in. Completely spent at the end of that game. It’s fun to win a game like that.”
Although Newell reached 100 yards, MSU’s rushing attack struggled otherwise. The Bobcats rushed for 116 yards on 31 carries, averaging 3.7 yards per rush with one burst — a 16-yard run on MSU’s first offensive play of the game — went for more than 10 yards.
“When we went into our meeting yesterday, I told our coordinators, ‘If Chad rushes for 100, we win this game.’ He finishes with 100 yards. I didn’t factor in the five turnovers,” Choate said.
Montana State is averaging 129 yards per game, the 10th-best total in the Big Sky. Only Montana’s 3.2 yards per carry rank below MSU’s 3.6 yards per carry this season as a team.
Everything from failure to convert in the red-zone on the first two possessions of the game — “We wasted those opportunities,” Choate said — to the 11 MSU penalties for 102 yards, including several in crucial situations, to the lack of execution on nearly a dozen shots taken down the field caused Choate to reevaluate the game plan his team might use going forward.
“We got two procedure penalties after explosive plays that put us in first and 15s, which is a really tough spot for our offense,” Choate said. “We don’t have a guy right now who can blow the top off the defense. I thought (Messingham) dialed up some stuff. We had some drops, some procedure penalties, not lining up correctly. That’s the stuff that will drive you crazy. We have to have a conversation as a staff where we simplify our game plan so it’s not too much for some of these kids so we can go execute and operate.”
In the season prior to Choate’s arrival, the Bobcats gave up 426 rushing yards in a 44-38 win over No. 19 MSU. Santiago sprinted to a career-high 230 yards, including a 45-yarder in the first quarter, a 75-yard burst before halftime and a four-yard game-winner with 1:41 left. Oliveira had his previous career high before Saturday’s 171-yard performance, rushing for 167 yards and a 30-yard first-quarter touchdown.
Outside of Oliveira’s long game-clincher on Saturday, UND averaged 3.7 yards per carry, including just 3.0 yards per rush for Santiago. The Bobcats tackled with authority throughout the game, giving up just one big play among 68 offensive tries for the visitors.
“It’s a mindset,” Choate said. “We are going to play good defense around here always. Because if they can’t score, they can’t win. As much as we struggled on offense today, we were in this game because we played tremendously well on defense. If it goes the other way around, it usually doesn’t work out.
“The thing I was so fired up about our defense is they just embraced what we asked them to do. We said, ‘we are only going to have three or four calls going into this game; this is all about you guys getting your eyes right, putting your hands on your key and playing ball.’ Those guys just did it down after down after down.”
Choate talked about searching for his final conference travel roster starting on the first day of fall camp the first weekend of August. Eight weeks later, Montana State will have to whittle the 105 players on its roster to 58 to take to Sacramento State for the road conference opener of the Choate era. Choate said he dressed 63 players on Saturday and the final travel roster would be solidified early next week. Despite an 0-1 start in league, Choate retained optimism if the Bobcats can eliminate its mistakes.
“I think we know we can play with anybody in this league,” Choate said. “It’s just about us not beating ourselves.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
