Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson escapes the pocket during a game vs. North Dakota this past weekend

The Big Sky got the sweet sweet taste of cupcakes this week, and in a couple of cases, they were the cupcake. Cupcakes are a fairly tasty treat.. unless you’re German chocolate then you taste awful. In Weber State’s case, they taste awful. In Sacramento State’s case they nearly became a very tasty treat to a team that had no business on the field with them.

First up, Montana State got a taste of a cupcake playing Colorado Mesa.. presumably located in Colorado. The Cats were without their all-world quarterback Denarius McGhee who is out with a separated shoulder. In his place was the not-as-nimble Jake Bleskin who threw for 305 yards in his first start, however, only managed two offensive touchdowns against a severely overmatched Maverick’s squad. The Cats put it away in the 3^rd quarter with a touchdown pass to Brian Flotkoetter (that’s a chore to spell) from Bleskin. The Cats will head to [city name I can’t spell] Texas to take on Stephen F Austin.

Cal Poly was looking for another shot at an FBS upset this year as they took a stroll to Fort Collins to take on Colorado State, who was 0-2 on the season and ripe for the picking. The Rams did not see themselves as ripe for the picking and pretty much had their way with the Mustangs for four quarters. Cal Poly had a balanced offense but couldn’t generate a lot of points on the scoreboard. Quarterback Chris Brown (not the no-talent ass-clown rapper) threw for 164 and ran for 61 and one touchdown wasn’t enough to help the Mustangs to an upset. Rams quarterback Garrett Grayson and running back Chris Nwoke were too much for the Poly defense. The Mustangs will have a bye before they play a Thursday night game in Portland against the Vikings in their Big Sky opener.

Speaking of Portland State, they were at home to take on something called Get High University. The Vikings were a bit slow starting before blowing it wide open in the second half. Keiran McDonagh turned in another great performance for the Vikings by throwing for 377 and running for 64 and two TDs to lead the Vikings 43-6 over Humboldt State. The Vikings rolled up 622 yards in the rout. The Vikings might be a legitimate threat in the Big Sky this season. The Vikes will head to Davis next week to take on the Aggies.

Idaho State stayed perfect on the year as they were taking on perennial Big Sky cupcake Western State. The Bengals relied on their high flying passing attack to stifle the Mountaineer defense. Quarterback Justin Arias threw for 429 yards and two scores, and rushed for one more touchdown to ice the game for the Bengals. Not a strong showing against a normally down team, but the Bengals will take anything they can get. Oh.. I just realized that their two wins are against two division 2 teams. Wow. Next week will be quite an eye opener for the Bengals as they head to Seattle to take on Washington.. oi. Come back safe, Bengals!

Northern Colorado mazed their way through Colorado and made it to Laramie despite the awful flooding happening in Northern Colorado due to flash floods. The Bears held tough for a quarter before the Cowboy offense overwhelmed them on the scoreboard. Bears quarterback Seth Lobato left the game with an injury, severely hampering the Bears offense, but back up QB Tim Tancik filled in quite well by throwing for the Bears only touchdown in a 35-7 beating vs Wyoming. The Bears couldn’t get much going on the ground, but still racked up 340 yards offense. The Bears have a tough task ahead of them as they host Northern Iowa next week.

Montana made the long haul to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota [insert nickname here]. Montana was looking to extract from revenge on a team that threw for more than 650 yards on their defense last year. North Dakota struck first on a 15 yard pass from Joe Mollberg to Blair Townsend. Montana quickly responded with a 70 yard pass from Jordan Johnson to Travon Van. It was on after that as the Griz piled up the points and the yards. Jordan Johnson lost his damn mind throwing for 354 yards and 5 touchdowns. Johnson broke a Big Sky Conference record by throwing for a 322.3 passer efficiency rating against the [insert nickname here]. Montana will eat some cupcake next week against a directional division II school from Oklahoma, while North Dakota will have a bye week before hosting Montana State.

Southern Utah made a trip to Pullman to take on the pirate king and his band of Cougars. Southern Utah was looking for its second FBS upset of the year but instead ran into a buzzsaw. Mike Leach’s Cougars came out firing as quarterback Connor Halliday picked the Thunderbird offense apart. T-Bird quarterback Aaron Cantu had a rough day by throwing three interceptions. The T-Bird offense never amounted to anything in this one against an improved Washington State defense. Southern Utah will head to Sacramento State next week to take on the Hornets. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the Thunderbirds have a severe lack of home games this season, which is too bad for an up and coming football program.

Eastern Washington was also looking for its second FBS upset of the season by heading East to take on Toledo in the Glass Bowl. They don’t actually play in a glass bowl, as that seems like it’d be a bad idea. They do have a real life US Army rocket outside of their stadium pointed at mid-field of Bowling Green’s football stadium. Don’t agitate them. Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams continued his run of good performances by throwing for 326 yards and 3 TDs but the Eagles had a difficult time moving the football in the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters. They got within two in the fourth quarter but Toledo punched in a pair of late scores to put the game out of reach. Eastern will get a week off before they head down to Texas to take on the powerhouse Sam Houston State Bearkats.

Weber State is really hating sharing a state with other Utah schools right now. Two weeks, two games, 140 points given up by the Wildcat defense. Yeah, you read that right, 140 points in two games. Some teams will not give that up all season long.. Weber got it out of their system and still have 8 more games to go. Mr Charles F Keeton put on another clinic, this time at the expense of a young Weber squad. Before anyone knew it the score was 70-0 and the third quarter was only 5 minutes old. Weber’s only score came on a Spencer Unga fumble return, but in true LOL fashion, the extra point was blocked. Weber won’t get a break this week as they’ll head off to Lake Charles, LA for a tilt with McNeese State.

Northern Arizona traveled a few miles to play a game of American football against UC-Davis (for the love of God don’t call them Cal-Davis). This game was … umm.. *falls asleep*  These poor offenses were so terrible they beat each other over the head until UC-Davis’s offense finally cried uncle and let the Lumberjacks punch in a couple of scores to take the game away. This game featured 20.. count them, 20 freaking punts. Holy cow! Player of the game? The brave souls who stayed until the end. Northern Arizona gained 191 total yards, UC-Davis gained 245.. Chuckie Keeton nearly had that many yards by himself vs. Weber. The game was out of reach when NAU returned two Jimmy Laughrea interceptions for touchdowns. Seriously. Northern Arizona will host South Dakota this weekend. UC-Davis will host Portland State.

In the Big Sky WTF game of the week Sacramento State hosted NAIA Southern Oregon. Let me start this off by saying a division 1 program, no matter how pathetic (I’m looking at you Hornets, also UNLV!) they are should NEVER.. EVER play an NAIA school. NAIA football is not even part of the NCAA. Sorry to all of the people across the state of Montana who think Carroll College would hang with Montana or Montana State, you are dead wrong.

Now to the really pathetic part.. an NAIA football program took a division 1 football program to the brink of disaster.. and by disaster I mean they went to overtime. And get this.. Sacramento State was ONE SECOND from losing this football game. DeAndre Carter caught a 6 yard pass from Garrett Safron on the last play of the game to send this to overtime. Sacramento State was one play away from being evicted from the Big Sky and having their football card revoked. This game was a track meet from the opening kickoff until Sac St put the game away in overtime on a Safron to Carter touchdown. Sac St will host Southern Utah this weekend in their Big Sky opener.

If you thought I was hard on Sac St.. good. The Big Sky is just about to dive into the meat of their schedules. It’s looking like it’s going to be a dog fight at the top of the Big Sky with Montana, Montana State, Eastern Washington, and maybe a run from Southern Utah and Portland State. The Big Sky has three teams in the top 10 this week. Here’s hoping we don’t have any close calls with an NAIA this week!