In a few text chains yesterday a lot of guys were saying this was a boring and uninspiring win to them. I personally really wouldn't take it that far. Yes I wanted to see more from the offense, however the Grizzly O generally controlled the whole game and we saw the team work Ah Yat back into the fold for the first time since his injury. The Grizzly defense pitched a shutout - even shutting down UNC twice in the red zone. While, yes, UNC is a terrible team, I think games like this show the Griz are slowly coming along. The defense could've been far more rife with errors and allow points and tons of big plays, they didn't. The defense could have had another game with no turnovers, instead they forced 3 interceptions. The offense was damn near perfectly balanced with practically 400 yards split evenly and they held the ball for over 38:00 of TOP. We even got to see a few younger guys get some meaningful play with an Ian Finch TD, and a 3 and out almost entirely forced by Tyson Rostad.
I'll admit this game could be more "fools gold" that tells us all is well, when in fact as soon as Montana sees a real offense it'll be more pain. However, games like this hopefully help build renewed confidence in what the guys are doing, playing together as a single unit on the field, and it's showing that the adjustments we're seeing on defense are helping. Ah Yat is getting more reps and, to me, he played his best well-rounded game. Montana had yet another funky Hauck 2.0 sluggish game, but it never really felt like UNC even stood a chance.
Some quick thoughts:
- I'm now officially fully baffled by the QB situation. As just mentioned, I think Ah Yat played a very good game. I think Fife looked off early but then didn't see much of the field until it was mop-up time. It would seem to me that KAY in the coaches eyes is the guy and that we need to keep bringing him along. Ah Yat had a handful of low throws that got knocked down, needs to work on that throwing motion more. Plus, his one sack he took he fell back into that old habit of that backward spin he does when pressured. With practice / film / reps he'll work that out, I'm sure Coach Pease would want him to step up in the face of that pressure rather than spin back into an edge rusher. He threw an absolute dime down the sideline to X and his finding of Gillman for a TD on 3rd and goal showed great progression of reads. Watch, next week we see Fife get 75% of the reps now
- I think the balance of Ostmo/Gillman is showing more advantages of mismatches as the season goes on. Nick had a great day on the ground, while Eli had one of his lower rushing outputs - but a good receiving day. Once again split on touches when running, that's the Grizzlies MO. It allowed for Ostmo's more punishing style to really beat down the UNC defense.
- I'd have to go check but was this Montana's first, or second, game with multiple forced turnovers? 3 picks by the defense, two by safeties, is something I loved to see.
- I think we saw even more reps for Kyon Loud yesterday. One play he got fooled and left his man or his zone and UNC hit a weird little dump-down screen to the fullback that the Bears took into the Montana red zone, Loud ran way into the LOS on that play - biting hard on a play fake. He'll learn, it's a young guy mistake, I liked what I saw from him overall, he was playing pretty aggressive in run defense support.
- Seemed like the most swarming to the ball that we've seen from the defense this year.
- Did you guys notice that UNC had a lot of mis-direction and somewhat trick-style plays? Montana didn't get fooled much. For a group that's been burned a lot by being out of position they had many big stops for no / minimal gain on some goofy stuff that UNC was attempting. We did see a few plays result in gains, but I think bend / don't break is this defense's plan down the stretch and it turned into a shutout yesterday.
- I liked the couple of runs / reverse / pitch plays getting the ball in Fontes hands.
- Probably the game plan but a real ho-hum day receiving for our "big 3". Combined 7 catches for 51 yards.
- Good to have Cannon Panfiloff back, that side of the OL is just set better when he's out there it seems.
- Did Montana make bad beats? They were 27.5 favorites and that Rocker TD that was wiped out by a penalty, and subsequent catch at the 1 and kneel out sealed the Griz not covering once again.
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Alright, an expected win and the Griz got it done, we're on to November and hitting the road again for another team coming off their bye in Cal Poly. My hope is that we see ongoing growth on both sides of the ball from this Grizzly team. I'm liking the way they're trending, but they still need to show some big steps of consistent improvement.
Go Griz!
I'll admit this game could be more "fools gold" that tells us all is well, when in fact as soon as Montana sees a real offense it'll be more pain. However, games like this hopefully help build renewed confidence in what the guys are doing, playing together as a single unit on the field, and it's showing that the adjustments we're seeing on defense are helping. Ah Yat is getting more reps and, to me, he played his best well-rounded game. Montana had yet another funky Hauck 2.0 sluggish game, but it never really felt like UNC even stood a chance.
Some quick thoughts:
- I'm now officially fully baffled by the QB situation. As just mentioned, I think Ah Yat played a very good game. I think Fife looked off early but then didn't see much of the field until it was mop-up time. It would seem to me that KAY in the coaches eyes is the guy and that we need to keep bringing him along. Ah Yat had a handful of low throws that got knocked down, needs to work on that throwing motion more. Plus, his one sack he took he fell back into that old habit of that backward spin he does when pressured. With practice / film / reps he'll work that out, I'm sure Coach Pease would want him to step up in the face of that pressure rather than spin back into an edge rusher. He threw an absolute dime down the sideline to X and his finding of Gillman for a TD on 3rd and goal showed great progression of reads. Watch, next week we see Fife get 75% of the reps now
- I think the balance of Ostmo/Gillman is showing more advantages of mismatches as the season goes on. Nick had a great day on the ground, while Eli had one of his lower rushing outputs - but a good receiving day. Once again split on touches when running, that's the Grizzlies MO. It allowed for Ostmo's more punishing style to really beat down the UNC defense.
- I'd have to go check but was this Montana's first, or second, game with multiple forced turnovers? 3 picks by the defense, two by safeties, is something I loved to see.
- I think we saw even more reps for Kyon Loud yesterday. One play he got fooled and left his man or his zone and UNC hit a weird little dump-down screen to the fullback that the Bears took into the Montana red zone, Loud ran way into the LOS on that play - biting hard on a play fake. He'll learn, it's a young guy mistake, I liked what I saw from him overall, he was playing pretty aggressive in run defense support.
- Seemed like the most swarming to the ball that we've seen from the defense this year.
- Did you guys notice that UNC had a lot of mis-direction and somewhat trick-style plays? Montana didn't get fooled much. For a group that's been burned a lot by being out of position they had many big stops for no / minimal gain on some goofy stuff that UNC was attempting. We did see a few plays result in gains, but I think bend / don't break is this defense's plan down the stretch and it turned into a shutout yesterday.
- I liked the couple of runs / reverse / pitch plays getting the ball in Fontes hands.
- Probably the game plan but a real ho-hum day receiving for our "big 3". Combined 7 catches for 51 yards.
- Good to have Cannon Panfiloff back, that side of the OL is just set better when he's out there it seems.
- Did Montana make bad beats? They were 27.5 favorites and that Rocker TD that was wiped out by a penalty, and subsequent catch at the 1 and kneel out sealed the Griz not covering once again.
----------
Alright, an expected win and the Griz got it done, we're on to November and hitting the road again for another team coming off their bye in Cal Poly. My hope is that we see ongoing growth on both sides of the ball from this Grizzly team. I'm liking the way they're trending, but they still need to show some big steps of consistent improvement.
Go Griz!
