I would assume like most of you the hope for yesterday was an easier win where the Griz just outpaced SHU early and often, and shortly after halftime the primary battery of Griz starters were pulled and some younger / depth guys got more reps. Early - it looked like it was going to happen! The Griz jump up 22-0 and miss a kick or else it would've been 25-0 on their first 4 possessions. Even a 29-7 halftime lead felt like the Griz were just a few possessions away from pulling the starters. But then suddenly it's the 4th quarter, less than 7 minutes to go, and it's 29-21. The Griz snapped out of whatever slumber they were in and tacked on two late scores - but it left me feeling really uneasy about ongoing inconsistent play and execution, among other things as well.
Let's start with the positives from yesterday though:
- Another career day from Ah Yat who just keeps improving his play weekly it seems. 27-33, 349 yards, 5 passing TDs, 19 rush yards, 1 rush TD. He got a helmet sticker shoutout on ESPN later that evening, he'd better be Big Sky offense MVP of the week and could get FCS offense MVP of the week. Just one bad throw that was nearly picked - something I'm sure Pease and Hauck chatted with him on haha. The scramble drill for his first TD to find Gillman was something else. He hit 11 different targets in the game and 8 of those 11 receivers more than once.
- Finally the Grizzly defense got some QB sacks, Hunter Peck picks up a pair including one that slammed the door shut on SHU staying in the game. Schwartz shares one with Seumalo, Oven's the QB never saw coming. Some good pressure put on by the defensive front in this game.
- Another triple digit day for Wortham and 2 more TDs. On the year now: 50 passing yards, 1 TD, 610 receiving yards, 5 TDs, 134 rushing yards, 3 TDs, and just about 450 combined KR/PR yards on 19 combined returns, averaging almost 27 yards on kick returns and 14.5 on punt returns. This guy is such a weapon all over the field. He's the highest scoring WR in the Big Sky right now, and his average of 170 all purpose yards per game out-paces the 2nd place player by almost 1/4 of his production.
- Most amount of touches we've seen from Fonoti, he showed he's also good in the passing game. Nice first TD as a Griz for Hendrix who is lightning fast.
- I'm glad Wing didn't get ejected on targeting.
- The returns team blocked really well and helped both Deck and Wortham get some nice returns out there.
- SHU came into the game averaging almost 210 rushing per game and their combo of Summers (RB) and Snyder (QB) were accounting for about 140 of those yards per game. Yesterday Summers finished with 87 yards on the ground, Synder had just 2. The SHU ground game had 126 on the day.
- It was evident there was a plan for more rotation than usual, I did like that, maybe that's part of some of the inconsistent play we saw? It felt like a lot of guys that'll probably put in far more work next week did get some reduced reps overall.
OK, there's more positives than that, but let's look at the other side of things;
- I don't really care if they won 5 games, SHU isn't on our level and for a good portion of the 3rd quarter and part of the 4th their OL an DL were having their ways with Montana's. In the weeks ahead, at least in Sac for sure, the talent in the trenches for the opponent is far superior to what we saw from SHU and it has me pretty worried about LOS control.
- SHU did slow the game down big time but in their two 3rd quarter possessions Montana's offense had a 3 and out and then was stopped on 4th and 1 for a turnover on downs. That's part of what helped SHU get back into the game, it seems our offense still just has challenges hitting and holding that consistent pace.
- Weird day for Eli, I assume it was intentional to keep him healthy/ready for the road ahead. Super odd when he fumbled (fortunately wasn't lost) - I don't recall him putting the ball on the turf hardly ever.
- Despite being sacked 4 times SHU's QB picked apart Montana's man coverage all day, he went 20-26 and had no turnovers. Kind of gross.
- Did it seem like after their first two possessions Montana's offense just went super vanilla? I loved what I was seeing and then it appeared a bit of a shift was made just to run some pretty generic stuff. Maybe that's the looks SHU gave them so they went after what they were given?
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Now the Griz hit the road, the trash talk from Sac is already dialed up to 10, I really wanted this game to make me feel the consistency is gelling and this team is now smoothing out some of their errors - but in a few too many parts of the game yesterday I didn't see it. Lots to clean up still, and it's a short week! This road trip will be quite the test of our guys - LFG!
Go Griz
Let's start with the positives from yesterday though:
- Another career day from Ah Yat who just keeps improving his play weekly it seems. 27-33, 349 yards, 5 passing TDs, 19 rush yards, 1 rush TD. He got a helmet sticker shoutout on ESPN later that evening, he'd better be Big Sky offense MVP of the week and could get FCS offense MVP of the week. Just one bad throw that was nearly picked - something I'm sure Pease and Hauck chatted with him on haha. The scramble drill for his first TD to find Gillman was something else. He hit 11 different targets in the game and 8 of those 11 receivers more than once.
- Finally the Grizzly defense got some QB sacks, Hunter Peck picks up a pair including one that slammed the door shut on SHU staying in the game. Schwartz shares one with Seumalo, Oven's the QB never saw coming. Some good pressure put on by the defensive front in this game.
- Another triple digit day for Wortham and 2 more TDs. On the year now: 50 passing yards, 1 TD, 610 receiving yards, 5 TDs, 134 rushing yards, 3 TDs, and just about 450 combined KR/PR yards on 19 combined returns, averaging almost 27 yards on kick returns and 14.5 on punt returns. This guy is such a weapon all over the field. He's the highest scoring WR in the Big Sky right now, and his average of 170 all purpose yards per game out-paces the 2nd place player by almost 1/4 of his production.
- Most amount of touches we've seen from Fonoti, he showed he's also good in the passing game. Nice first TD as a Griz for Hendrix who is lightning fast.
- I'm glad Wing didn't get ejected on targeting.
- The returns team blocked really well and helped both Deck and Wortham get some nice returns out there.
- SHU came into the game averaging almost 210 rushing per game and their combo of Summers (RB) and Snyder (QB) were accounting for about 140 of those yards per game. Yesterday Summers finished with 87 yards on the ground, Synder had just 2. The SHU ground game had 126 on the day.
- It was evident there was a plan for more rotation than usual, I did like that, maybe that's part of some of the inconsistent play we saw? It felt like a lot of guys that'll probably put in far more work next week did get some reduced reps overall.
OK, there's more positives than that, but let's look at the other side of things;
- I don't really care if they won 5 games, SHU isn't on our level and for a good portion of the 3rd quarter and part of the 4th their OL an DL were having their ways with Montana's. In the weeks ahead, at least in Sac for sure, the talent in the trenches for the opponent is far superior to what we saw from SHU and it has me pretty worried about LOS control.
- SHU did slow the game down big time but in their two 3rd quarter possessions Montana's offense had a 3 and out and then was stopped on 4th and 1 for a turnover on downs. That's part of what helped SHU get back into the game, it seems our offense still just has challenges hitting and holding that consistent pace.
- Weird day for Eli, I assume it was intentional to keep him healthy/ready for the road ahead. Super odd when he fumbled (fortunately wasn't lost) - I don't recall him putting the ball on the turf hardly ever.
- Despite being sacked 4 times SHU's QB picked apart Montana's man coverage all day, he went 20-26 and had no turnovers. Kind of gross.
- Did it seem like after their first two possessions Montana's offense just went super vanilla? I loved what I was seeing and then it appeared a bit of a shift was made just to run some pretty generic stuff. Maybe that's the looks SHU gave them so they went after what they were given?
-------------
Now the Griz hit the road, the trash talk from Sac is already dialed up to 10, I really wanted this game to make me feel the consistency is gelling and this team is now smoothing out some of their errors - but in a few too many parts of the game yesterday I didn't see it. Lots to clean up still, and it's a short week! This road trip will be quite the test of our guys - LFG!
Go Griz
