I was listening to the game on the radio while working at the youth service's center in Billings, and I wanted to destroy our radio or something else when MSU scored a TD on 3rd and 20. !!!
Now, after reading Brint's thoughtful analysis, I realize when Coach Hauck warned us our team was beat up going into this game he wasn't being crafty or cute like I thought he was: not having that regular-season bye and playing two really physical teams back-to-back in SDSU and USD took it's toll. If I understood Brint's analysis correctly, Ramos, Tolbert, Loud were out for that play and Micah had already been ejected ( I don't think he should have been as Dowler was falling after the catch, thus the high hit.) When Bobby told the press earlier in the week our team was pretty beat up and we would have to practice without pads, he wasn't kidding or being crafty !!!
I do think we need to abandon the 3-3-5 or use it only sparingly against run-heavy teams like MSU. As an armchair QB that hasn't played tackle football for 40 + years, I have to defer to my two friends here in Billings, both former college WR's, one for Eastern in Cheney, the other for NAIA Dickinson State in ND as well as a former WR coach at the NAIA level.
Both told me the 3-3-5 was developed to counter a pass-heavy O like the late-great Mike Leach's Air Raid offense ( Mike was from nearby Cody, Wyo., and a few folks that knew Coach Leach in Cody told me he was a character in a good way, including at his 40th high-school reunion in Cody and please note, Mike like Bobby never played college football. ) or the similar Air-Bear offense of legendary GRIZ skipper Don Read. According to my WR friends, the 5 DB's would be used in either man--to-man, zone or both during a game to shut down the opponent's passing game when combined with blitzes coming from the DB's , LB's or both to support the outmanned front 3 and generate pressure on the other team's QB.
They also told me what the 3-3-5 was not intended for--stopping a run-first, run-heavy offense. They told me to stop a run-heavy team, the defense should be in a 4-3-4 defense or a 4-2-5 and that it was even possible to switch defensive configurations provided the D was that flexible and knew their different assignments between a 4-3-4 or a 4-2-5 and a 3-3-5 during the game , for example, on first and second down and switch to a 3-3-5 on 3rd and long.
I do hope that when we play an MSU or another run-heavy MVFC team, we are in either a 4-2-5 or a 4-3-4 next year where, for example, instead of Ramos or Bailey playing DT, they are both playing DT side-by-side, and I realize whether through developing high-school players or recruiting through the portal, more likely both, we need 3 or 4 more 280-300 lb DT's like former GRIZ All Big Sky DT and now jeweler extraordinaire Brian Toone, originally from Butte, and Ramos and Bailey.
I think if we will adopt the 4-3-4 or 4-2-5 for run-heavy teams with the DT's and DE's to support it, we will be even more successful next year. !!! Firing a legendary head coach for going 13-2 and defeating 3 MVFC teams and doing all of this with no regular-season bye, in the screaming words in a NY accent of tennis great John McEnroe yelling at a tennis umpire after a blown call duribg a match, " Are you serious? ...You can't be serious ? "
Go GRIZ. !!!