University of Northern Colorado football team’s losing streak reaches six
. . . University of Northern Colorado football team turned the ball over seven times Saturday in Missoula, Mont. The result was another layer of frustration on the Bears' season via a 44-14 loss to Montana at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in front of a partisan crowd of 22,048. The loss — UNC's sixth straight — leaves them at 1-6 in Big Sky Conference play, 2-7 overall. Montana is 5-2, 7-3. The victory was Montana's fifth in the past six weeks.
UNC's turnovers resulted in only nine Montana points, but the Bears' defense spent a horde of time on the field as Montana ran 90 plays from scrimmage en route to 469 yards of total offense. Though sounding redundant, UNC coach Earnest Collins Jr. said, "We had too many turnovers and did not make enough plays. We just made too many mistakes and it came back to hurt us." After trading early touchdowns — UNC scored on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Conor Regan to Alex Wesley — the Griz settled in and began their scoring spree with four touchdowns and two field goals to jump ahead 44-7 after three quarters and put their offense in cruise control. The Bears, who substituted freely, scored their only other touchdown on a 21-yard interception return by Marshaun Cameron with 11 minutes, 10 seconds left in the game.
In between, UNC quarterbacks Keaton Mott and Regan combined to throw five interceptions, the Bears fumbled and had a punt blocked for the first time this season.
. . . Montana used two quarterbacks — veteran Gresch Jensen and backup Caleb Hill — who combined for 253 passing yards and three touchdowns. It was Jensen's first game back after suffering a concussion two weeks ago. He completed 17 of 25 passes for 228 yards. He also ran for 30 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown run on Montana's first possession. "I was just really antsy," said Jensen, who made his sixth start. "I just really wanted to get back in there. I didn't sleep very well last night. I just wanted the game to get here and get back out there with my teammates."
