Griz are back to their winning ways with a big road win against a Portland State squad that's winless but was touted by many on here as a team much better than their record suggests. This game had it's share of frustrating moments but also some incredibly gutsy and hard play, and at the end of the day the Griz came away with a hard fought road win.
As always, this fan's observations.
- I'd tweeted this but I think this may have been the single greatest individual defensive performance I've ever seen from a Grizzly. Justin Strong with 3 picks, 1 defensive catch, a TD, and what I counted was 3 blitzes where he disrupted a 3rd down throw to force a punt. And to add to it, with a cast on one hand. Just incredible. He'll be the Big Sky defensive player of the week and should be in the running to be the FCS defensive player of the week too.
- Credit is due to the defensive adjustments and aggressive playcalling from Jason Semore in this game. I know there was a crap ton of yards given up and a share of continued issues but in this game the defense was asked to keep PSU at bay time and time again and rose to the occasion. After a midfield Gresch pick the defense forced a 3 and out. Some well timed blitzes to force PSU to punt. Stopping a 4th down conversion in the red zone. Not getting fooled on a fake fieldgoal. "catching" two passes on 2 point conversions and turning one into points. The defense put up 8 total points in this game and forced 3 turnovers plus held PSU to 7-16 on 3rd down and 1-4 on 4th down. For all the bitching and moaning about playcalls and adapting last week I think this game plan was a good one.
- Off-day for Gresch in his first road start, underthrowing deeper routes many times when a longer throw would've resulted in a catch instead of an incomplete or a pick. I'm sure that's something Stitt and Selle will bring up in film and work on with him. For a first career road start he leads the team to a win and his two picks didn't result in any points scored. He'll learn and improve. I will say while he did have some great throws and plays I thought his best came in the 4th quarter. On a clock killing drive facing 3rd and 5 he had an outside blitz on the left side, he moved away from the pressure expertly and hit Horner for a first down and kept the clock rolling.
- Speaking on the clock killing drive... not sure if I was a fan of it. Griz were gashing PSU with quicker offense and when they opted to slow it down it allowed PSU to sub and prepare. I understand that it took a lot of time off the clock, but personally I would have just preferred to see them just keep rushing and smashing the ball and keeping PSU gassed. However I will admit it allowed the defense to rest up and I see the Griz, a pass-heavy/quick team, had more TOP than PSU an option run team.
- Keenan Curran had some major plays when needed the most, some major catches and some great blocking as well. I recall he pancaked a corner to free Alijah Lee up for a first down and then the next play had his deep contested TD catch.
- I'm starting to think that maybe Williams should just kick his kickoffs out of bounds. Kick coverage had 1 great stop and many others that weren't pretty. PSU's TD the returner ran right through two Griz tacklers, unblocked.
- Connor Strahm had himself a day as well. His presence on the defense was certainly felt. A few knockdowns on the QB, a 2-point score to end any hope PSU had, and 7 tackles... all solo. Add in for the few egrizzers that "never wanted to see him play again" because of his personal fouls last year... he was able to draw at least one... possibly two... on the PSU offense. Smart play.
- Really like how Purdy is perfect on fieldgoals so far. It's a good feeling to know that we can hopefully rely on his kicking, something we've not had in a while. Missed PAT though to break his perfect streak... but I'm not too worried.
- For all the talk of the interior defensive line being a big strength there were some key breakdowns that left some major gaps for big PSU gains, including their QB's rushing TD. On that play both DT's crash outside and there's no one in the middle, easy scamper TD for Kraght. It did tighten up after PSU's TD drive early in the 3rd though so that was good to see.
- Montana came away the more disciplined team, I think I counted 3 drives where a PSU personal foul / unsportsmanlike killed their chances at a score, including the last drive of the game. Penalty wise I was frustrated that PSU wasn't called for more holding... but the refs kept if even both ways as I think the PSU receivers were upset with how physical the Griz DBs were. PSU had more than double the penalty yards than UM.
- Hope Buss just got his bell rung hard and didn't get a concussion. That was a wicked hit, seemed borderline targeting to me.
- How about the Grizzly O-line? Best show of DOLA I've seen in some time. They really pushed and attacked the PSU front 7 and really let Calhoun get a head of steam and plow through the defense. That was also the best overall game I've seen from Jeremy Calhoun too. Guy was playing with fire. It was great.
- Boy when missed tackles pop up with this defense they really compound. Seemed like PSU's scoring drives really had a ton of misses.
- McKinley another nice day tallying up the PBUs, almost another pick too.
- My biggest concern coming away is still the amount of yards given up. The numbers allowed today isn't sustainable and needs to keep being cleaned up. It's great that the defense held PSU to just 4 total scores in the game (ST allowed the 5th). But against more skilled offenses like ISU, Weber, MSU, and NAU... that won't fly.
- Glad Ralston wasn't hurt bad and came back. Buss seems to be the only major concern for next week. I'm worried about Sandry's bum ankle, going up against ISU's passing offense could be tough, does he have that full burst of speed?
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OK Griz are coming home with a hard fought win, but one that still needs a lot of cleaning up and improvement. Hopefully some well deserved rest and then focus on a totally different offense in ISU's will show some continued improvements and results into next Saturday.
Go Griz!
