Last night Montana's season ended at James Madison. JMU was the better team last night. Could it have been different with a healthy Akem and Humphrey through the game? Or with some of our defensive starters back or at full speed? Tough to say, I'd think so, but I honestly don't know if it would have been enough to have Montana coming away as the winning team. What we saw last night from JMU - somewhat like what Montana saw in their 2004 loss to JMU - is a sign that while we're headed in the right direction, more needs to be done. James Madison had its own fair share of season-ending injuries and was able to elevate depth players at RB, OL, and in the defensive backfield and it didn't look like they missed a step. Montana - already bit bad and then quickly without Cam and Akem was stuck and, in hindsight, dead in the water from that point forward.
I'm working on a season recap post so I'll spare some season spanning thoughts, but here was my overall takeaways from last nights game:
- Cam's injury was scary, this was the 2nd time this year we've seen him get knocked out cold in a game. Glad he was able to get up and not have to go for further medical evaluation. Clearly he was the guy that made this whole offense go and without him the rest of the way, Montana's offense just wasn't the same. Despite not having much for points to show for it, Montana had over 100 yards on 3 possessions with Cam at QB. I do think with a healthy (or as healthy as can be) Cam - this Griz team is there most of the way. Cam's pass to Sammy was a dime, and really the only thing that caused issue to their first drive was a tough missed catch by Roberts, or who knows how what one would've ended up.
- I'm still just totally gutted for Sammy especially - to make a huge early catch and break his collarbone doing so.
- JMU had the perfect plan for attacking this defense, it seemed they took a lot of what Sacramento State did to us and executed it very well. Lots of quicker/slant passes or zone beater type plays that kept moving the sticks. A few defensive errors (just like early EWU) and JMU tacks on some fast points. The Grizzly defense, already down multiple starters, seemed to have trouble finding that edge we saw on their prior winning streak and at the end of the day JMU had almost 500 yards of total offense, including 192 on the ground - a nearly 5 ypc average.
- Hats off to Robbie Patterson for fighting his ass off in that 2nd half and doing everything in his power to try to keep the Montana offense moving. He ran well, his passes weren't too bad, but just too many inaccurate throws. His two picks... he was just trying/hoping to make a play by taking an aggressive shot - and the other on 4th and goal, it is what it is. As for Kris Brown, I still haven't heard if he was injured or just benched. We know he has an upside that can translate into a starting Griz QB, he just didn't have it last night. How he responds this off-season will be key for his maturation as a QB.
- JMU's speed and aggression on defense was impressive. I'd said they are/were the best front 7 we'll have faced and they lived up to that. I actually thought that our running game was seemingly doing enough to keep that a positive part of the offense for a while. JMU's speed at their skill positions on offense too was also something that (it seemed like) caught Montana by a bit of a surprise.
- JMU did two things very well that flipped the script for Montana. They were able to absorb the pass-rush when heavy blitzes came. For an OL that's pretty young, they were damned impressive in what they did. They had RB and TE help and knew their WRs could win a 1-on-1 match. Additionally, they trusted their ST was as good as ours - and proved it. Montana had just 1 punt return, and averaged just 18 yards per return on kicks. I'd also pointed out that their ST is really good, and they proved it. After JMU scored the first time, they kicked to Flowers. Instead of running straight ahead, Malik tried to slam on the brakes and make a cut - but he gets caught on his heels and rocked by the JMU coverage unit. At that point JMU knew our return game wasn't going to be a factor and that had to have been a major confidence boost.
- Going to miss #MoneyMacias - what a kick!
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We're on to the off-season, holidays, recruiting, and soon enough - winter conditioning. There's a lot for this Griz team to be proud of this year. Yes it came crashing down last night, but JMU was just the better squad, no shame in that. Thank you Montana players, coaches, and administration - it's been a very memorable season.
Go Griz!
I'm working on a season recap post so I'll spare some season spanning thoughts, but here was my overall takeaways from last nights game:
- Cam's injury was scary, this was the 2nd time this year we've seen him get knocked out cold in a game. Glad he was able to get up and not have to go for further medical evaluation. Clearly he was the guy that made this whole offense go and without him the rest of the way, Montana's offense just wasn't the same. Despite not having much for points to show for it, Montana had over 100 yards on 3 possessions with Cam at QB. I do think with a healthy (or as healthy as can be) Cam - this Griz team is there most of the way. Cam's pass to Sammy was a dime, and really the only thing that caused issue to their first drive was a tough missed catch by Roberts, or who knows how what one would've ended up.
- I'm still just totally gutted for Sammy especially - to make a huge early catch and break his collarbone doing so.
- JMU had the perfect plan for attacking this defense, it seemed they took a lot of what Sacramento State did to us and executed it very well. Lots of quicker/slant passes or zone beater type plays that kept moving the sticks. A few defensive errors (just like early EWU) and JMU tacks on some fast points. The Grizzly defense, already down multiple starters, seemed to have trouble finding that edge we saw on their prior winning streak and at the end of the day JMU had almost 500 yards of total offense, including 192 on the ground - a nearly 5 ypc average.
- Hats off to Robbie Patterson for fighting his ass off in that 2nd half and doing everything in his power to try to keep the Montana offense moving. He ran well, his passes weren't too bad, but just too many inaccurate throws. His two picks... he was just trying/hoping to make a play by taking an aggressive shot - and the other on 4th and goal, it is what it is. As for Kris Brown, I still haven't heard if he was injured or just benched. We know he has an upside that can translate into a starting Griz QB, he just didn't have it last night. How he responds this off-season will be key for his maturation as a QB.
- JMU's speed and aggression on defense was impressive. I'd said they are/were the best front 7 we'll have faced and they lived up to that. I actually thought that our running game was seemingly doing enough to keep that a positive part of the offense for a while. JMU's speed at their skill positions on offense too was also something that (it seemed like) caught Montana by a bit of a surprise.
- JMU did two things very well that flipped the script for Montana. They were able to absorb the pass-rush when heavy blitzes came. For an OL that's pretty young, they were damned impressive in what they did. They had RB and TE help and knew their WRs could win a 1-on-1 match. Additionally, they trusted their ST was as good as ours - and proved it. Montana had just 1 punt return, and averaged just 18 yards per return on kicks. I'd also pointed out that their ST is really good, and they proved it. After JMU scored the first time, they kicked to Flowers. Instead of running straight ahead, Malik tried to slam on the brakes and make a cut - but he gets caught on his heels and rocked by the JMU coverage unit. At that point JMU knew our return game wasn't going to be a factor and that had to have been a major confidence boost.
- Going to miss #MoneyMacias - what a kick!
-----------
We're on to the off-season, holidays, recruiting, and soon enough - winter conditioning. There's a lot for this Griz team to be proud of this year. Yes it came crashing down last night, but JMU was just the better squad, no shame in that. Thank you Montana players, coaches, and administration - it's been a very memorable season.
Go Griz!
