Well, it wasn’t pretty, especially in the first half – but the Griz are back on track with a win against Dixie State. Montana, especially the offense, seemed to be reeling early – possibly still stung from the EWU game, but as the game went on the OL wore down Dixie’s front and the Griz pulled away. In an all-things funky week I guess we also deserved a funky game too, right?
Kris Brown’s first career start wasn’t the prettiest by any measure. His first half had a few drives get going but ending in a sack/fumble, a stopped 3rd and short on a Bergen run, 2 three and outs, an interception, a fieldgoal drive, and a short field drive that ended with a failed fake fieldgoal. His first lost fumble was a tough one, the edge looked to get right beyond any blockers and hit Kris just right. The pick was ugly, into double coverage, seemed maybe he was expecting man coverage and the corner handed off the WR into some sort of a zone. In the 2nd half more of his possessions were fruitful. The following 4 possessions got Montana into scoring position, the first was a missed field goal, but then the next 3 possessions wound up scoring 3 touchdowns and putting the game away. Brown would lose a 3rd turnover on another sack-fumble that turned into a scoop and score – that one was tough but hopefully he’ll learn when the pocket has collapsed like that he needs to just secure the ball, take the loss, and move on. For the most part, 2nd half Kris Brown looked more poised, calm, and efficient. Who knows if he’s our guy the rest of the way – or just for a handful of weeks – but if we can get that type of play from him we’ll be good.
I’m not sure what’s going on with the O-line, and maybe it’s nothing, but for a group I expected to be totally dominant, they’ve had their issues – and today showed that some more as well. Almost 191 rushing isn’t too shabby, but 3.3 ypc isn’t the best number. Dixie also tallied 4 sacks – two of which resulted in turnovers, and one even scoring a defensive TD. We’ve got a veteran group on this OL and we need these guys to be the anchor in the face of a lot of youth at QB/RB, I’m hoping we can get some improvement here in the weeks ahead. More physical defensive fronts are on the horizon, is this OL up to the challenge?
Injuries are part of the game but damn, this team can’t catch much luck it seems. Childs hurt again on 1 play, we’re down a handful of D-linemen, Roberts still out, a few more guys left the field today with injuries as well – hopefully nothing serious.
Injuries aside though the defense seemed to get back to their dominant ways, after a shaky first drive that ended in a great Ford INT the defense really locked down until it was garbage time. Ford had a pretty solid day as well, forcing and recovering a fumble too. Maybe it was me but the linebackers seemed a little stiff and caught by surprise at times when blitzing – Dixie seemed to employ what EWU was doing in the 2nd half of the game, using the RB to cut block and keeping TEs in for more protection too. All that aside they still dialed up some good pressure and were really disruptive to the Dixie offense. Dixie had 8 consecutive possessions without a first down – that’s damn impressive for the defense, I don’t care who they’re playing.
A few other observations:
- Another 100+ day on the ground for Xavier, he’s looking better each week. Hopefully that late walk-off was just a cramp. With the RB room practically all walking wounded we’re going to have to really lean on X until we can get some help for him.
- Career day for Cole Grossman, 70 yards and 1 TD, almost a 2nd TD as well. Him and Brown seem to have a good connection, hopefully they can keep going with that. Grossman is showing what a mismatch he can become.
- Nice punt return for Robby, a few shaky returns for Keelan.
- Solid all-purpose day for Junior Bergen who I think has officially foregone his ability to take a redshirt this season. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of this dude moving forward, he’s a good pass-catching mis-match. He’s not the RB of the future, so I’ll save some critique on a few decisions when given a handoff – especially some of the pitches today.
- Not the greatest day in the red zone for the Montana offense, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it, a failed fake field goal and another missed kick too.
- Just 35 Dixie rushing yards on 28 attempts, wow.
My closing thought, moving forward, the offense cannot have this bad of a first half. You cannot put up just 3 points in a half and have 2 turnovers (and eventually 3 total) in any road game or against Sac or MSU. That’s how a team that one *should* beat, hangs on and wins a game. Hell, that’s what practically happened to Washington when we played them. This was a strange day and we have so much youth an inexperience on offense, so hopefully that shakiness fades, and fast.
There’s a lot to worry and complain about, but we’re talking about a somewhat ugly win. There’s quite a few other teams, including 3 top 10 teams so far that are having to assess where they’re at following a loss. I’d damn sure rather be talking about improvements needed after a win.
Sac State is next, we’ll need a much better showing from Griz fans out there as well – so plan it and let’s pack Wa Griz next week.
Go Griz!
