Well I think my heartrate finally came down this morning 
. In some facets the Griz really had a rough evening, in others they excelled. What I really liked last night was that Montana showed that even when their plans fall apart - they're resilient and they can still go out and win the day. ISU's game plan on offense worked very well for quite some time. Montana's 3 man front couldn't generate enough pressure and Montana's secondary was having major issues staying in man coverage, especially on deep shots. Adding to it, the interior Griz OL couldn't get the push they needed against ISU's D-line and it forced Montana to move away from a slow down gameplan with Gillman and instead air it out.
And air it out they did! Again, the maturation of Ah Yat has been impressive to watch. Multiple times in this game he saw breakdowns in the ISU defense and exploited them, leaving the intended read to find the open player. 350 yards in the air and some key pickups when needed the most, this guy is on fire! He had to adjust in the pocket a lot and find targets while on the move - and kept the offense rolling (save some Q3 lapses and a bad pick). Cooke had better numbers than him on the stat sheet, however a lot of Cooke's plays were jump balls or wide open targets, while Ah Yat didn't have that much of a luxury - plus he was under duress a lot last night. Casuals will look at the stat sheet and say Cooke outplayed him, but I'd totally disagree - especially when the game was on the line his offense (and a big catch) would find the endzone, while Cooke's couldn't find any scored the whole 4th quarter.
Not sure if I can add anything more about Michael Wortham here to what others have said. He should win Big Sky player of the week and FCS player of the week. What a stat line; 49 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 41 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs, 124 receiving yards, 82 kick return yards. That's a total of 296 yards and 3 TDs. He's such a weapon on this team and what a perfect game to unleash the fact that he still can sling it (remember he was a JuCo QB with good stats). He juked guys, he made big catches, he turned up when clutch play was needed the most.
Peyton Wing's importance to this defense was made obvious last night. In the first half with him watching ISU had 291 yards on 5 possessions (58.2 yards per possession), just 1 punt, and 24 points. In the 2nd half ISU's offense suddenly wasn't as efficient, 243 yards on 8 possessions (30.4 yards per possession), and 3 punts, 2 turnovers on downs, and 1 INT. I'm sure the credit can be spread to players and coaching adjustments but it seemed the energy out there with him just went up a few notches and the team responded
Things I liked from last night
- Eli Gillman had a rough first half but stuck with it and as the game went on he ripped off some key runs / plays and seemed to calm things down in the late 3rd / early 4th when the Grizzly offense was hitting a few issues. Sometimes the game plan doesn't go your way but you've got to battle through it, Eli did just that, and late in the game he was doing what we expect the most from him. Props to Rocker as well, he found some good juice on the edges and had 3 catches as well.
- I think Jake Mason had his best game yet on the D-line, 1.5 TFLs, a QB hit, and a batted pass. He was a thorn in Cooke's side even when double teamed or chipped. He was the one pressuring Cooke on the last few plays I think.
- I really appreciate the steady and solid play of Elijawah Tolbert, a huge 4th down stop that really turned the tides for Montana's favor and just a force of a linebacker out there on the field.
- Are Deante Gentry and Brady Beaner going to retain their redshirts? They did some good stuff last night that might suggest the time for these guys to keep playing is now - not next year. Probably all depends on Loud's timeline to return.
- Brooks Davis continues to really impress me, he makes the toughest catches. Ah Yat has to love throwing to this guy because he is such a great ball catcher and route runner.
- Brent Pease / Bobby Hauck pulled out all the stops and holy shit I loved it. We had Wortham throwing passes, once to Ah Yat on the "Grizzly special", we had a key 2 point conversion that wound up being a huge difference maker preventing ISU from being able to simply tie the game late, more direct snaps to Wortham, some new innovation in the passing game, and finding ways to get the run game going as the night went on.
- The defensive adjustment after ISU's early 2nd half TD seemed to work - save a short field situation the Bengals did not find the endzone the rest of the half. It looked like the plan was just the typical 3 man front with a linebacker adding in - and then having the remaining 6 defenders go into a type of zone coverage to keep things in front of them. It worked! Funny thing, say we have Wing and that plan all game and ISU scores 21 to 28 total points instead of 38... are we as panicked about the defense? It took an adjustment in the game to do so, and props to the coaches and players who executed it.
Things that were concerning
- The OL was wrecked in the middle most of the night. Many times Gillman was facing 1 or 2 ISU interior DL as soon as the ball was in his hands. Not sure the cure there, things did get better in the 4th. I noticed Tripp saying ISU runs a 4-2-5, and that's what North Dakota ran as well. If that's the case then the Grizzly OL needs to REALLY find ways to improve against this type of front. They were helped out by the dynamic passing game but I don't think simply being unable to conventionally run the ball for 3 quarters of a game is a sustainable plan of action.
- We're going to see a lot more 4 and 5 wide forcing Grizzly defenders into man / single coverage. Credit Cody Hawkins for a great initial game plan on how to expose and attack the 3-3-5. ISU does have a very unique group of WRs, but still they sliced and diced the Grizzly pass defense for a while. Tough to tell on TV at times, I'm sure the coaches will see this on film better, I think beyond Lawler they need to really assess who the next CB is on the field.
- Drew Deck is going to catch hell for his one punt return, and I'm sure he knows it - he had a good 2nd return and we know he's a solid player. That drive alone ST set the offense back 20ish yards and then missed a field goal at the end of regulation. Not good!
- A few times where WRs were looking up field and trying to make moves before fully securing a catch. It was a rapid fire game, but got to settle in and not make small errors like that, a few killed drives.
- Not concerning towards the Griz but that Brooks Davis OPI call was crap
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The Griz weathered the storm of their first road game, barely, now they come home to face yet another dangerous passing attack - so there's no rest for these guys at all. I'm glad they found a way to get this done, it's a sign of resilience and of a good team. Now it's time to clean a handful of things up and keep to their winning ways.
Go Griz!
. In some facets the Griz really had a rough evening, in others they excelled. What I really liked last night was that Montana showed that even when their plans fall apart - they're resilient and they can still go out and win the day. ISU's game plan on offense worked very well for quite some time. Montana's 3 man front couldn't generate enough pressure and Montana's secondary was having major issues staying in man coverage, especially on deep shots. Adding to it, the interior Griz OL couldn't get the push they needed against ISU's D-line and it forced Montana to move away from a slow down gameplan with Gillman and instead air it out. And air it out they did! Again, the maturation of Ah Yat has been impressive to watch. Multiple times in this game he saw breakdowns in the ISU defense and exploited them, leaving the intended read to find the open player. 350 yards in the air and some key pickups when needed the most, this guy is on fire! He had to adjust in the pocket a lot and find targets while on the move - and kept the offense rolling (save some Q3 lapses and a bad pick). Cooke had better numbers than him on the stat sheet, however a lot of Cooke's plays were jump balls or wide open targets, while Ah Yat didn't have that much of a luxury - plus he was under duress a lot last night. Casuals will look at the stat sheet and say Cooke outplayed him, but I'd totally disagree - especially when the game was on the line his offense (and a big catch) would find the endzone, while Cooke's couldn't find any scored the whole 4th quarter.
Not sure if I can add anything more about Michael Wortham here to what others have said. He should win Big Sky player of the week and FCS player of the week. What a stat line; 49 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 41 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs, 124 receiving yards, 82 kick return yards. That's a total of 296 yards and 3 TDs. He's such a weapon on this team and what a perfect game to unleash the fact that he still can sling it (remember he was a JuCo QB with good stats). He juked guys, he made big catches, he turned up when clutch play was needed the most.
Peyton Wing's importance to this defense was made obvious last night. In the first half with him watching ISU had 291 yards on 5 possessions (58.2 yards per possession), just 1 punt, and 24 points. In the 2nd half ISU's offense suddenly wasn't as efficient, 243 yards on 8 possessions (30.4 yards per possession), and 3 punts, 2 turnovers on downs, and 1 INT. I'm sure the credit can be spread to players and coaching adjustments but it seemed the energy out there with him just went up a few notches and the team responded
Things I liked from last night
- Eli Gillman had a rough first half but stuck with it and as the game went on he ripped off some key runs / plays and seemed to calm things down in the late 3rd / early 4th when the Grizzly offense was hitting a few issues. Sometimes the game plan doesn't go your way but you've got to battle through it, Eli did just that, and late in the game he was doing what we expect the most from him. Props to Rocker as well, he found some good juice on the edges and had 3 catches as well.
- I think Jake Mason had his best game yet on the D-line, 1.5 TFLs, a QB hit, and a batted pass. He was a thorn in Cooke's side even when double teamed or chipped. He was the one pressuring Cooke on the last few plays I think.
- I really appreciate the steady and solid play of Elijawah Tolbert, a huge 4th down stop that really turned the tides for Montana's favor and just a force of a linebacker out there on the field.
- Are Deante Gentry and Brady Beaner going to retain their redshirts? They did some good stuff last night that might suggest the time for these guys to keep playing is now - not next year. Probably all depends on Loud's timeline to return.
- Brooks Davis continues to really impress me, he makes the toughest catches. Ah Yat has to love throwing to this guy because he is such a great ball catcher and route runner.
- Brent Pease / Bobby Hauck pulled out all the stops and holy shit I loved it. We had Wortham throwing passes, once to Ah Yat on the "Grizzly special", we had a key 2 point conversion that wound up being a huge difference maker preventing ISU from being able to simply tie the game late, more direct snaps to Wortham, some new innovation in the passing game, and finding ways to get the run game going as the night went on.
- The defensive adjustment after ISU's early 2nd half TD seemed to work - save a short field situation the Bengals did not find the endzone the rest of the half. It looked like the plan was just the typical 3 man front with a linebacker adding in - and then having the remaining 6 defenders go into a type of zone coverage to keep things in front of them. It worked! Funny thing, say we have Wing and that plan all game and ISU scores 21 to 28 total points instead of 38... are we as panicked about the defense? It took an adjustment in the game to do so, and props to the coaches and players who executed it.
Things that were concerning
- The OL was wrecked in the middle most of the night. Many times Gillman was facing 1 or 2 ISU interior DL as soon as the ball was in his hands. Not sure the cure there, things did get better in the 4th. I noticed Tripp saying ISU runs a 4-2-5, and that's what North Dakota ran as well. If that's the case then the Grizzly OL needs to REALLY find ways to improve against this type of front. They were helped out by the dynamic passing game but I don't think simply being unable to conventionally run the ball for 3 quarters of a game is a sustainable plan of action.
- We're going to see a lot more 4 and 5 wide forcing Grizzly defenders into man / single coverage. Credit Cody Hawkins for a great initial game plan on how to expose and attack the 3-3-5. ISU does have a very unique group of WRs, but still they sliced and diced the Grizzly pass defense for a while. Tough to tell on TV at times, I'm sure the coaches will see this on film better, I think beyond Lawler they need to really assess who the next CB is on the field.
- Drew Deck is going to catch hell for his one punt return, and I'm sure he knows it - he had a good 2nd return and we know he's a solid player. That drive alone ST set the offense back 20ish yards and then missed a field goal at the end of regulation. Not good!
- A few times where WRs were looking up field and trying to make moves before fully securing a catch. It was a rapid fire game, but got to settle in and not make small errors like that, a few killed drives.
- Not concerning towards the Griz but that Brooks Davis OPI call was crap
------------------
The Griz weathered the storm of their first road game, barely, now they come home to face yet another dangerous passing attack - so there's no rest for these guys at all. I'm glad they found a way to get this done, it's a sign of resilience and of a good team. Now it's time to clean a handful of things up and keep to their winning ways.
Go Griz!
