What a gut-punch. I had hopes we could hang with PSU but this game unfortunately turned in to something we’ve seen too often this season and it got away from the Griz. Let’s face the basic facts here, Portland State is a better team than Montana this year. The stats showed it, the polls showed it, and the game we saw today showed it as well. Damn right I thought the Griz could win this. I’m bummed they didn’t.
Don’t give up on the Griz this year. I just hopped on the board to see threads about firing coaches, bashing players, the end of the dynasty (as if we had one right now?), the end of the world, and other such nonsense. We win one game in convincing fashion against a team with a crap defense and suddenly we’re world-beaters again? The process takes time. There’s still time this season to salvage the year – yeah it’s a small margin but it still exists. The seniors on this team deserve your continued support, heck all the players do. The effort these kids put in to every season deserves ongoing support. We show up to a handful of games and then bitch and moan about what we don’t like on a message board. Meanwhile these guys start working in January to get to this point. Be at your best Griz Nation – it’s needed right now.
On to the game, what more can be said? I looked back at my thoughts on keys to a victory:
1. Do your “1/11” – Again it looked to me like too much lost containment. Wide open cutback lanes and wide open edges. Arm tackles, fooled on fakes, and giving up big plays. The big play was the enemy tonight, as it’s been a lot this season. PSU’s touchdowns came on plays that were 41, 46, 35, 49, and 37 yards. Insult to injury the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th touchdowns all came on 3rd down.
2. Control the clock – almost 34:00 TOP for PSU
3. Positive turnover margin – nope
4. Punish Kuresa when he runs – didn’t really see that, he ran wild tonight. 119 yards and 2 TDs.
5. TD’s in the red zone – Griz had a chance to make it 21-14 headed into the half. The weather probably caused this but a TD goes right through Horner’s hands and we’re kicking a fieldgoal a few plays later. In the grand scheme of things who knows – I see a TD there as a bigger momentum swing of UM.
6. Win on 3rd down. They scored 28 points on 3rd down plays. PSU was 7 of 14 on 3rd down. Montana was 7 of 21.
7. Buck the road griz trend of execution errors, starting slow, etc. Unfortunately that happened again.
8. Better adjustment on offense headed in to the game. Try to recognize that just like the span of the NDSU to CPSLO game that the span of UND to PSU would require more adaptation to make sure PSU doesn’t have a blueprint of how to stop the offense. It sure seemed early they had it figured out. Use that safety #8 as a center fielder to grab deep passes and jam the WRs. Worked to perfection for them.
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So where do we go from here? The Griz head to Pocatello for another dangerous offense to test them. I sincerely hope that Gus is back and ready to go. Simis had a bad day today and no it wasn’t entirely on him but this offense isn’t designed to be run this slowly and be so simple. Gus is the guy that can make it go. With him under center we’ve got a shot, I do believe that.
From the game a few things I noticed beyond the typical hang-wringing stuff we’ve seen on here.
- Kendrick Van Ackeren and Nate Harris kept their side of the field much more secure. KVA has played lights out this whole season and kept it rolling tonight. It wasn’t a perfect game but he had some clutch stops and plays most of the night. Again he lead the team in tackles.
- Josh Buss another great ST tackle. He’s going to be a star for us in the years to come.
- John Nguyen was used better in this offense tonight, a key screen pass that worked well and some good runs. I was most impressed with his power on one play that took a short gain into a 9 yard rush. Still needs to work on fielding all punts though – maybe the rain and fear of dropping it got to his head?
- Incredible catch by Keenan Curran
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Here’s how I see it; if we can get Brady back and build some confidence at ISU we’ve got a beast of a last two games, but the tougher of the two is at home. If the Griz can dig deep and win 3 in a row they’ll finish 7-4 and with signature wins over NDSU and EWU. That’s playoff-worthy.
I know a lot of fans right now are saying no way that happens. But I believe it can. I know the team believes it can as well, and that’s good enough for me. This team needs its main signal caller back, it needs to focus on cleaning up execution errors, and it needs to play these last 3 weeks as if each game is their last one.
Rally time – let’s get it GRIZ!
Don’t give up on the Griz this year. I just hopped on the board to see threads about firing coaches, bashing players, the end of the dynasty (as if we had one right now?), the end of the world, and other such nonsense. We win one game in convincing fashion against a team with a crap defense and suddenly we’re world-beaters again? The process takes time. There’s still time this season to salvage the year – yeah it’s a small margin but it still exists. The seniors on this team deserve your continued support, heck all the players do. The effort these kids put in to every season deserves ongoing support. We show up to a handful of games and then bitch and moan about what we don’t like on a message board. Meanwhile these guys start working in January to get to this point. Be at your best Griz Nation – it’s needed right now.
On to the game, what more can be said? I looked back at my thoughts on keys to a victory:
1. Do your “1/11” – Again it looked to me like too much lost containment. Wide open cutback lanes and wide open edges. Arm tackles, fooled on fakes, and giving up big plays. The big play was the enemy tonight, as it’s been a lot this season. PSU’s touchdowns came on plays that were 41, 46, 35, 49, and 37 yards. Insult to injury the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th touchdowns all came on 3rd down.
2. Control the clock – almost 34:00 TOP for PSU
3. Positive turnover margin – nope
4. Punish Kuresa when he runs – didn’t really see that, he ran wild tonight. 119 yards and 2 TDs.
5. TD’s in the red zone – Griz had a chance to make it 21-14 headed into the half. The weather probably caused this but a TD goes right through Horner’s hands and we’re kicking a fieldgoal a few plays later. In the grand scheme of things who knows – I see a TD there as a bigger momentum swing of UM.
6. Win on 3rd down. They scored 28 points on 3rd down plays. PSU was 7 of 14 on 3rd down. Montana was 7 of 21.
7. Buck the road griz trend of execution errors, starting slow, etc. Unfortunately that happened again.
8. Better adjustment on offense headed in to the game. Try to recognize that just like the span of the NDSU to CPSLO game that the span of UND to PSU would require more adaptation to make sure PSU doesn’t have a blueprint of how to stop the offense. It sure seemed early they had it figured out. Use that safety #8 as a center fielder to grab deep passes and jam the WRs. Worked to perfection for them.
--------------
So where do we go from here? The Griz head to Pocatello for another dangerous offense to test them. I sincerely hope that Gus is back and ready to go. Simis had a bad day today and no it wasn’t entirely on him but this offense isn’t designed to be run this slowly and be so simple. Gus is the guy that can make it go. With him under center we’ve got a shot, I do believe that.
From the game a few things I noticed beyond the typical hang-wringing stuff we’ve seen on here.
- Kendrick Van Ackeren and Nate Harris kept their side of the field much more secure. KVA has played lights out this whole season and kept it rolling tonight. It wasn’t a perfect game but he had some clutch stops and plays most of the night. Again he lead the team in tackles.
- Josh Buss another great ST tackle. He’s going to be a star for us in the years to come.
- John Nguyen was used better in this offense tonight, a key screen pass that worked well and some good runs. I was most impressed with his power on one play that took a short gain into a 9 yard rush. Still needs to work on fielding all punts though – maybe the rain and fear of dropping it got to his head?
- Incredible catch by Keenan Curran
-----------------
Here’s how I see it; if we can get Brady back and build some confidence at ISU we’ve got a beast of a last two games, but the tougher of the two is at home. If the Griz can dig deep and win 3 in a row they’ll finish 7-4 and with signature wins over NDSU and EWU. That’s playoff-worthy.
I know a lot of fans right now are saying no way that happens. But I believe it can. I know the team believes it can as well, and that’s good enough for me. This team needs its main signal caller back, it needs to focus on cleaning up execution errors, and it needs to play these last 3 weeks as if each game is their last one.
Rally time – let’s get it GRIZ!
