Back to conference play as Sac State comes to town. The Hornets are just 1-5 on the year but flashed some skill and team speed with a dramatic come-back win against MSU. The Griz will face some solid talent from a young and raw team and will need to get more focused in this game as they prep for a two week road trip after.
Sacramento State Hornets 1-5
30-38 loss vs Western Oregon – Probably not the way Sac wanted to start their season, losing to a division 2 school. Sac never had the lead in this game, they made it close time and time again but couldn’t get ahead. Sac passed for 465 yards but rushed for just 95 and had 3 costly turnovers while WOU was more controlled and didn’t have any turnovers.
3-31 loss @ Fresno State – not much takeaway from this loss. 185 total yards of offense for Sac and more bad turnovers. Fresno had 475 total yards in the game.
7-14 loss @ Weber – Kind of an interesting game, Weber out-gained Sac big time. The Wildcats had 530 total yards of offense (380 passing) and the Hornets had 270 total yards. Both teams were really bad on 3rd down and Weber had 3 turnovers where Sac had none. It looks like 2 of Weber’s 3 turnovers were in the red zone, Weber also missed a fieldgoal. Weber finally grabbed the lead with about 1:40 left in the game – Sac then went 4 and out to end it.
34-42 loss vs Idaho State – ISU had a good lead heading into the 4th, up 35-17, but Sac mounted a comeback attempt – they scored to get within 8 but then couldn’t get the ball back as ISU ran the clock out. This game had a ton of offense, 550 yards for Sac and 450 yards for ISU. Sac again killed their chances with two late picks that lead to one TD for ISU.
41-38 win vs Montana State – A lot of us saw this game, the Cats had the win in the bag but got comfy and lazy and Sac State stormed back for a last-second score to win the game. MSU was nursing a narrow lead of 24-21 at the half but opened it up to 38-21 in the 3rd. Sac scored 20 unanswered in the 4th (had a PAT blocked) to win the game. MSU ran for 385 and had their receivers drop multiple deep plays, some of which were sure-fire TDs. Sac passed for 350 and ran for 150. Sac had 3 turnovers, MSU had 2.
7-40 loss vs North Dakota – Sac wasn’t able to build off their win the week before, not scoring until halfway through the 3rd and by that point it was 34-7. UND ran for 422 and passed for 206 – while Sac’s offense vanished, just 272 total yards.
General Stats
Major categories
Pass YPG: Montana 323 ypg - Sac 240 ypg
Rush YPG: Montana 131 ypg - Sac 134 ypg
Total YPG: Montana 454 ypg - Sac 374 ypg
Offense PPG: Montana 42.4 ppg - Sac 20.3 ppg
Defense PPG: Montana 22.8 ppg - Sac 33.8 ppg
Turnover Margin: Montana -1 - Sac -3
Additional categories
TOP: Montana 29:09 - Sac 29:15
Offense Red Zone TD%: Montana 68% - Sac 75%
Defense Red Zone TD%: Montana 56% - Sac 70%
Offense 3rd down %: Montana 42% - Sac 32%
Defense 3rd down %: Montana 29% - Sac 34%
Total Plays per game: Montana 79 - Sac 78
Total statistical advantage Montana 9 to Sac 3. However you could point out that 3 are really close (Plays, TOP, rush yards). If you called those push it would be Montana 8 Sac 1 Push 3
Players to Watch
#6 Nate Ketteringham, QB – Ketteringham is Sac’s young starting QB, a taller guy at 6-3 and 200 pounds, he’s shown tremendous upside and also shown off a lot of youthful inexperience too. He’s averaging 222 passing yards per game and 26 rush yards per game (but if you take out the yards lost on sacks he’s averaging closer to 40 yards per game rushing. Nate has 9 TDs and 9 INTs, he’s also ran for 3 TDs.
#5 Isaiah Henne, WR – Henne is a little guy at 5-7, 155. However he leads the team in receptions (36) and yards (364). He’s got 3 receiving TDs as well. He’s also their punt and kick returner – but no eye popping stats to really report there.
#4 Demetrius Warren, RB – Warren makes up one head of the Sac State 3-headed monster rushing attack. Warren has 70 carries this year and 303 yards and 1 TD.
#25 Jordan Robinson, RB – Robinson has 65 rush attempts, just behind Warren but he’s more of a red zone threat. He’s also has the 2nd most receptions on the team. Robinson has 286 rushing, 201 receiving, and 3 total TDs.
#99 George Obinna, DE – Obinna is a pretty good pass rusher, one of the better ones we’ll see this season. He’s got 4 sacks this year and 5.5 TFLs with 26 total tackles.
#55 Manoah Pearson, LB – A 6-0 225 pound linebacker, he leads the team in tackles with 53 and has 1 sack.
#54 Tyler Meteer, LB – 2nd on the team in tackles with 53, he’s got just 1 sack but has 5.5 TFLs.
Keys to a Grizzly Victory
- Get Calhoun & Nguyen rolling. Sac’s defense has shown big issues with a ground attack. Mix it up and hit them with a steady attack to control the ball and let the offensive line roll. MSU and UND have to have shown how the ground game can gash Sac.
- Keep building on the passing game. Sac’s only had 2 ints forced this whole season. With their softer and less aggressive pass D have Brady and the WRs keep attacking and improving off the last two weeks.
- +2 or better in turnovers. Sac tends to kill themselves with turnovers. Make them pay for it again.
- Don’t let their QB get loose. The Cats made that mistake in the 4th quarter essentially. He’s not as mobile as Poly or UNI’s QBs but this dude isn’t afraid to run it.
- Watch the short passes to the RB/WRs. Sac really likes the shorter passing game and dropping passes to their running backs. Cal Poly had good success with that and Sac will presumably try to build on that.
- No big plays. The defense will presumably see some more attacks attempting to stretch the field. So far our defense has shown really good proficiency shutting down deep attacks, need to continue it!
- Protect Brady. Even last week the two “worst” plays on offense (lost fumble / lateral out of bounds) came on plays where blitzing backers got a free shot on Gus.
- Keep improving on special teams. Need to keep improving on PATs and consistency with the punting game.
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Like last week this one appears “on paper” to be a game Montana should win, however this will pose a bigger challenge than MVSU (of course) and will test the Griz out a bit more. Sac is a fast and aggressive team that really seems to lack experience and discipline due to their youth on roster. They’ve shown flashes of what they can do and have shown a lot of how they can’t hang with more veteran teams. This will be an interesting game to measure the Griz against other top Big Sky teams that have played Sac, like UND and Weber.
The Griz need to come out focused and prepared for a much tougher game than the week before. I believe they’ll be able to do that and should win this one going away. I think it could be a little closer though because I can’t help but wonder if they might be looking forward to NAU and EWU after that… we’ll have to see. I’ll say 38-21 Griz win, Sac narrows it up a little bit late to make it appear closer
GO GRIZ!
Sacramento State Hornets 1-5
30-38 loss vs Western Oregon – Probably not the way Sac wanted to start their season, losing to a division 2 school. Sac never had the lead in this game, they made it close time and time again but couldn’t get ahead. Sac passed for 465 yards but rushed for just 95 and had 3 costly turnovers while WOU was more controlled and didn’t have any turnovers.
3-31 loss @ Fresno State – not much takeaway from this loss. 185 total yards of offense for Sac and more bad turnovers. Fresno had 475 total yards in the game.
7-14 loss @ Weber – Kind of an interesting game, Weber out-gained Sac big time. The Wildcats had 530 total yards of offense (380 passing) and the Hornets had 270 total yards. Both teams were really bad on 3rd down and Weber had 3 turnovers where Sac had none. It looks like 2 of Weber’s 3 turnovers were in the red zone, Weber also missed a fieldgoal. Weber finally grabbed the lead with about 1:40 left in the game – Sac then went 4 and out to end it.
34-42 loss vs Idaho State – ISU had a good lead heading into the 4th, up 35-17, but Sac mounted a comeback attempt – they scored to get within 8 but then couldn’t get the ball back as ISU ran the clock out. This game had a ton of offense, 550 yards for Sac and 450 yards for ISU. Sac again killed their chances with two late picks that lead to one TD for ISU.
41-38 win vs Montana State – A lot of us saw this game, the Cats had the win in the bag but got comfy and lazy and Sac State stormed back for a last-second score to win the game. MSU was nursing a narrow lead of 24-21 at the half but opened it up to 38-21 in the 3rd. Sac scored 20 unanswered in the 4th (had a PAT blocked) to win the game. MSU ran for 385 and had their receivers drop multiple deep plays, some of which were sure-fire TDs. Sac passed for 350 and ran for 150. Sac had 3 turnovers, MSU had 2.
7-40 loss vs North Dakota – Sac wasn’t able to build off their win the week before, not scoring until halfway through the 3rd and by that point it was 34-7. UND ran for 422 and passed for 206 – while Sac’s offense vanished, just 272 total yards.
General Stats
Major categories
Pass YPG: Montana 323 ypg - Sac 240 ypg
Rush YPG: Montana 131 ypg - Sac 134 ypg
Total YPG: Montana 454 ypg - Sac 374 ypg
Offense PPG: Montana 42.4 ppg - Sac 20.3 ppg
Defense PPG: Montana 22.8 ppg - Sac 33.8 ppg
Turnover Margin: Montana -1 - Sac -3
Additional categories
TOP: Montana 29:09 - Sac 29:15
Offense Red Zone TD%: Montana 68% - Sac 75%
Defense Red Zone TD%: Montana 56% - Sac 70%
Offense 3rd down %: Montana 42% - Sac 32%
Defense 3rd down %: Montana 29% - Sac 34%
Total Plays per game: Montana 79 - Sac 78
Total statistical advantage Montana 9 to Sac 3. However you could point out that 3 are really close (Plays, TOP, rush yards). If you called those push it would be Montana 8 Sac 1 Push 3
Players to Watch
#6 Nate Ketteringham, QB – Ketteringham is Sac’s young starting QB, a taller guy at 6-3 and 200 pounds, he’s shown tremendous upside and also shown off a lot of youthful inexperience too. He’s averaging 222 passing yards per game and 26 rush yards per game (but if you take out the yards lost on sacks he’s averaging closer to 40 yards per game rushing. Nate has 9 TDs and 9 INTs, he’s also ran for 3 TDs.
#5 Isaiah Henne, WR – Henne is a little guy at 5-7, 155. However he leads the team in receptions (36) and yards (364). He’s got 3 receiving TDs as well. He’s also their punt and kick returner – but no eye popping stats to really report there.
#4 Demetrius Warren, RB – Warren makes up one head of the Sac State 3-headed monster rushing attack. Warren has 70 carries this year and 303 yards and 1 TD.
#25 Jordan Robinson, RB – Robinson has 65 rush attempts, just behind Warren but he’s more of a red zone threat. He’s also has the 2nd most receptions on the team. Robinson has 286 rushing, 201 receiving, and 3 total TDs.
#99 George Obinna, DE – Obinna is a pretty good pass rusher, one of the better ones we’ll see this season. He’s got 4 sacks this year and 5.5 TFLs with 26 total tackles.
#55 Manoah Pearson, LB – A 6-0 225 pound linebacker, he leads the team in tackles with 53 and has 1 sack.
#54 Tyler Meteer, LB – 2nd on the team in tackles with 53, he’s got just 1 sack but has 5.5 TFLs.
Keys to a Grizzly Victory
- Get Calhoun & Nguyen rolling. Sac’s defense has shown big issues with a ground attack. Mix it up and hit them with a steady attack to control the ball and let the offensive line roll. MSU and UND have to have shown how the ground game can gash Sac.
- Keep building on the passing game. Sac’s only had 2 ints forced this whole season. With their softer and less aggressive pass D have Brady and the WRs keep attacking and improving off the last two weeks.
- +2 or better in turnovers. Sac tends to kill themselves with turnovers. Make them pay for it again.
- Don’t let their QB get loose. The Cats made that mistake in the 4th quarter essentially. He’s not as mobile as Poly or UNI’s QBs but this dude isn’t afraid to run it.
- Watch the short passes to the RB/WRs. Sac really likes the shorter passing game and dropping passes to their running backs. Cal Poly had good success with that and Sac will presumably try to build on that.
- No big plays. The defense will presumably see some more attacks attempting to stretch the field. So far our defense has shown really good proficiency shutting down deep attacks, need to continue it!
- Protect Brady. Even last week the two “worst” plays on offense (lost fumble / lateral out of bounds) came on plays where blitzing backers got a free shot on Gus.
- Keep improving on special teams. Need to keep improving on PATs and consistency with the punting game.
-------------------
Like last week this one appears “on paper” to be a game Montana should win, however this will pose a bigger challenge than MVSU (of course) and will test the Griz out a bit more. Sac is a fast and aggressive team that really seems to lack experience and discipline due to their youth on roster. They’ve shown flashes of what they can do and have shown a lot of how they can’t hang with more veteran teams. This will be an interesting game to measure the Griz against other top Big Sky teams that have played Sac, like UND and Weber.
The Griz need to come out focused and prepared for a much tougher game than the week before. I believe they’ll be able to do that and should win this one going away. I think it could be a little closer though because I can’t help but wonder if they might be looking forward to NAU and EWU after that… we’ll have to see. I’ll say 38-21 Griz win, Sac narrows it up a little bit late to make it appear closer
GO GRIZ!
