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Third down efficiency is killing us

Our D played well when you consider they were on the field for 2/3rd's of the game:
TOP:
EWU: 37:48
UM: 22:12

We had 8 sacks , the most this season and truly outstanding, and 2 picks, one turning into our last and it turns out, the game-saving TD, and while we gave up 400+ passing yards, our D only gave up 24 pts, remarkable for as long as they were on the field. !!!

Again, since I was at work, I listened to the game on the radio. Riley and Greg made the comment 2-3 times during the game in the 2nd Qtr and the 2nd half that Keali'i and his receivers were not on the same page which was surprising given this was our 10th game of 2025. And our radio team also observed in the second half that Eastern was playing a tough man-to-man, and our receivers were having a hard time gaining separation.

Look for O to be much sharper next week--our staff knows that scoring 22 points isn't going to win many games and they can't always count on the D getting a late-game turnover that results in points allowing for us to make a Houdini escape and still win the game like today. !!!

And let's give credit to Coach Best and his Eagles--we are EWU's big rival since they don't have another FCS school in state. Eastern came to play today and the Eagles deserve a lot of credit for almost pulling off the big upset !!!
 
BrownBear9501 said:
Agreed. Let’s not make excuses….The Eagles are not a good team this year. No excuse to barely hang on for a 5 pt win
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Agreed that Eastern is not a good team this year, but they were a good team today--they are not going to the playoffs, we are their big rival, and this game was their Super Bowl, and the Eags played like it. Part of today's close score was our sputtering offense's ineffectiveness, and Eastern deserves a lot of credit for making our offense stumble and be ineffective and uncomfortable today. !!!
 
"Obviously, it was kind of an odd game in terms of how it played out. We need to be better on both sides of the ball on third down. I think that was probably the main reason why we couldn't get away from them in the second half."

"It goes back to third down a little bit, which oftentimes you need to reflect on what you did on first down to put yourself in a rough position," Hauck said. "Early in the game, we were much more effective on first down and we were getting behind the chains a bit in the second half."

The Griz failed to convert their final nine third down attempts and were 0 of 6 in the second half. They had an average distance to go of 6.2 yards on third down. They had to go 2, 7, 2, 3, 4, 10, 8, 8, 7 and 11 yards, in that order.

They gained an average of 1.7 yards on those 10 third downs. They ran twice, for 2 and 5 yards, moving the chains only once. They were 5-of-8 passing for 10 yards, but three completions went for 0 yards and none moved the chains.

"They were bringing their safety and sometimes their corner and we were running into it and we just didn't get them creased," Hauck said. "Now, sometimes those plays are big gainers if you can get a crease and get them going because they don't have a second layer of their defense."

"We got eight sacks; it wasn't because guys were running wide open," Hauck said. "But there were times where we didn't cover them well enough. They won on the ball. Again, we're down a few secondary guys, like, quite a few. There were times where we didn't make the play on the ball and they did, and there's times where we covered them up."

EWU coach Aaron Best said his receivers making plays on the ball like they did was something "we haven't done all season." Miles Williams had 11 catches for 136 yards and Cole Pruett had 10 catches for 133 yards and one score.

Schakel threw for 154 yards in the fourth quarter, his most in any quarter. He also had one pick in the fourth, on a tipped pass at the line. His other pick came in the third quarter on solid coverage from cornerback Kenzel Lawler.
"Their determination is to stop the run," Best said of UM. "There's a lot of air out there. We had our best day in the air that we have in 10 games. ... I think our guys were ready for the challenge from play one, but a lot of it's just his (Schakel's) uncanny ability to play ball and not worry about who's open, who's not open, what's my first, what's my second read. He wasn't playing scared."

The Eagles went 11 of 21 on third downs after they entered the game last in the Big Sky in conversion percentage. They had an average to-go distance of 7 yards, gained an average of 8 yards per third down attempt and were 14-of-16 passing for 162 yards with one touchdown on the money down.

Compared to 63 passes, the Eagles ran the ball just 29 times for 28 yards. It was 21 rushes for 70 yards when excluding sacks. It was also a different-looking offense from the one that had been run by dual-threat quarterback Nate Bell, who didn't play after he got injured in the previous game.

"They abandoned the run game, which is unusual for them," Hauck said. "But that's something we just don't see them do against other people, but they've done that against us. Three of the last four times that we've played them, they've just given up on it and we've had to adjust."

"We have a player assigned to that and he didn't make the play," Hauck said. "Specifically, that's what his position's called: The bunt player."

missoulian.com

Three takeaways: No. 2 Montana Grizzlies hold off EWU, hold onto perfect record

"We're excited to be 10-0. We're not going to act like we aren't. I'm proud of our team." — Grizzlies head coach Bobby Hauck
missoulian.com missoulian.com
 
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