Turnovers, miscues against Idaho State highlight areas of improvement for Montana heading into bye week

MISSOULA — It wasn’t fairly, however the Montana Grizzlies acquired the job achieved in Pocatello, Idaho, on Saturday with a 28-20 win over Idaho State.

Loads of self-inflicted errors prompted the sport to be nearer than the Grizzlies would’ve preferred.

In UM’s first 4 video games, the Griz had three complete turnovers, however on Saturday towards Idaho State, the Grizzlies turned it over thrice within the recreation alone, which factored into Idaho State preserving it shut by means of a lot of the first half after which mounting a comeback late within the recreation.

The Griz discovered success in quite a few locations — notably within the operating recreation with 246 dashing yards — however head coach Bobby Hauck stated there was loads of areas to scrub up.

“We executed, if you take a look at the numbers, it wasn’t an execution factor,” Hauck stated. “Once more, it goes again to us giving the ball away. Them chucking the ball up on fourth down a number of occasions they usually made the play, we did not, good by them.”

Lucas Johnson threw his second interception of the season on UM’s first drive, and within the second quarter, Kale Edwards fumbled the ball on a brief kickoff return. Together with these, an early focusing on name on security TraJon Cotton ejected him from the sport, plus the Bengals had been in a position to prolong their second scoring drive with a pair of fourth-down conversions, one in every of which got here after a Garrett Graves move interference name and the opposite on an ISU QB sneak the place UM’s protection did not seem prepared for the ball to be snapped. UM finally held ISU to a discipline purpose after an Alex Gubner sack, because the Bengals minimize it to a 7-6 deficit within the second quarter.

Tyler Flink’s interception late within the second quarter proved to be the turning level, because it gave Montana momentum with a well-timed cease after the Bengals discovered that early success on offense.

“Nothing actually deters this protection for my part,” stated Gubner, who completed with 1.5 sacks and 6 complete tackles. “When issues occur within the recreation, like final week (towards Portland State) they scored on that sweep and we got here again and did our jobs. I feel one factor we do is bounce again. We do not let the previous predict the longer term.”

Rapidly the Griz offense took benefit of that turnover with a pair of touchdowns, together with a two-yard rating by Marcus Knight and a 24-yard connection between Johnson and Keelan White that capped off UM’s two-minute offense simply earlier than half, and the Grizzlies went into the break up 21-6.

“It simply goes down to creating performs,” Hauck stated concerning the momentum swing. “It’s important to make performs, helps if you win on first down and you bought extra manageable down and distances which we had been in rather a lot as a result of we had been operating it so properly. That makes third down simpler. I believed the plan was good, thought we executed it fairly properly, however the miscues are the factor that derail you.”

The Grizzlies led 28-6 within the third quarter after a trick play connection between Mitch Roberts and Cole Grossman, however within the fourth quarter and on Idaho State’s two-yard line, Johnson tried to maintain it himself on a scramble, however fumbled earlier than the purpose line and the ball went into the top zone and out of bounds for a touchback, which prevented Montana from placing the sport away.

Whereas it was too little, too late, Idaho State scored twice down the stretch to make the sport shut, because it supplied an instance of how essential it’s to complete video games, particularly on the highway.

However on the finish of the day, the Grizzlies completed out with the win to enhance to 5-0 on the 12 months and 2-0 to start out league play, they usually’ll now shift their focus to bettering on Saturday’s efficiency going ahead as they head into the bye week earlier than their subsequent recreation, a house contest towards Idaho on Oct. 15.

“Simply maintain working, undoubtedly do not get complacent as a result of that recreation was not our greatest and that is inferior to we’re,” stated Knight, who completed with 109 yards on the bottom. “We’re extremely ranked so now we have to behave prefer it. We’ve to play prefer it and we’ll put together laborious, we at all times do, so it is simply get again on our grind and execute higher subsequent week.”