“I thought we won all three phases of the game - offense, defense and kicking,” Griz head coach Bobby Hauck said Tuesday, at UM's regular press conference. “Obviously holding them to three points was a great effort by our defense, but the kicking game and the offense contributed to our ability to hold their offense down.”
The Griz are up to third in the Big Sky in time of possession, heading into their Saturday home game against Sacramento State, at 1 p.m. inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
From there the defense took over. A unit that had its problems in a 45-28 loss at Weber State had a much better day at Eastern.
“I think there was a lot to correct from that Weber game,” said senior linebacker Tyler Corwin, who was Montana's nominee for Big Sky defensive player of the week after making eight tackles at EWU. “At Weber we put ourselves in good position a lot of times, and we missed over 20 tackles. They're a good team, with good skill players, but that's just not us.”
Eastern quarterback Matt Nichols' passing yards dropped from 451 against the Griz in 2007 to 191 Saturday. It was a crucial Big Sky game, and Montana answered the call.
“I liked the fact that we had control of the game,” said Hauck. “It might not have seemed like it on the scoreboard, but we had the game in hand after their first drive. I never felt like we let it slip.”
Next is Sacramento State, a 3-3 squad that has another stout defense to go with a potent if uneven offense.
You can look at injuries as one reason for the latter; in the one league game in which sophomore Jason Smith played quarterback, the Hornets lost to Weber State 32-27 after drawing into a 20-all tie with the Wildcats.
That was on Sept. 20. A week later they overcame a 14-0 deficit to beat Portland State 41-31, and then the wheels came off at Northern Arizona. In that 42-10 loss, neither Smith nor backup QB McLeod Bethel-Thompson was available.
Smith is expected to return from ankle surgery this week. His main target is senior Tony Washington, who leads the Big Sky in receiving yardage (700, on 38 catches).
The Hornets will be without leading rusher Evander Wilkins - he has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season - but still have sophomore Bryan Hilliard, their leading rusher a year ago.
“They've got a lot of skill, a lot of speed,” Hauck said. “Hilliard's a good running back. Their quarterback's back.
“They went down to Northern Arizona and didn't have either of their top two quarterbacks, which slowed them down a bit. We anticipate the starting quarterback (Smith) to be back this week, and they're a little bit different team when he's in there.”
It was supposed to be a day to “See Red” at Woodward Stadium last weekend, but it didn't turn out that way. First the red-clad Eastern Washington Eagles donned black pants for the first time; then more than half the crowd of 10,830 showed up wearing Grizzly maroon.
“It was like that two years ago, too,” said Griz senior receiver Rob Schulte. “The fans had the ‘Montana' and ‘Grizzly' cheer rolling in the fourth quarter. For the opponent - especially in your own stadium - that has to be discouraging.”
Now the Grizzlies are back to Washington-Grizzly Stadium for the first and only time in October.
It's good to be back, say the Griz.
“It seems like forever since we've been here,” said Corwin. “It'll be great. The best part is the extra rest after the game.”
Schulte disagreed.
“I think the best part about it is we get to hit the omelet bar on Saturday morning, which is always a plus,” he said. “I was thinking Corwin was going to say that, so I had to sneak that in.”
QUICK KICKS: UM's Ken Wood is 12th in the Football Championship Division in punting with a 43.7-yard average, and the Griz are No. 2 in net punting (38.47). Š The Griz have now reached 140 straight weeks in The Sports Network's Top 25. Š UM's Cole Bergquist is sixth in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 162.27. ŠSac State's Smith would rank just ahead of Bergquist if he had 90 pass attempts this season. He has just 73 because he's missed three games. Š Weber State is ranked second and Montana fourth among FCS teams in this week's Sagarin Ratings. Montana is 84th among all Division I teams according to Sagarin. Š Sac State is No. 38 among FCS teams according to Sagarin. Š Sac State is 0-13 all-time against the Griz in football. ... UM is No. 5 in the AFCA Coaches' Poll. Š Eastern DE Greg Peach is first in the FCS in sacks with 11 after last weekend, and second in the FCS in tackles for loss. Š Marc Mariani is fourth in the FCS in both receiving yards per game (115.7) and all-purpose running (185.5), and was UM's nominee for offensive player of the week. Š Andrew Schmidt was UM's special teams nominee.
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