Certainly this year, when the Montana senior quarterback has engineered numerous quality outings by the Grizzly offense.
But not Saturday.
Bergquist did not get a lot of help with some uncharacteristic drops by his top two receivers, Marc Mariani and Mike Ferriter, as well as a costly fumble by sophomore running back Chase Reynolds.
But as every quarterback knows, life behind center is a two-edged sword. When things go well, he's the guy getting most of the applause.
And when things don't go well? Bergquist was left staring at the microphone.
“I played pretty awful today, and it doesn't help when your quarterback isn't making the right reads,” he said.
“This is the first game in a while where, as an offensive unit, I felt like we took a step back. Maybe we'll use it as a wakeup call.”
With rival Montana State on deck and the playoffs starting the following week, Griz fans are likely hoping the same thing.
“He knows better than I (how he played Saturday),” UM coach Bobby Hauck said of Bergquist. “I'll know better than him (after I watch film) Sunday. But I think it's safe to say he didn't play his best game of the year today.
“There's a lot of things that go into playing quarterback aside from numbers, and he did some good things as well. I would anticipate he'll come back this week, have a great week, and play his best game of the season next week.”
Much of the credit for Montana's offensive struggles certainly had to go to the beleaguered Idaho State defense.
“I thought defensively we came out and other than the first half with the interception and shorter punt that gave them great field position, we didn't give up anything,” Bengals coach John Zamberlin said.
“They're going to make some yards, they're going to make some plays. But, all in all, they had one drive on us.”
Despite his struggles, Bergquist did have his moments.
He threw an 8-yard touchdown to Tyler Palmer to cap the first half, and one possession earlier he gave the Grizzlies a 15-7 lead on a nifty 7-yard run.
Bergquist set up his TD dash on the previous play by catching a throw-back pass from Ferriter and scampering 20 yards down the left sideline to the 14. A late hit on ISU's Ryan Phipps added 7 yards to the play.
“I think Ferriter wanted me to score worse than I wanted to score ... get one of those touchdown passes on his stats,” Bergquist said. “I've been begging for a catch all year, and I'm glad we called it and it worked out. Mike put a nice pass on me. We get one more block and I'm in the end zone.”
Replacement parts
Montana's secondary has taken its share of lumps this season, particularly after the 45-28 loss to Weber State in its Big Sky Conference opener.
Saturday those lumps were literal as the Grizzlies lost both starting cornerbacks and senior safety Colt Anderson for various periods of time.
In all three cases, UM received quality efforts from its backups.
True freshman Trumaine Johnson's injury appeared to be the most severe. He left in the first quarter, unable to put weight on his right leg. The knee was iced and wrapped and he spent the rest of the game on the sideline.
Johnson's fellow corner, Andrew Swink, missed most of the second quarter after a hand injury left him writhing on the turf. The junior college transfer returned to action in the third quarter with a wrap on several of his fingers.
Anderson missed an entire Idaho State possession after going down with what looked like an ankle injury at the end of a UM punt.
Montana's leading tackler returned to action, however, and appeared not much worse for the wear.
A pair of true freshmen - Mike McCord at corner and Mike Cummings at safety - filled in nicely, while junior corner Keith Thompson took over full-time in the absence of Johnson.
“Football's a rough game,” Hauck said. “Guys get banged up and our expectation is for the backups to come in and play at a championship level. We'll evaluate it, and I think we'll see some good and bad, but I think those kids were ready to go. I'm proud of them.”
Going streaking
Idaho State is on a losing run that hit 15 games Saturday. It dates back to a 38-20 victory over Portland State on Oct. 20 of last year.
It's the second-longest active streak in the country behind Indiana State. The Sycamores fell to No. 4 Northern Iowa 28-0 Saturday to drop their 25th straight game.
The Bengals have a shot at breaking the skid in their final game of the season at home against Sacramento State.
“We've got some momentum ... knowing that we played well against a highly ranked team,” ISU free safety A.J. Storms said. “We'll have some momentum rolling into Sac State.”
This and that
The Grizzlies' 10th win secured their third straight season with at least that many victories. ... The first-quarter safety against ISU was the fourth one allowed by the Bengals this season, a school record. ... When the Bengals held the ball and a 7-2 lead in the second quarter, it was the first time Idaho State had done so since its game against Weber State on Nov. 3 of last year.
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