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Montana State

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bigskyconf

Active member
Game set for Saturday at 2:05pm from Hillsboro Stadium. Right now, weather is looking to be temps in the low 80's with sunshine. Good day for football.

Bobcat QB, transfer from NC State, seems to be quite the character. Story about him from our guys at Skyline Sports (Colter seems to be expanding the staff over there). From Thomas Stuber...

https://skylinesportsmt.com/letters-from-capt-matt-mckay-bobcat-quarterback-gets-high-marks-for-non-conference-performance/

Pre-season I had this as a possible win for us. However, given the start that the Bobcats (and McKay) have been on, this will be tough. Two blowouts over the Pioneer League and a loss to FBS Wyoming that they should have won. Ifanse is still there and he has always been a load to tackle. In order for us to take the Bobcats down, this has to be our best performance of the season so far.
 
Our new writer, Joe Terry, answering some questions from 406sports.com

https://406mtsports.com/college/big-sky-conference/montana-state-university/portland-state-writer-joe-terry-breaks-down-montana-states-big-sky-opening-opponent/article_fa7c34ba-8427-580c-97ca-cfd91c0c63bd.html

Excellent read. Great response to the idea of "gimmicks" to get fans to Hillsboro.
 
Halftime, PSU 10-9.

PSU was winning the field position battle in all 3 phases ever so slightly, and even broke through once. Last 5 minutes, Montana State was starting to figure out the defense. Every adjustment matters right now.
 
So I'm no expert on football, but it seems to me like tackling is a pretty important part of the game.

Is it me or was our tackling on defense awful today?
 
Our attendance for the MSU game was 4095 paid once again the lowest reported attendance in the Sky. If MSU fans didn't travel well I suspect our attendance would have been in the low 3000's.

Our loss Saturday was our eighth straight against D1 competition since October 19, 2019 when we beat Northern Colorado in Greeley.

What is to be done?
 
Re Marty's comment...didn't check, but we're playing a number of freshmen in the defensive secondary...could the tackling issue have been that? This was a strong runner and he ripped himself away from tacklers.

Re: Alan...Bobcats may travel well, but there are a lot of former Montanans in Portland where there are jobs, amenities, things people like. A plus to playing the two Montana schools here is that their local fan base turns up. Also, there was a solid PSU turnout in white at that game. No, the numbers aren't what we want...but you gotta win consistantly. They'll be there if we do.
 
Alan said:
Our attendance for the MSU game was 4095 paid once again the lowest reported attendance in the Sky. If MSU fans didn't travel well I suspect our attendance would have been in the low 3000's.
Click to expand...

A lot of my Cat friends didn't make the trip, citing the COVID restrictions out here. Masks are suggested/recommended for football games in Montana but not required. They were also concerned with capacity limits and if they would be turned away at the gate. With only local streaming coverage (ESPN+) of the game-no local TV or radio-they didn't know if they would even be able to follow the game if they did get turned away. I'm not saying that is the only reason, but I heard the Cat tailgate before the game was sparsely attended as well. Two of my Cat friends couldn't even give their tickets away as of Thursday so they just ate them.

I'm not trying to spark a political debate about mask wearing here, but I do think it is part of it. I don't think the Ducks or Beavers have had a sellout at any of their games yet.
 
martymoose said:
So I'm no expert on football, but it seems to me like tackling is a pretty important part of the game.

Is it me or was our tackling on defense awful today?
Click to expand...

I think a group of young worn-down defenders eventually have tackling issues.

Let me put it this way… Davis Alexander is really fun to watch. Part of the reason he’s really fun to watch is because he has to make up stuff to compensate for the lack of a competent (or young IIRC) offensive line. Alexander is almost good enough to overcome that. Almost. That’s how the defense eventually spends too much time on the field.
 
bigskyconf said:
Alan said:
Our attendance for the MSU game was 4095 paid once again the lowest reported attendance in the Sky. If MSU fans didn't travel well I suspect our attendance would have been in the low 3000's.
Click to expand...

A lot of my Cat friends didn't make the trip, citing the COVID restrictions out here. Masks are suggested/recommended for football games in Montana but not required. They were also concerned with capacity limits and if they would be turned away at the gate. With only local streaming coverage (ESPN+) of the game-no local TV or radio-they didn't know if they would even be able to follow the game if they did get turned away. I'm not saying that is the only reason, but I heard the Cat tailgate before the game was sparsely attended as well. Two of my Cat friends couldn't even give their tickets away as of Thursday so they just ate them.

I'm not trying to spark a political debate about mask wearing here, but I do think it is part of it. I don't think the Ducks or Beavers have had a sellout at any of their games yet.
Click to expand...

(1) Don’t forget the percentage of people, even in Montana, who are pro-mask and want to not be seen with the others as much as possible.

(Points to avatar) I drove her across the country last month to her grad school location. People who want to portray things getting fully back to normal are lying to you. This isn’t the time to be talking about full houses. Also in that drive, while my daughter did get upset with some fool in Wyoming who gave her crap for wearing a mask, I could also tell that in some of those flyover states that there were people who were quite relieved to see me wearing.

(2) Leading up to the Timbers on Saturday, there was plenty of unrest on social media with lax enforcement of the mask rule, especially with people who would “nurse their beer” to get around it in their seats. It didn’t happen as much on Saturday, though there was someone in the Timbers Army sections who broadcast that he pointed out someone without a mask to security. After someone else had chimed in, security pulls the guy aside (out to the concourse, apparently), a couple minutes pass, then they guy comes back and yells a few things. Security eventually escorted maskless out for being a jerk about it.

I don’t envision enough of a full house in Hillsboro for anyone to worry about such things, much less report someone for not wearing… but media in small western towns love to portray the urban dwellers as being jack-booted thugs. These are interesting times.

(3) The one full house I’ve encountered in the last 20 months was at Fenway right after I dropped off my daughter… and the New England states are Top 5 in vaccinations and bottom 5 in hospitalizations. Plus I deliberately entered late, plus my seat was in the rooftop bar almost as far as you can get from home plate. Very comfortable position, relatively speaking, with good air flow and app-based wait service. Shrug.
 
Bobcats beat Sam Houston, 42-19 and will host South Dakota State in the FCS semifinals this weekend in Bozeman for a chance to go to the FCS national title game.

https://www.montanasports.com/sports/big-sky-conference/montana-state-bobcats/montana-state-returns-to-fcs-semifinals-after-declawing-sam-houston-state-bearkats

With the win, the Bobcats snapped Sam Houston's 22-game winning streak and also snapped a 17-game home playoff win streak for the Bearcats. Whats remarkable about this is that the Bobcats have used their backup quarterback during the playoffs as their starter all year, Matthew McKay, entered the transfer portal 2 days before their first playoff game.
 
Kind of have to tangent to Sam Houston for a bit, because people are seeing their win streak be possibly tainted as not everybody had full rosters in the spring and SHSU’s normal schedule isn’t the strongest. Montana State’s win was quite comprehensive, really.

Crazier than that, attendance at SHSU is on par with Portland State. It’s close enough to Houston that students are notorious for heading to the city on weekends instead of sticking around campus for games. Yet their recruiting has been damn good in comparison to their peers. And they’re about to go FBS.
 
Bobcats beat South Dakota State 31-17. They will face North Dakota State in the FCS championship in Frisco, TX on January 8, 2022.

https://406mtsports.com/college/big-sky-conference/montana-state-university/montana-state-advances-to-first-fcs-title-game-since-1984-with-win-over-south-dakota/article_12bf86bd-1e50-5be9-bdd8-9a2606bfe22a.html
 
I slept in, did a little monkey business, and just turned on the championship game.

Ugh.

Doesn’t help when one QB leaves just before the playoffs and the standout freshman gets hurt on the first series.
 
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