Week 4: Sac State at Montana
The Hornets hit the road for the third straight week and head to Missoula to face 19th ranked Montana (2-1). Bobby Hauck is back at head coach at Montana and he is turning things around already with a new read-option look on offense and a 4-3 scheme on defense. This game will feature two former UNLV QB transfers going head to head in Thomson and Sneed and will determine if the Hornets are pretenders or contenders.
The Griz opened the season with a tough win at home over 13th ranked Northern Iowa 26-23. It was a game to 2 halves as UM held on in the 2nd half to escape with a win. UNI went into the game blind and probably wins the game if they weren’t the first team to see UM’s new offensive and defensive schemes.
After a blowout 48-16 win at home over a weak non-scholarship Drake program, Montana traveled to play a tough Western Illinois team. WIU jumped out to an early 14 point lead, but UM stormed back and held a 10 point lead with 7 minutes to go. The Griz then imploded and WIU got some late scores to get their first win of the year, 31-27.
Offensively UM likes to attack the edges with the read-option and jet sweep option. Dalton Sneed (81/127, 755 yds, 5 TD, 2 INT, 43 car, 165 yds, 2 TD) is very athletic and has a strong arm, but struggles at times with accuracy. Sneed is also the leading rusher with Adam Eastwood (35 car, 107 yds, 2 TD) serving as the primary RB. The WRs are more than capable and Sneed has done a great job of distributing the ball pretty evenly to all of his WRs (4 WRs average over 10 ypc). The Griz OL has yet to find their groove. They struggled to pick up the blitz at WIU (Sneed does a great job extending plays with his legs) and struggled in some short yardage situations as well.
The Griz defensive front is stout (75.7 rushing ypg), but the secondary has some work to do (270.3 passing ypg) but overall have only allowed 23.3 ppg. They brought a lot of blitz’ at WIU and subsequently gave up some big pass plays in key situations.
The Griz have both made and given up some big plays on special teams. UM had a kickoff return for a TD which got them back in the game at WIU after falling behind early, but they also gave up a late punt return for a TD that allowed WIU back in the game. Their kicker had a rough time at WIU but overall is usually solid.
The Hornets will have to play much better than they did a week ago if they want to pull off a win in a tough environment. I think the Hornet OL is going to struggle to open up running lanes similar to last week, and it will come down to Thomson and the Hornet WRs making plays that determine whether or not the Hornets get the win. The Hornet defense is going to have their hands full and will need to match their performance from SD. This is going to be a tough game and the loser is going to have a tall order ahead of them if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. To close this overly long write up, I’m going to be optimistic and pick the Hornets by a FG.
The Hornets hit the road for the third straight week and head to Missoula to face 19th ranked Montana (2-1). Bobby Hauck is back at head coach at Montana and he is turning things around already with a new read-option look on offense and a 4-3 scheme on defense. This game will feature two former UNLV QB transfers going head to head in Thomson and Sneed and will determine if the Hornets are pretenders or contenders.
The Griz opened the season with a tough win at home over 13th ranked Northern Iowa 26-23. It was a game to 2 halves as UM held on in the 2nd half to escape with a win. UNI went into the game blind and probably wins the game if they weren’t the first team to see UM’s new offensive and defensive schemes.
After a blowout 48-16 win at home over a weak non-scholarship Drake program, Montana traveled to play a tough Western Illinois team. WIU jumped out to an early 14 point lead, but UM stormed back and held a 10 point lead with 7 minutes to go. The Griz then imploded and WIU got some late scores to get their first win of the year, 31-27.
Offensively UM likes to attack the edges with the read-option and jet sweep option. Dalton Sneed (81/127, 755 yds, 5 TD, 2 INT, 43 car, 165 yds, 2 TD) is very athletic and has a strong arm, but struggles at times with accuracy. Sneed is also the leading rusher with Adam Eastwood (35 car, 107 yds, 2 TD) serving as the primary RB. The WRs are more than capable and Sneed has done a great job of distributing the ball pretty evenly to all of his WRs (4 WRs average over 10 ypc). The Griz OL has yet to find their groove. They struggled to pick up the blitz at WIU (Sneed does a great job extending plays with his legs) and struggled in some short yardage situations as well.
The Griz defensive front is stout (75.7 rushing ypg), but the secondary has some work to do (270.3 passing ypg) but overall have only allowed 23.3 ppg. They brought a lot of blitz’ at WIU and subsequently gave up some big pass plays in key situations.
The Griz have both made and given up some big plays on special teams. UM had a kickoff return for a TD which got them back in the game at WIU after falling behind early, but they also gave up a late punt return for a TD that allowed WIU back in the game. Their kicker had a rough time at WIU but overall is usually solid.
The Hornets will have to play much better than they did a week ago if they want to pull off a win in a tough environment. I think the Hornet OL is going to struggle to open up running lanes similar to last week, and it will come down to Thomson and the Hornet WRs making plays that determine whether or not the Hornets get the win. The Hornet defense is going to have their hands full and will need to match their performance from SD. This is going to be a tough game and the loser is going to have a tall order ahead of them if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. To close this overly long write up, I’m going to be optimistic and pick the Hornets by a FG.