Green gets first 100-yard game to power Montana's offense
MISSOULA - He picked a fine time to bust out.
University of Montana senior running back Brady Green posted his first 100-yard rushing effort of his career Saturday against Idaho State University in Washington-Grizzly Stadium to help power the second-ranked Grizzlies to a 23-10 Big Sky Conference victory.
He finished with 108 yards on 23 carries and made ISU's Buck Buchanon Award candidate at middle linebacker rethink tackling him.
"Dude is a little ball of muscle," linebacker Pago Togfau said.
"He runs hard. If you don't come to the party ready, you're going to be in trouble. He runs hard. I thought both of their running backs (Reggie Bradshaw) run hard. I can only imagine how it would have been if Lex (Hilliard) was there."
As a testament to Green's consistency, the 5-foot-9, 192-pounder had five carries for 29 yards in the first quarter, five carries for 24 yards in the second quarter, four carries for 25 yards in the third and when the game was on the line, nine carries for 30 yards in the fourth.
"We were having success running kind of up the middle and right at them," Green said.
"They have a speedy corps of linebackers. They're all about 210 pounds. So we concentrated on just going more right at them, straight ahead and making them take on blocks rather than try to run wide and play to their strength."
UM coach Bobby Hauck said it was the running of "inside zone" that was so successful.
Green's power running came as a delight to Griz fans, who were watching a seemingly-punchless Griz offense go against a tough Bengal defense.
The Grizzlies had to settle for five field goal attempts and managed a touchdown only because the defense recovered a fumble deep in ISU territory.
UM quarterback Josh Swogger had open receivers at times, but completed only 50 percent of his passes for 157 yards.
"It was really frustrating," Swogger said.
"Last week we were hitting on all cylinders and this week we were just inches from making a great catch or a good throw. There were so many times when we were so close to hitting a big one, but we just weren't on the same page.
"But credit the defense. It seems like every week we are facing a team that plays us like its the only game on their schedule. Watching them (ISU) on film, they seemed like a pretty disciplined defense. But today they were really disciplined. That's what held us up on some of our plays. They didn't bite on many fakes."
Green agreed that the offense was close to clicking on all cylinders.
"We were right there a couple of times," Green said.
"One or two of those plays happen and we might put 40 points on the board. We'd like to score a few more points, but with this kind of defense you don't have to score too many points to come out on top."
Green now has 361 yards rushing on the year with six touchdowns on 89 carries. That's 4.1 yards per carry.