We call it, 'Bison': Another Griz win highlighted by special teams

MISSOULA — This is getting to be ridiculous, how special teams, and especially the punt returns of Junior Bergen, keep tilting games in the Montana Grizzlies’ favor.

Bergen took punts for house calls in consecutive weeks against Furman and North Dakota State, covering 59 and 47 yards, both breaking west and then down the Grizzlies’ sideline.

Something else they had in common: A pursuer getting tea-kettled about the 20-yard line. In the 35-28 overtime win over Furman on Dec. 8, safety Jaxon Lee blew up a Paladin.

“Today it was Rac (receiver Sawyer Racanelli),” Bergen said Saturday, after Montana’s 31-29, double-overtime win over NDSU. ‘He had a huge block.”

The touchdown against the Bison was Bergen’s fifth via punt return, tying the Big Sky Conference record held by MSU standout Corey Smith (2001-03).

“There’s some guys that had some monster blocks on that play; it doesn’t happen without that,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said. “Obviously it’s why we won the last two weeks.”

Not As Special

For all that, there were special teams plays that didn’t go the Grizzlies’ way. After quarterback Clifton McDowell lost 17 yards on a sack, Grant Glasgow came on to kick the 46-yard field goal, and drilled it late in the first half. 

But with a chance to build on a 10-9 lead early in the fourth quarter, Nico Ramos was brought in to try a 45-yarder, and NDSU got a hand on it. Then Ramos missed the PAT after Bergen’s return, helping set the stage for Saturday’s wild finish. 

That’s not what was on Hauck’s mind in the post-game interview he had with the Grizzly radio team of Riley Corcoran and Greg Sundberg, though. It was NDSU’s fake punt that gained 18 yards and — along with a late hit by TJ Rausch — sparked a clock drive that forced OT.

“By the way,  our special teams coach is an idiot,” said Hauck, who is the special teams coach. “That’s 100 percent a fake situation, and I got greedy and went with the call I’d been going with,  and they got it. So that’s on me.”

‘Bison’

It’s odd that the Griz had their only two penalties of the game on that NDSU clock drive, with a touchdown-delaying pass interference being the other. Or maybe it isn’t.

In the end the outcome hinged on the success of each team’s two-point PAT attempts in OT. Neither defense seemed fooled by the other’s option pass. Jake Kava, the defensive end who had a sack among his seven tackles, was all over Bergen on UM’s, but Bergen shook off a facemask grab and got a tipped pass to Keelan White, who made a sensational grab straight out of “The Matrix.”

As for NDSU’s attempt, coach Matt Entz said they hadn’t run it all year. It surprised no one in maroon.

“We run that play,” Hauck told the radio crew. “We call it, ‘Bison.’ Our guys knew how to line it up. They’d seen it."

Corbin Walker intercepted the PAT pass, ending the game.

“I guess it’s appropriate that it came down to a two-point play where they had us, we chucked it up and made a play,” Hauck added. “Then we stopped them on a play that we’d seen before, that we copied.”

Incomplete

North Dakota State rushed 17 times for 65 yards the first half, but ended up with 175 yards on 40 carries.

“Which is kind of more than we’d hoped, but they’re good at it,” Hauck said. “It wasn’t a game for the faint of heart. It was tough-minded out there.”

On the plus side of the ledger: Cam Miller came in completing an obscene 74.5 percent of his passes and connected on just 9 of 22 Saturday, for 157 yards. There were a couple glaring drops and a couple times Miller missed Eli Green deep — and Green possibly flattened out one pattern when maybe he shouldn’t have.

The Bison also committed seven false starts. The Washington-Grizzly Stadium crowd of 26,544 came to play.

“At practice you cannot emulate the pressure and the stress these guys feel at game time,” Entz said. 

A Good Break

Later it was mentioned that NDSU was gunning for its third straight road playoff win, something unheard of in the FCS postseason. But for a play here and there, the Bison could be headed to Frisco, Texas again.

Entz, whose NDSU career ended with the loss, denied his team was road-weary.

“We didn’t wear out,” he said. “We just got beat.”

Montana is making its fourth trip to the title game under Hauck, after losses in 2004 and 2008-09. All three of those games came seven days or less after semifinal wins. The 2008 season saw the Griz win a sensational semifinal at unbeaten James Madison, then play Richmond a week later. 

Travel delays meant they barely touched down in Missoula before they were headed back to Chattanooga, Tenn. “It was logistically a nightmare for us,” Hauck said..  

This time they get a solid, three-week break before kickoff with unbeaten South Dakota State on Jan. 7, at noon local time.

“There’s no drawback to it,” Hauck said. “We get to rest, we get to treat, lift. … This is an outstanding setup for us.”

Just Value

Hauck once again noted that this year’s Griz reminded  him of that 2008 team, which he “thought was undervalued going into the season.” In a sense it was, since just 10 starters returned (and 24 seniors left) from a 2007 squad that started 11-0 and then was shocked at home in the first round by Wofford.

Yet the media and coaches both picked the Griz to finish first in the Big Sky Conference in 2008. “It’s a little surprising in that light,” Hauck told the Missoulian at the time. “But the facts are we’ve won straight regular-season games we haven’t lost a league game since ‘05. So I suppose that’s appropriate.”

Weber State would end that streak convincingly in UM’s conference opener that year. But breakout years by quarterback Cole Bergquist, receiver Marc Mariani and running back Chase Reynolds helped the Griz win an 11th straight Big Sky title and earn a sixth FCS title game appearance.