Chambers, Bobcats steamroll Eagles
BOZEMAN — Sean Chambers does more than run.
Chambers threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more Saturday as Montana State coasted to a 57-14 win over Eastern Washington in Big Sky Conference football.
After punting on their first possession, the Bobcats (8-2, 6-1 Big Sky) scored on their next six drives to lead 41-7 at halftime.
Chambers, one of 11 Bobcats honored on Senior Day, opened the scoring with a 68-yard run and then threw a 15-yard pass to Clevan Thomas Jr. to make it 14-0 after one quarter.
After Simeon Woodard returned a fumble 33 yards to the EWU 2, a Chambers run made it 21-0.
Then came three straight big-play touchdowns.
Chambers hit Ty McCullouch for 51- and 75-yard scores, sandwiched around Tommy Mellott’s 63-yard strike to Scottre Humphrey. The four second-quarter touchdown drives took a total of seven plays.
Chambers and Mellott were both 4-for-4 passing for a combined 217 yards. Chambers ran for 75 yards and passed for 119 against an Eastern squad that, owing to its near-last ranking in the FCS in rush defense, seemed determined to stop the run..
“There’s a misconception that we’re going to throw him out there and he’s just going to run the football,” MSU coach Brent Vigen said. “They’re all piled down there, and if you do that we’ve got some guys that can get behind the defense. I know Ty in particular was able to do that, a couple times.
“That was a tremendous first half by Sean. I think we showed we can throw the football if we need to.”
The Bobcats finished with 551 yards, 276 passing and 275 rushing. They had 363 yards by halftime. Jordan Reed took most of the snaps at QB for MSU after that, and was 7 of 11 passing for 59 yards.
McCullouch had 125 yards on four receptions and Humphrey had 84 yards on three carries.
Kekoa Vispers was 27-of-36 passing for 329 yards for the Eagles (4-6, 3-4) with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The Eagles managed just 63 rushing yards on 32 carries.
“We aim to stop the run game, and we did that,” Vigen said. “I think they ended up passing for quite a few, but that’s not going to be the ticket against us.
“Special teams made some fantastic plays. Brendan Hall (51.6-yard average on five punts) did a fantastic job flipping the field because I think we punted more than we typically would. And then offensively, we made a bunch of big plays.”
Lane Sumner, a senior out of Huntley Project, added a scoring run in the third quarter for MSU, which also got a Casey Kautzman field goal and an end zone pick-6 from freshman defensive end Zac Crews of Missoula.
Next up is the 121st Brawl of the Wild Saturday in Missoula. With the No. 4 Idaho Vandals losing 31-29 to Weber State Saturday, and the 9-1 Montana Grizzlies up big at Portland State, the game will decide the outright Big Sky champion.
“The game is big for a lot of reasons,” Vigen said. “By the nature of it being the last game there’s going to be big Sky Conference and playoff implications on the line, and that’s the way it’s going to play out next Saturday.
“We’ve got to enjoy this one and then have a great week of preparation to go give it everything we possibly have next Saturday.”