Montana Grizzly Football Soundly Stymies Early Sycamore Scare

It was far from the dominant defensive effort fans quickly grew accustomed to in the first two games of the season. And yet...

The University of Montana Grizzly football team at times looked like they were reeling, giving up big plays, yardage and time of possession. And yet...

Bend. Bend  Bend. Bend. And yet...seldom break. While the Griz D surrendered lots of yards, including a 54-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, along with giving up plenty of time of possession, they also forced a fumble on a sack for a defensive score, and the entire team got laser focused to emphatically slam the door on Indiana State to coast to a 49-14 romp in Terre Haute, Indiana, this morning and afternoon (11:00 a.m. Mountain Time kickoff).

Besides the defensive touchdown scored when linebacker Patrick O'Connell sacked the Sycamore quarterback, forcing a fumble that defensive end Kale Edwards scooped for a touchdown, quarterback Lucas Johnson threw a touchdown pass to Cole Grossman. Swiss Army Knife receiver/running back and apparently quarterback Junior Bergen threw a touchdown pass to Malik Flowers and the Griz quickly put to rest any doubts about the outcome, taking a 21-7 lead into halftime and quickly tacked up two more touchdowns on the board in the first five minutes of the third period.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Johnson threw one in the end zone to Ryan Simpson from Bozeman, for his first career touchdown. At 42-7, the entire second units are in for Montana.

Quarterback Kris Brown fumbles and the Sycamores run it back for a touchdown. But a couple possession later the Griz go 56 yards to put an exclamation point on the route with a one-yard touchdown run by Missoula's Colter Janacaro.

Montana goes 3-0 in non-conference play and sets their sights on the Big Sky Conference opener, Homecoming, hosting Portland State at 2:00 p.m. next Saturday, September 24. Scott Gurnsey and I will be live on the air at noon from the Grizzly Scholarship Association tailgate site for the pregame Tailgate Show. We hope you can join us as you get ready to get rowdy for your awesome Grizzly football team.