POCATELLO, Idaho- The Montana football team defeated Idaho State 33-0 on Saturday afternoon at Holt Arena in front of a crowd of 9,124, the fourth largest crowd to watch an Idaho State home football game since 2005.
The Bengals had only 121 total yards led by
Rodrick Rumble's six receptions for 73 yards. The Bengal defense was stout for a good majority of the game as
A.J. Storms had a season-high 17 tackles and an interception while
Jack Francis had 10 tackles. The Bengal defense had 13 tackles for loss in the contest.
Montana had 499 total yards of offense, 288 in the air and 211 on the ground. The Montana defense forced seven Bengal turnovers, four fumbles and three interceptions.
Montana led 13-0 at halftime but the Grizzlies scored 10 points in the third and fourth quarters to seal the victory.
Idaho State returns to the field on Oct. 15 at Weber State. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. The Bengals don't return to Holt Arena until Nov. 19 when they end the season against the 2010 FCS National Champions, Eastern Washington.
Coach Mike Kramer Quotes
Opening Statement
“Well, they handed it to us in our mustache. We didn't play the way we're capable of playing on offense, clear and simple. We need to be able to generate first downs and score points. Anything other than that is just croutons on a salad; everything else is just incidental. Defense didn't play that great—they gave up first downs, we allowed them to gain field position, they knocked us out of field position. Good football teams, defensively, find ways to get stops and get off the field. We are capable of it. We didn't believe until they got a couple first downs.”
How big of step back is this for you offensively?
“I have no idea, and I won't know until we play Weber next week. This is only the second shut-out of my career, and we came back from that and went to the play-offs. We rebounded after a loss against Eastern Washington and hardly lost again after that. To me, I'm not real worried about a shut-out or any of that. I'm worried about getting back in focus and playing our rear ends off in practice next week and letting it show in the game next Saturday.”
What things didn't you do offensively?
"I have to look at all the video, obviously everything. We didn't run the ball, we didn't throw the ball, we didn't catch the ball, we didn't protect the passers, we didn't play well at quarterback. We had shut-out; it's a complete meltdown. Our kick-return game gave them the ball a hundred times, it seemed like in great field position and we survived defensively. Some of those are self-inflicted; they kicked the ball, it hit our corner who's trying to battle like heck. A lot of things that I've seen happen before, I've seen happen today. There are a lot of positive things, too. Those will probably stay with me because 33-0 doesn't feel good to anyone. It's like brushing your teeth in sawdust. It's not good."
On Yost
"I won't really know until I see some video tape. We have guys open and we have guys dropping balls. We have the quarterback handling the ball in the pocket and we have guys lining up wrong. Our tailback, who's supposed to be a really good player, fizzled and melted himself off the field today. We ended up playing a freshman, and he was not ready to be a primetime player. We are also wounded now at right tackle, severely wounded.
Jim Bagley, he hurt something in his foot and he'll be gone.
Braeden Clayson re-hurt his wrist. Clayson had surgery Wednesday morning; they put a screw in it and he tried to play. He played as long as he could before he re-injured it. I imagine Clayson's probably done for the season."
On the size of the crowd
"We want to be a high-wire act – throwing the ball and playing pitch and catch."
Montana Coach Robin Pflugrad Quotes
Coach Pflugrad on Offense in the First Half
“It was definitely an ugly experience as an offensive team. Production was not there. Any offense should take advantage of a lot of key situations, we didn't do it. So I was very happy our offense played a lot better in the second half. Just the things we were supposed to do, every day in practice they did better. They blocked longer, they caught the ball better, they threw the ball better and they blocked the receivers better.”
Coach Pflugrad on the Offensive Line
“I think Idaho State's defensive line did a tremendous job tonight. I think they're very well coached and they play with a lot of emotion and early on I don't think we matched that emotion. Also, the crowd was really into it. It was a neat environment and it didn't take us too long to get going. Sometimes it looked like the offensive linemen wasn't always…there was a loose linebacker in there on a few occasions, he usually got the ball carrier and then the other defensive linemen got off their blocks and it looked like a gain tackle every single tackle in the first half and that was really disappointing.”
Coach Pflugrad on Jabin Sambrano
“Jabin had an outstanding game on all facets. We put a couple different plays in, some of the stuff that we saw vs. Idaho State that we thought would work and one of them, the reverse that scored the touchdown was really Jabin's play because we does that so well, running in the open field. So those are positive. And fielding the punts, you know, he should've let one go when it was down at about the 3 yard line. Other than that I thought he did, judgment wise, the best job he's done since he's been at Montana.”
Game Notes
- A.J. Storms had a season-high 17 tackles vs. Montana. He has 371 tackles for his career and needs 44 to pass Mike Calley's 414 tackles to become the program's all-time leading tackler.
- Idaho State is now 0-19 vs. ranked opponents since beating No. 5 Eastern Washington, 34-30 on Sept. 24, 2005.
- Prior to today's game the last time Idaho State was shut out against a Big Sky Conference team was a 48-0 loss to Montana in Pocatello on Oct. 11, 1997, a streak of 107 games.
- The 9,124 fans was the fourth largest crowd to watch a Bengal football game at Holt Arena since 2005. 31, 764 fans have come through the gates at Holt Arena this year in the first four home games. Last year ISU drew 26,940 in the 2010 five-game home season.
We Are Your Bengals
