Montana Grizzlies Sports, Football and Basketball : Grizzoulian

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This weekly roundup on action in the Big Sky has been less than weekly but here it is for this weekend's games.

The Bears are who we thought they were, but are the Griz? The Griz racked up an impressive 627 yards and 52 points in their dominant win over Northern Colorado but who really knows what that means? Will the win set the Griz offense on a track that leads toward Chattanooga or is this simply a good win over a bad team? Griz fans can hope for the former but the next two games should be a better indicator than this win over a team that hasn't beat a Division I team since moving up.

Bobcats survive Sac State. As many Griz fans expected/hoped for, the MSU offense had a bit of trouble against the Hornet defense. The Cats were down 6-0 at the half but outscored the Hornets 20-3 in the final two quarters. They've now won eight straight in what has effectively been dubbed "The Ashtray."

Weber ends NAU's two game BSC win streak. Not a whole lot going on in this one. The Lumberjacks had a chance to tie it with about 9 minutes left in the game but a two point conversion was batted down. A few plays later, Weber scored and the game was out of reach.

Portland State falls to Idaho State, 38-20. Going into this season, Portland State had hopes for a Big Sky championship. It doesn't look like that's going to happen. Sorry Jer. The Viks were up 13-3 at halftime but the Bengals scored four third quarter touchdowns with two of them being on defense. The Vikings are 2-5 overall and 2-2 in the Big Sky. The only thing that may salvage their season: an upset over UM. I'm not too frightened but it is on my mind.

Eastern gets crushed by BYU. Fans of FCS, or at least Big Sky teams, hoped EWU's impressive offense would at least put a little fear into BYU, maybe make a game out of it. That did not happen. While the Eagles suffered a 42-7 defeat, they did get $325,000 for making the trip.

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It wasn't here last week, but this weekly recap of Big Sky games is back for week 5.

Montana very unimpressive against WSU. It was a lot like the USC-Washington game. Both the Trojans and Griz were ranked number one but put up less than inspiring performances against decent yet unranked teams who wore purple and had school names starting with a W. I don't think the Trojans committed nearly as many penalties though.

Portland State beats Eastern Washington, 28-21. The Viking offense looked very strong in the win as they racked up 520 yards of total offense. Even so, it was a close game. The game ended when Portland State picked off a desperation pass in the end zone.

Sac State rolls over Northern Arizona, 38-9. NAU head coach Jerome Souers didn't give the Hornets much credit, saying "it was one of those games that whatever could go wrong, did go wrong." You know what, you got stomped. It wasn't just things going wrong. Sac State obviously played well.

Montana State rallies from 10-0 deficit to beat Idaho State. The Bobcats had a strong third quarter and Demetrius Crawford ran for 173 yards on 23 carries as the Bobcats' 40-20 win put the Bengals 0-2 in the conference.

Northern Colorado loses to Cal Poly, 56-21. What can I say? They got this losing thing down.

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Portland State saves their season with a 35-24 win over Sac State. The Vikings probably went into this game the same way Michigan will go into their conference schedule. PSU will not get great playoff seeding but they can still win the conference and make the playoffs. Unlike the Wolverines, the Viks can still win a National Championship. It's not likely, but as a Cubs fan, I like to think anyone can win once they get in the playoffs.

Montana State kills Dixie State, 61-7. Nice job guys, nice job. Some people mark this as some sort of sign that MSU is fine and will be something of a contender. The win is what it is. If you're proud of a D-II shilacking, that's not good. I'm not saying the Cats will or will not be a factor in the 'Sky but the only message this sends is that they can blow out a team from a lower division. Good to know.

NAU falls to Appalachian State, 34-21. It would've been nice to see a Big Sky team get mentioned on SC for beating the giant-killers from Boone, but it didn't happen as the Mountaineers won their 17th straight game. It could've been worse. If NAU can keep it within two possessions, maybe the Griz can pull off a win.

Weber State blown out by Cal Poly, 47-19. The Weber State secondary allowed Mustangs quarterback Jonathan Dally to rack up Colt Brennan-esque numbers in the loss. The kid tossed 6 TDs on 328 yards.

Northern Colorado loses to San Diego, 49-13. This type of score was expected with the Bears coming off a huge loss to D-II Chadron State. On a positive note, they did find a running back. David Woods finished with 180 all-purpose yards.

Eastern beats UC Davis, 41-31. It wasn't Bengals-Browns but the Eagles and Aggies combined for almost 1,000 total yards. The Aggies had more yards and the Eagles had more points.

Idaho State trounced by Oregon State, 61-10. You know the deal. Big Sky team plays FBS opponent, Big Sky team loses by 30+ while the FBS team puts up huge numbers. Whatever pays the bills.

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This is a weekly segment quickly recapping the past week's games in the Big Sky.

Montana beats Fort Lewis 49-0. If there was college fantasy football and you had a few Montana Grizzlies on your team, you would've looked pretty good this weekend. Too bad there's no such thing as college fantasy football and we just wasted our time watching our school trounce a Division II squad. At least the offense was rolling.

Portland State loses again, this time to UC Davis 26-17. This past offseason I said Jerry Glanville has done everything he possibly could to promote and manage the PSU football program. Well, there's more to promoting. The Vikings have flopped coming out of the gate. It will be interesting to season if the preseason hype can survive this awful start. The Viks were up 17-3 at one point before giving up 23 unanswered. Not good.

Northern Arizona fell to the University of Arizona, 45-24. These are the type of games FCS powers need to schedule. Games against beatable FCS teams. NAU isn't a FCS power and was just looking for a local and almost but not quite rivalry-esque game. Those are fine too. The UA offense rolled over the Lumberjacks as their quarterback passed for five touchdowns.

Northern Colorado gets reamed by D-II Chadron State, 31-0. This is the second year in a row a Big Sky team has lost to Chadron St. Why are the Griz playing all these easy games now? What are we preparing for? Conference games? Come on. Sure, Chadron State is one of the best teams in D-II, but so was Northern Colorado before they moved. You can't get shut out, at home, by a team in a lower division.

Idaho State beats NAIA Southern Oregon "respectably," 37-11. That's kind of close for an NAIA school. Probably too close. The Bengals' freshman quarterback Russell Hill completed 20 of his 31 passes. They played well, but it was NAIA so it doesn't really matter.

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