Montana State @ Davis: 2024 Big Sky Conf Championship

[BelgradeBobcat]

UC Davis reminds me of the Dakota teams. They're big and strong, don't make mistakes, nothing fancy. I think we'll find out good we really are.

Which ones? USD and UND?

I mean the XDSU's and UXD"s. Some similarities to all four.

[SparkCat]

UC Davis reminds me of the Dakota teams. They're big and strong, don't make mistakes, nothing fancy. I think we'll find out good we really are.

Which ones? USD and UND?

I mean the XDSU's and UXD"s. Some similarities to all four.

Let’s rephrase and say, ‘they’ll find out how good they are’. We know by now how great our team is. UC Davis may be there, but it also took a call in their favor to beat Portland and they barely got past the banged up Idaho that we throttled.

[BelgradeBobcat]

UC Davis reminds me of the Dakota teams. They're big and strong, don't make mistakes, nothing fancy. I think we'll find out good we really are.

Which ones? USD and UND?

I mean the XDSU's and UXD"s. Some similarities to all four.

Let’s rephrase and say, ‘they’ll find out how good they are’. We know by now how great our team is. UC Davis may be there, but it also took a call in their favor to beat Portland and albarely got past the banged up Idaho that we throttled.

I can't get past the idea that maybe the griz really are not very good. The crowd last night made UC Davis very uncomfortable and probably kept them from scoring another touchdown or two...yet UC Davis still won quite comfortably. At home they aren't going to have to worry about crowd noise causing false starts. They'll operate much more efficiently. We are going to get a much better version of UC Davis than what we saw last night, and last night's version looked pretty darn good. Looking forward to this one.

[SparkCat]

UC Davis reminds me of the Dakota teams. They're big and strong, don't make mistakes, nothing fancy. I think we'll find out good we really are.

Which ones? USD and UND?

I mean the XDSU's and UXD"s. Some similarities to all four.

Let’s rephrase and say, ‘they’ll find out how good they are’. We know by now how great our team is. UC Davis may be there, but it also took a call in their favor to beat Portland and albarely got past the banged up Idaho that we throttled.

I can't get past the idea that maybe the griz really are not very good. The crowd last night made UC Davis very uncomfortable and probably kept them from scoring another touchdown or two...yet UC Davis still won quite comfortably. At home they aren't going to have to worry about crowd noise causing false starts. They'll operate much more efficiently. We are going to get a much better version of UC Davis than what we saw last night, and last night's version looked pretty darn good. Looking forward to this one.

Like UC Davis’ coach said, fans at the Montana schools don’t come back after halftime. Their game plan was basically to weather the Griz fans to win. I also don’t think the Griz are anything special this year and aside from us, teams have actually been playing up at Washington Griz the last few years. UC Davis will be prepared but I think our team will play comfortably in their stadium. I’m pumped for the game!

[Lord Vigo]

Davis is still something of a mystery to me.

They’re certainly a good FCS team. But how good is difficult to say.

The best team they’ve seen at home this season is Idaho with Wagner at QB, and they won by 2.

When you look at common opponents, it would seem MSU is on an entirely differently level. I would suspect we see something like a 38-17 final.

[BelligerentBobcat]

I don’t think it will be particularly close.

[RickRund]

Davis is still something of a mystery to me.

They’re certainly a good FCS team. But how good is difficult to say.

The best team they’ve seen at home this season is Idaho with Wagner at QB, and they won by 2.

When you look at common opponents, it would seem MSU is on an entirely differently level. I would suspect we see something like a 38-17 final.

I am thinking at the very least it will be 35-17...

[Vamos Gatos Vamos]

Davis is still something of a mystery to me.

They’re certainly a good FCS team. But how good is difficult to say.

The best team they’ve seen at home this season is Idaho with Wagner at QB, and they won by 2.

When you look at common opponents, it would seem MSU is on an entirely differently level. I would suspect we see something like a 38-17 final.

41 - 27 Cats.

[RockyBearCat]

BOBCATS 45
Unibrow U 15

[ilovethecats]

I thought griz would win last night. Not because I think they’re that great, but I’m just not sold on Davis that much and Wash Griz is tough. Davis can prove me wrong Saturday but I just have a hard time thinking we win by less than 14.

[91catAlum]

The Cats haven't been as strong on the road. Davis is a good team. The did get lucky beating PSU on the bad call at the end... but it's not easy to go into Wagriz and win by double digits, even if the griz aren't great.

Davis win be a tough road test. I'm a little surprised everyone is picking a lopsided win for the Cats. I do think the Cats should win but it could be tight. Ewu gave us a good game in Cheney and they are nowhere near as good as Davis.

[GoCats18]

Cats will need to get an early lead. Davis has a legit running back, only problem is we have three of them. Our d-line is going to have to get to the QB in both of these two last games. I think this team is determined to win…..one game at a time.

[cat22[2010]]

Personally am very nervous for this game. Wish we were playing in Bobcat Stadium. With that being said, have faith in these boys that they are determined to win and bring this thing home. Biggest game of the season is Saturday and I'm ready to shut down the conversation that "MSU has not played anyone". Cats will be tested on Saturday for sure, but I'm confident we will prevail.

[nanacat]

The Cats haven't been as strong on the road. Davis is a good team. The did get lucky beating PSU on the bad call at the end... but it's not easy to go into Wagriz and win by double digits, even if the griz aren't great.

Davis win be a tough road test. I'm a little surprised everyone is picking a lopsided win for the Cats. I do think the Cats should win but it could be tight. Ewu gave us a good game in Cheney and they are nowhere near as good as Davis.

I agree with you. This will not be an easy game. It seems they're well coached, super motivated, and not a slouch team. I do feel the mentality of the Cats, 1-0, keeps them grounded and focused. I expect a Bobcat win, but they'll need to be flawless in all 3 phases.

[ilovethecats]

The Cats haven't been as strong on the road. Davis is a good team. The did get lucky beating PSU on the bad call at the end... but it's not easy to go into Wagriz and win by double digits, even if the griz aren't great.

Davis win be a tough road test. I'm a little surprised everyone is picking a lopsided win for the Cats. I do think the Cats should win but it could be tight. Ewu gave us a good game in Cheney and they are nowhere near as good as Davis.

I see what you’re saying. But in conference play we have won on the road by 20, 30 and 14. Literally 3 tds, 4 tds and 2 tds. I thought we looked bad by our standards and still beat eastern by 14.

Admittedly I haven’t watched all Davis games. I did think they’d lose in Missoula and they won so I’ll give them that. I just haven’t come away thinking they look that great. Maybe they can prove me wrong but I’m just not seeing the cats lose the way we’re playing and can run the ball. And our defense is underrated in my opinion.

I like us going down in a nice warm weather evening game, doing what we do, and continuing the trend of all season by winning by 2-3 touchdowns.

[94VegasCat]

I think that by ucd winning in wagris, it’ll get our boys to buckle in and prepare as best as they can. Position rooms will be laser focused this week. Coordinators will be working overtime. Won’t be easy

[tetoncat]

1 of goals has to be conference championship. Can get that by going 1-0 this week. I expect Cats to play more like they did vs Idaho than against EWU. More worried about short, quick, passes than run game and can they adjust with fast pace.

[Catgotmytung]

Bobcats should be able to get by Davis but they showed some talent getting by the Griz in Missoula. I thought they were a weaker team when I saw them play at Portland State in a game I actually think they lost. Their quarterback is in his 5th or 6th year, is a good passer and is a very talented manager of the offense. Their defense shut down a very good running game in Missoula so we'll see how that plays out. We may need to run Tommy a few more times to keep them from trying to stack the box. Should be a heck of a game. Keeping a very talented Lan Larison in check will be key.

[TomCat88]

The Cats haven't been as strong on the road. Davis is a good team. The did get lucky beating PSU on the bad call at the end... but it's not easy to go into Wagriz and win by double digits, even if the griz aren't great.

Davis win be a tough road test. I'm a little surprised everyone is picking a lopsided win for the Cats. I do think the Cats should win but it could be tight. Ewu gave us a good game in Cheney and they are nowhere near as good as Davis.

I see what you’re saying. But in conference play we have won on the road by 20, 30 and 14. Literally 3 tds, 4 tds and 2 tds. I thought we looked bad by our standards and still beat eastern by 14.

Admittedly I haven’t watched all Davis games. I did think they’d lose in Missoula and they won so I’ll give them that. I just haven’t come away thinking they look that great. Maybe they can prove me wrong but I’m just not seeing the cats lose the way we’re playing and can run the ball. And our defense is underrated in my opinion.

I like us going down in a nice warm weather evening game, doing what we do, and continuing the trend of all season by winning by 2-3 touchdowns.

Yeah, that's what's got me all messed up on this game. Beating UM on the road in a late-night game by 16 is impressive. I was going to pick MSU to win handily in Davis, but I'm not so sure now. Davis has been playing its best football the last four games. First five wins by 38, last four wins by 124, including wins at EWU by 10 and UM by 16.

Perhaps even bigger than the emphasized UM win, the UCD run defense has been especially impressive over the last four games. Granted, two of those games were UNC and Poly, but they've only allowed 450 yards on 131 carries. If you take out the 11 carries for 101 in garbage time (assuming UCD had it's backups in) vs UNC then it's 120 carries for 349. That's about 2.9 ypc. Whether they can slow down MSU significantly enough to alter the game, is yet to be seen, but this will easily be the best run D MSU has faced all year.

I see a lot of folks concerned about MSU's pass defense and Larison's running ability. Larison is good, IMO, because he's a good receiver out of the backfield. He's a good runner, but not a great runner IMO. He gets 5.1 ypc, which is good especially for the number of carries he has and being a key target of the defense, but in this day-and-age, it isn't great. It's only 17th in the BSC for RBs with 50 or more carries.

MSU's pass defense might be the worst unit on the team, but it's still the No. 1 pass D in the BSC. The top 3 passing QBs (Dampier, Tracy and Conklin) haven't been great and none are as good as Hastings, but MSU has basically shut them down and were it not for some amazing catches and 'luck' those numbers would be even worse. Those three are a combined 47-86-1, 493 and 3tds. That's a QB rating of 78.3. Throw out the underthrown free play vs Idaho St. and the last TD and it's probably below 70. Dampier had the best day vs MSU this year at 18-26-0, 172 and 1td. Neither of the other two completed half their passes. Hastings, however, is a least a notch better than any of those guys. He's not much of a runner though 34 for -74 (assuming most are sacks), but his longest carry is only 8 yards.

[Prodigal Cat]

So after the Weber game the gris "fixed" their defense by abandoning that crazy blitzing with man coverage on the back end. The Weber QB said that he knew it would be one-on-one and that his receiver would win and he was right. All he needed to do was stand against the pressure, throw it up and give them a chance. The DB's on the gris are not good in coverage. So they(gris) switched to more zone and blitzed far less. The result was a defense that kept everything in front of them. It allowed teams to move the ball between the 20's unless they made a mistake but as the defense gets compressed, covering the back end gets easier and you get a stop or FG try. This works great against UNC, Cal Poly, or NAU with its 3rd string wildcat QB. It doesn't work against UC Davis when they have Hastings back there picking them apart by finding the soft part in the zone or waiting till it breaks down. Cal Poly had nearly 300 yards of offense but only scored 7 points against the gris. The Cats on the other hand can get pressure without sending extra defenders (especially if 41 can play). So now Hasting won't have receivers running free. If you go back and watch the Davis/gris game with that in mind you can see why A. the gris just aren't a good football team on defense and made Davis look like Natty contenders. B. the Cats are going to give Davis a lot more to deal with in order to move the ball.