Notes and Quotes from MSU vs. Eastern Washington
9/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Montana State dropped a 19-10 decision at home to league rival Eastern Washington on Saturday, dropping the Bobcats to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in Big Sky play.
* MSU's current three-game home losing streak is its longest since the 10-game home skid that enveloped the 1999-2001 seasons, and included three home losses in the first three weeks of the 2000 season
* MSU has lost four straight to Eastern Washington
* The Bobcats and Eagles combined for just 109 plays on Saturday, a product of both the new timing rules adopted in NCAA football and the fact that the teams ran the ball 67 times between them and completed 30 of the 42 passes thrown in the game
* Cory Carpenter was 19-for-23 passing, with an interception and a touchdown, and is now 80-for-123 on the season with six interceptions and four touchdowns
* Eastern started four of its 10 drives inside its own 20
* Tyler Bolton handled punting chores for the Bobcats, averaging 48.0 yards on four punts and pinning Eastern inside the 20 three times
* Saturday's game finished MSU's sixth-longest punt ever, Tyler Bolton's 70-yarder, and Eastern's fourth-longest field goal, a 53-yarder by Brett Bergstrom
Montana State Coach Mike Kramer
“Issues that have been issues on defense weren’t issues today. The guys that needed to play better played better. We got beat because we couldn’t measure up on third down. I want to emphasize that defensively, while we didn’t make plays all day long, we played a lot more emotionally under control. Guys made tackles. It was fun to see Bryant Matthews get out there and play quite a bit, he’s in a featured position for us at weak side outside linebacker. The two safeties, the two guys that have really been pariahs for us in terms of making mistakes at critical junctures, today weren’t.
“In the second quarter, I think we had them pinned in Belgrade, and they made a nice throw and a nice catch. That happened to us a little bit later on in the second half. Those third downs are something we’ll have to play at and have to work at.
“Our one sack came from Will Claggett and Reyshawn Bobo had a sack that caused a fumble with our back to the wall. All in all, we didn’t have that presence that kind of upfield presence we need to have as we try to motivate our defensive front to be a factor on third down.”
“They went really conservative with their game plan. They’re a little afraid of their quarterback. He’s a young kid, and they wanted to give him opportunities to make plays to help them win the game. Part of that was being able to generate first downs. The tale of the tape is third down conversions. Go back to the Colorado numbers, I think we allowed two-out-of-12 on third down conversions, and look where we’ve been since. Third downs is the tale of the tape, and we’ll probably play nothing but third down simulation in practice this week.”
This was not a debacle today. This was a well-played ball game by both teams. Both teams had opportunities to win. They made more plays than we did in the second half when they kept drives alive and scored touchdowns. We were unable to generate touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I’m unhappy, but I’m not discouraged.”
MSU Quarterback Cory Carpenter
On what he was thinking after the fumble on MSU’s first play from scrimmage: “’Not again.’ It was a four-yard run, so obviously that was a positive. We’ve gotta find something. I felt like the offense was so close. We have a 40-yard pass play, but it’s nullified by a penalty. That’s OK, we just have to bounce back from that.”
MSU Defensive end Clive Lowe
“We got more pressure today, but we didn’t get enough. Did we make more plays? Yeah, but not enough. When we mess up we’ve got to come back and make a play. We have to forget our mistakes and make a play.”
From EWU Coach Paul Wulff
“It feels good to get that first one under your belt. You can’t help but doubt yourself (with each loss). (The offensive line) played better, but they really needed to. It was three weeks overdue. (QB Matt Nicholls) was improved. He converted some key third downs.”
* MSU's current three-game home losing streak is its longest since the 10-game home skid that enveloped the 1999-2001 seasons, and included three home losses in the first three weeks of the 2000 season
* MSU has lost four straight to Eastern Washington
* The Bobcats and Eagles combined for just 109 plays on Saturday, a product of both the new timing rules adopted in NCAA football and the fact that the teams ran the ball 67 times between them and completed 30 of the 42 passes thrown in the game
* Cory Carpenter was 19-for-23 passing, with an interception and a touchdown, and is now 80-for-123 on the season with six interceptions and four touchdowns
* Eastern started four of its 10 drives inside its own 20
* Tyler Bolton handled punting chores for the Bobcats, averaging 48.0 yards on four punts and pinning Eastern inside the 20 three times
* Saturday's game finished MSU's sixth-longest punt ever, Tyler Bolton's 70-yarder, and Eastern's fourth-longest field goal, a 53-yarder by Brett Bergstrom
Montana State Coach Mike Kramer
“Issues that have been issues on defense weren’t issues today. The guys that needed to play better played better. We got beat because we couldn’t measure up on third down. I want to emphasize that defensively, while we didn’t make plays all day long, we played a lot more emotionally under control. Guys made tackles. It was fun to see Bryant Matthews get out there and play quite a bit, he’s in a featured position for us at weak side outside linebacker. The two safeties, the two guys that have really been pariahs for us in terms of making mistakes at critical junctures, today weren’t.
“In the second quarter, I think we had them pinned in Belgrade, and they made a nice throw and a nice catch. That happened to us a little bit later on in the second half. Those third downs are something we’ll have to play at and have to work at.
“Our one sack came from Will Claggett and Reyshawn Bobo had a sack that caused a fumble with our back to the wall. All in all, we didn’t have that presence that kind of upfield presence we need to have as we try to motivate our defensive front to be a factor on third down.”
“They went really conservative with their game plan. They’re a little afraid of their quarterback. He’s a young kid, and they wanted to give him opportunities to make plays to help them win the game. Part of that was being able to generate first downs. The tale of the tape is third down conversions. Go back to the Colorado numbers, I think we allowed two-out-of-12 on third down conversions, and look where we’ve been since. Third downs is the tale of the tape, and we’ll probably play nothing but third down simulation in practice this week.”
This was not a debacle today. This was a well-played ball game by both teams. Both teams had opportunities to win. They made more plays than we did in the second half when they kept drives alive and scored touchdowns. We were unable to generate touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I’m unhappy, but I’m not discouraged.”
MSU Quarterback Cory Carpenter
On what he was thinking after the fumble on MSU’s first play from scrimmage: “’Not again.’ It was a four-yard run, so obviously that was a positive. We’ve gotta find something. I felt like the offense was so close. We have a 40-yard pass play, but it’s nullified by a penalty. That’s OK, we just have to bounce back from that.”
MSU Defensive end Clive Lowe
“We got more pressure today, but we didn’t get enough. Did we make more plays? Yeah, but not enough. When we mess up we’ve got to come back and make a play. We have to forget our mistakes and make a play.”
From EWU Coach Paul Wulff
“It feels good to get that first one under your belt. You can’t help but doubt yourself (with each loss). (The offensive line) played better, but they really needed to. It was three weeks overdue. (QB Matt Nicholls) was improved. He converted some key third downs.”
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