Montana State University
7-1 , 4-1
NORTH DAKOTA
4-5 , 2-4
Handling Small Things Lead to Big Win over UND
10/28/2012 11:37:00 AM | Football
Cleaning up special teams mistakes, turnovers, boost Bobcats
Nobody on the Montana State football team wanted to be that guy.
Because that guy, according to MSU head coach Rob Ash, has been the player who tried to do a little too much or didn't think through his next move. The result had ended up costing the Bobcats dearly.
Such has been the case in MSU's previous three games, when the Bobcats' were compounded by several other mistakes to force the team to battle for wins against Southern Utah and UC Davis, and ultimately lose to Eastern Washington.
"What fixed the turnovers was the loss," Ash said following the Bobcats' 55-10 win over North Dakota Saturday. "We now have an urgency to protect the ball. We asked our players, 'Do you want to be that guy?' meaning that guy that makes the big mistake and lets everyone down. Nobody wanted to be that guy."
Ash had come away scratching his head for three weeks trying to solve his team's dilemma and it appears those words may just be the right elixir.
There were a few occasions where it looked like things could go wrong against UND, but didn't. A UND punt went off the back of Kruiz Siewing as he was setting up to block for return man Shawn Johnson, but Johnson quickly covered the ball. Johnson muffed and recovered a punt, and Cody Kirk fell on top of his own fumble as he was being tackled as the ball bounced MSU's way on at least three plays.
Removing momentum killing mistakes obviously swings things in a team's favor and that was never more evident than it was against UND. MSU finished with a school-record 695 yards topping the previous mark of 683 set against EWU in 2004. The Bobcats also had 40 first downs and allowed just 180 yards. The eight offensive touchdowns came on drives no shorter than 59 yards with five over 75 yards.
Cody Kirk and Orenzo Davis, thanks in no small part to the blocking of fellow running back Tray Robinson and the MSU offensive line, ran for a combined 305 yards and five touchdowns on 44 carries, which is just shy of eight yards per tote.
UND's gunslinger quarterback Branden Hanson completed just 15 of 26 passes for 165 yards one week after re-writing the Big Sky Conference record book with a 660-yard performance against Montana. He finished with a quarterback rating of 123.7, which was 49 points off his season rating (172.7) coming into the game. Hanson's prime target, Greg Hardin, also set a BSC mark with 333 receiving yards last week, but he was held to just 45 by MSU.
The MSU defense recorded eight sacks and allowed just 15 rushing yards, DeNarius McGhee's QB rating was 173.9 for the game, and so on and so on. As Coach Ash said, just don't be that guy and things – all kinds of things – will go well.
Team Stats
UND 0, MSU 7
MSU - Shawn Johnson 41 yd pass from DeNarius McGhee (Rory Perez kick) 6 plays, 82 yards, TOP 1:49
UND 7, MSU 7
UND - Greg Hardin 17 yd pass from Braden Hanson (Zeb Miller kick) 4 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:19
UND 7, MSU 14
MSU - Cody Kirk 3 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 11 plays, 75 yards, TOP 4:05
UND 7, MSU 21
MSU - Cody Kirk 1 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 8 plays, 59 yards, TOP 2:59
UND 7, MSU 28
MSU - Orenzo Davis 19 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 11 plays, 75 yards, TOP 0:00
UND 7, MSU 35
MSU - Lee Perkins 9 yd pass from DeNarius McGhee (Rory Perez kick) 14 plays, 80 yards, TOP 4:12
UND 10, MSU 35
UND - Zeb Miller 40 yd field goal 14 plays, 50 yards, TOP 6:16
UND 10, MSU 42
MSU - Cody Kirk 10 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 13 plays, 75 yards, TOP 5:09
UND 10, MSU 49
MSU - Jon Ellis 1 yd pass from DeNarius McGhee (Rory Perez kick) 7 plays, 59 yards, TOP 2:30
UND 10, MSU 55
MSU - Orenzo Davis 17 yd run (Rory Perez kickblocked), 5 plays, 68 yards, TOP 2:22
