Montana State University
4-0
NORTHERN COLORADO (HOMECOMING)
1-3
SUNDAY REWIND: Cats Use Fast Start to Blow Past Bears
9/23/2012 7:13:00 PM | Football
Quick start, long drives boost Bobcats to win
“We talked all week about coming out of the blocks fast and being perfect in what we did,” MSU head coach Rob Ash said. “We talked about not being average in anything we did.”
“We wanted to come out with more urgency and we preached that all week, so it was at the top of our minds,” added quarterback DeNarius McGhee. “We've been adamant about going out and scoring as many points as we can.”
The Bobcats, now 1-0 in the Big Sky and 4-0 overall, did just that scoring touchdowns on each of their first three possessions and stopping UNC cold with three-and-outs on its first three possessions. Even when the Bears answered with 10 straight points to cut the lead to 21-10 there was a silver lining to be found.
“Having the Bears score meant we had to keep playing,” Ash, who saw his team hold a total yardage edge of 176-6 edge after one quarter, said. MSU came back with 10 points of its own to boost the lead back to 21 and tacked on 10 more in the second half.
MSU, currently ranked No. 2 in the nation in both the Coaches' and TSN polls, have now outscored its opponents 48-13 in the first quarter making it the highest scoring quarter-to-date on offense and the second lowest scoring quarter on defense, albeit just by a point. The fast start against UNC was limited to the offense.
“We definitely started fast today,” senior defensive tackle Brian Bignell, who saw his first action of the season and collected two sacks, said. “We were able to get them in some third-and-longs and pin our ears back. We were relentless up front.”
The MSU defense held UNC to just 52 rushing yards and forced the Bears to kick field goals after moving deep into MSU territory keeping any ideas of making a game of it out of their minds.
MSU took advantage of good field position on the first two touchdowns needing to go just 56 and 43 yards to hit pay dirt, but the Bobcats burned up 77, 90, and 79 yards on its next three touchdown drives.
“We've had some incredible long drives this year and usually when you start those you just want to get a first down and move the chains,” Ash said. “Then we look up and we're at the end of it and say, holy cow, we just went 90 yards. And the only reason we stopped is because we got a touchdown.”
Team Stats
NC 0, MSU 7
MSU - Tray Robinson 9 yd pass from DeNarius McGhee (Rory Perez kick) 9 plays, 56 yards, TOP 3:39
NC 0, MSU 14
MSU - Cody Kirk 14 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 6 plays, 43 yards, TOP 2:06
NC 0, MSU 21
MSU - Cody Kirk 2 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 11 plays, 77 yards, TOP 4:32
NC 3, MSU 21
NC - Dave Eden 40 yd field goal 9 plays, 53 yards, TOP 2:58
NC 10, MSU 21
NC - D. Stimphil 10 yd pass from Seth Lobato (Dave Eden kick) 5 plays, 80 yards, TOP 1:47
NC 10, MSU 28
MSU - DeNarius McGhee 7 yd run (Rory Perez kick), 13 plays, 90 yards, TOP 5:12
NC 10, MSU 31
MSU - Rory Perez 45 yd field goal 6 plays, 27 yards, TOP 1:07
NC 13, MSU 31
NC - Dave Eden 42 yd field goal 6 plays, 33 yards, TOP 0:33
NC 16, MSU 31
NC - Dave Eden 38 yd field goal 5 plays, 20 yards, TOP 2:41
NC 16, MSU 38
MSU - Jon Ellis 49 yd pass from DeNarius McGhee (Rory Perez kick) 6 plays, 79 yards, TOP 2:45
NC 16, MSU 41
MSU - Rory Perez 22 yd field goal 14 plays, 66 yards, TOP 7:28
