THE MIRACLE IN MISSOULA! Montana State Stages Goal Line Stand, Overcomes 22-0 Deficit to Beat Grizzlies

Saturday, November 17

Missoula, MT

12 p.m.

Montana State University

7-4 , 5-3

Montana

6-5 , 4-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Montana State

Montana

Troy Andersen

Photo by: Garrett Becker

THE MIRACLE IN MISSOULA! Montana State Stages Goal Line Stand, Overcomes 22-0 Deficit to Beat Grizzlies

11/17/2018 7:19:00 PM | Football

Box Score

Troy Andersen, cast of defensive seniors lead Bobcats to unforgettable win over Montana

By: Bill Lamberty

Fifty years ago, on November 2, 1968, Montana State's Paul Schafer ran for 234 yards – much of it with a torn knee ligament - and Dennis Erickson threw for 238 yards, his career high. Montana State fans still talk about the Paul Schafer Game. The Cats won that one 29-24.

Saturday, on a beautiful day in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, the Bobcats trailed 22-0 when a trio of seniors (Grant Collins, Tucker Yates, Zach Wright) huddled together in the second quarter and decided this was a game they would not lose… when sophomore quarterback Troy Andersen imposed his will onto a game that seemed lost… when a couple of fifth-year seniors combined on a thunderous hit with Montana about to score the winning touchdown with 10 seconds to play. Those forces, and so many others large and small, combined to give Montana State one of the most improbable wins in the 118 games played between these ancient rivals.

The end result was a 29-25 Bobcat victory (raising echoes of that 29-24 triumph in 1968). Call it heart-stopping. Call it hard to believe. "I still haven't processed this game," third-year Bobcat coach Jeff Choate said nearly an hour after its end.

Call it The Miracle in Missoula.

"I never felt that the game was out of hand," Andersen said, after rushing for 107 yards on 23 carries and throwing for another 158 (15-for-24). "We just kept our belief and kept fighting."

There is a lot to process in Saturday's heart-stopper. UM quarterback Dalton Sneed threw for 354 yards and rushed for 21 more, pushing his Grizzlies to a big lead. He performed brilliantly. "I just can't say enough good things about him," Choate said. Two Grizzly receivers (Keenan Curran, 111 yards, and Samuel Akem, 147) posted enormous days.

The game is most easily understood by dividing it into two segments. With 8:15 to play in the second quarter, Sneed found Akem on a 37-yard touchdown pass. Reid Miller snuck into the end zone on the conversion, and Montana led 22-0.

The Cats, though, had plenty of fight left, and plenty of time left, and the game's next, decisive segment began with 3:06 to play in the first half. After the teams traded punts, Andersen marched Montana State 72 yards in 10 plays. He carried four times for 31 yards on that possession, the last one a three-yard run that put MSU on the scoreboard. "I thought that drive right before halftime was large," Choate said. "It gave us some confidence."

The Bobcats held onto that momentum into the third quarter, even though the source was unlikely. Punter Jered Padmos boomed a 56-yarder on MSU's first possession to pin the Grizzlies at the two, then he nailed a 66-yarder that put UM at its three. Montana drove the ball on both those possessions, but not far enough to score.

Then, late in the third quarter, Montana State's offense stirred to life. Andersen completed passes of 17, 10 and 23, and ran for 20 yards, to give MSU a first-and-goal to begin the fourth quarter. The strapping sophomore from Dillon scored from one yard out, then burrowed into end zone on the conversion attempt. The Cats trailed 22-15, and the celebration in Washington-Grizzly Stadium took on an air of anxiety.

Montana temporarily allayed fears. Sneed marched his team down the field, and when Tim Semenza nailed a 34-yard field goal the Grizzlies' lead was again two scores.

Again, the Cats answered. Andersen found Travis Jonsen – who finished the day with a career-best 101 receiving yards – twice to push the team near mid-field, then after an incomplete pass found the brilliant quarterback-turned-receiver on a deep post that put MSU's offense in business at the Grizzly seven. Andersen ran for six, then bulled his way into the end zone. After the PAT, Montana State trailed 25-22.

Facing its biggest defensive possession of the year – to that point – the Cats responded. On first-and-10 from the UM 35, Bozeman High product Grant Collins stripped Sneed of the ball, and for good measure recovered it. "I felt it between my legs, and just reached down and cradled it," he said.

Operating from its best field position of the day, MSU's offense did not disappoint. Logan Jones carried for eight yards, then two plays later added four more. Isaiah Ifanse rushed for nine, then two. Then Andersen gained eight yards, and Jones did the rest. The junior from Kalispell scampered 13 yards for a touchdown, and after an uphill slog of nearly 57 minutes the Bobcats led 29-25.

This game, which induced lumps in the throat of one fan base or the other for nearly four hours, was not going to end in routine fashion. Malik Flowers returned the kickoff to the 50, then Sneed marched the Grizzlies toward a historic win. On second-and-goal from the four, Adam Eastwood nearly reached paydirt. Collins and Michael Jobman made the stop at the one. Facing third-and-goal, Montana called time out. Then, with the teams lined up, Choate called time out. The play went off anyway, with officials racing to the line of scrimmage to blow it dead, and Eastwood's run across the goal line was not allowed.

Facing, again, the most important play of the year, Montana State's defense stood strong. Sneed handed to Eastwood. Sophomore tackle Chase Benson from Helena blew up the interior of the Grizzly line, and senior nose tackle Tucker Yates from Colstrip crashed into the void. Collins knifed in to make the hit, and combined with Yates knocked the ball out. Derek Marks from Belgrade recovered, and the Miracle in Missoula was complete.

Like every great game in this series, this one reaches through the decades. In the amazing 1968 win, Terry Brown tripped Grizzly quarterback Ron Baines at around the MSU 10 as the game ended to preserve MSU's win and Schafer's super-human effort. In 1929, Max Worthington made a tackle inside the Bobcat five-yard line as the gun sounded to snap a 21-year Montana State winless streak.

And in 2018. Sophomore Troy Andersen from Dillon, Montana, refused to lose, and seniors Tucker Yates from Colstrip, Montana, and Grant Collins, from Bozeman, Montana, came up with the biggest defensive plays of their lives. And the Bobcats (7-4, 5-3) beat the Grizzlies (6-5, 4-4), 29-25.