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Re: Game week: Montana State
Cat fan here.
Pretty bummed the game won't be on PlutoTV. FOr the last 2-3 years, Big Sky TV has been on eversport.tv, which I had never heard of either, before this year the conference announced a partnership with PlutoTV. The streaming partner has changed but that's it - unless you are MSU or UM, every home game is streamed free via Big Sky TV. All other teams stream all of their home games for free, but UM and MSU decided to charge for non-conference games which is just complete horsesh*t in my opinion. I don't live in Montana anymore, don't get SWX, don't have Dish or DirectTV, so I guess I need to cough up the $9.99. BY THE WAY, every year there are tons of complaints about the paid stream, so use this as a last resort.
Excited to see how the Cats stack up against an FCS team, even one as good as SDSU. I was pretty disappointed how outmatched we were at WSU and couldn't even get into the redzone, but I've been watching us play FBS teams for 15 years now and that WSU by far is the most talented one I've seen us play. Their OL and DL are very solid, filled with all-American and all-Conference guys. Luke Falk is a Heisman type guy, they have two stud SR running backs, and their LB corp would be one of the tops in FCS. The WR corp was actually their weakest position I'd say.
We played an extremely conservative defense against them. Pretty much dropped 7-8 guys all game, and rolled out a small but fast LB corp and played a lot of nickel. We took away the medium/deep ball, so Falk simply dumped it off to a wide open RB about 10 times (leading WR was their RB) who had no one in front of him for 10 yards. We tackled well and slowed down their drives, which is why we "only" gave up 31.
Our OL was a complete sieve. They were well prepared for our triple option and swarmed to the QB and pitch guy instantly. We couldn't run any drop back passing plays because there was no time to drop back. RBs had to make moves just to get back to the line of scrimmage. We had some success attacking the edges, but nothing up the middle and no pass protection.
So I'm excited to see what we can do against an FCS defensive line, no offense to the Jacks but that WSU dline should be as good as any we will see for quite some time I hope. If we continue to be swiss cheese then we aren't going to win a game this year, but if we give Murray some time to throw and are able to get our running game going, combined with our seemingly solid defense, we could make some games close this year. It will be interesting to see what kind of defense we play against SDSU.
Offensively, watch out for true freshman Troy Andersen. He got his first career carries against WSU, 9 carries for 33 yards. Yes those are awful stats but I liked what I saw, a big, physical kid who broke some tackle and drug WSU defenders. He didn't look scared, and at 6'3 220 with 10.88 100 meter speed, he is going to be a handful as he learns the RB position (QB and LB in high school). But you'll also see some Logan Jones, who officially got the start at WSU but only got 1 carry. He is only 5'7 180 so he didn't make much sense going against a stout PAC12 front 7.
I don't think MSU is there yet, and I'm still concerned about our OL. If we get the running game going, sprinkled in with a few passes to keep your D even a little honest, we could be in the game in the 4th quarter. If our offense get stuffed, the defense will eventually wear down and the Jacks will pull away in the 3rd or 4th quarter. If our OL is a sieve again then it's over by halftime.
Cat fan here.
Pretty bummed the game won't be on PlutoTV. FOr the last 2-3 years, Big Sky TV has been on eversport.tv, which I had never heard of either, before this year the conference announced a partnership with PlutoTV. The streaming partner has changed but that's it - unless you are MSU or UM, every home game is streamed free via Big Sky TV. All other teams stream all of their home games for free, but UM and MSU decided to charge for non-conference games which is just complete horsesh*t in my opinion. I don't live in Montana anymore, don't get SWX, don't have Dish or DirectTV, so I guess I need to cough up the $9.99. BY THE WAY, every year there are tons of complaints about the paid stream, so use this as a last resort.
Excited to see how the Cats stack up against an FCS team, even one as good as SDSU. I was pretty disappointed how outmatched we were at WSU and couldn't even get into the redzone, but I've been watching us play FBS teams for 15 years now and that WSU by far is the most talented one I've seen us play. Their OL and DL are very solid, filled with all-American and all-Conference guys. Luke Falk is a Heisman type guy, they have two stud SR running backs, and their LB corp would be one of the tops in FCS. The WR corp was actually their weakest position I'd say.
We played an extremely conservative defense against them. Pretty much dropped 7-8 guys all game, and rolled out a small but fast LB corp and played a lot of nickel. We took away the medium/deep ball, so Falk simply dumped it off to a wide open RB about 10 times (leading WR was their RB) who had no one in front of him for 10 yards. We tackled well and slowed down their drives, which is why we "only" gave up 31.
Our OL was a complete sieve. They were well prepared for our triple option and swarmed to the QB and pitch guy instantly. We couldn't run any drop back passing plays because there was no time to drop back. RBs had to make moves just to get back to the line of scrimmage. We had some success attacking the edges, but nothing up the middle and no pass protection.
So I'm excited to see what we can do against an FCS defensive line, no offense to the Jacks but that WSU dline should be as good as any we will see for quite some time I hope. If we continue to be swiss cheese then we aren't going to win a game this year, but if we give Murray some time to throw and are able to get our running game going, combined with our seemingly solid defense, we could make some games close this year. It will be interesting to see what kind of defense we play against SDSU.
Offensively, watch out for true freshman Troy Andersen. He got his first career carries against WSU, 9 carries for 33 yards. Yes those are awful stats but I liked what I saw, a big, physical kid who broke some tackle and drug WSU defenders. He didn't look scared, and at 6'3 220 with 10.88 100 meter speed, he is going to be a handful as he learns the RB position (QB and LB in high school). But you'll also see some Logan Jones, who officially got the start at WSU but only got 1 carry. He is only 5'7 180 so he didn't make much sense going against a stout PAC12 front 7.
I don't think MSU is there yet, and I'm still concerned about our OL. If we get the running game going, sprinkled in with a few passes to keep your D even a little honest, we could be in the game in the 4th quarter. If our offense get stuffed, the defense will eventually wear down and the Jacks will pull away in the 3rd or 4th quarter. If our OL is a sieve again then it's over by halftime.
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