The Missouri State University football team returned to the gridiron with an electric game against the no. 3-ranked University of Montana Grizzlies at their home in Missoula, Montana. The Bears held their own as they stared down the fearsome opponent, though they were ultimately cut down in a 29-24 loss.
Before the game, senior running back Jacardia Wright said that as the Bears worked out kinks from last season, he felt they were showing a lot more maturity as a team. That maturity showed in many aspects of the game in Missoula, but it lacked in many other key moments.
The Bears started the game strong, holding their own against the Grizzlies, led by redshirt freshman Keali’i Ah Yat in the starting quarterback position. They forced a fourth-and-4 situation on Montana in the first possession of the game and turned it over on downs.
However, weaknesses showed early on as that maturity seemed to waver when, first of all, senior linebacker Tahj Chambers lost the Bears 15 yards on a face mask penalty, and second, around nine minutes into play, junior safety Dylan Simmons pushed a Griz player to the ground well after the play had ended, and lost another 15 yards on the unnecessary roughness penalty.
Between those two major slips in maturity, the Bears did have one moment of great cohesiveness.
MSU was third-and-7, stuck at the Montana 34. Then, the Griz’s redshirt senior safety Chrishawn Gordon lost Montana 14 yards on a pass interference penalty and gave MSU a new set of downs.
Missouri State’s senior quarterback Jacob Clark connected with Wright and started inching forward. Wright made up 2 yards, sophom*ore wide receiver Jmariyae Robinson made up 7, Wright made up another 4 and got a first down at the Montana 7. Wright followed that up by rushing the middle and scoring a touchdown. The extra point from redshirt freshman kicker Yousef Obeid was good, and the Bears were up 7-0 with 5:25 left in the quarter.
However, on the play right after Simmons’ unnecessary roughness charge, the Grizzlies’ redshirt sophom*ore running back Eli Gillman rushed 37 yards to score one for Montana, 7-6.
The game would have been tied, but Montana’s junior kicker Ty Morrison couldn’t get it between the posts and the extra point sailed to the side.
Moments after the Bears regained possession, sophom*ore running back Jayden Becks rushed for 52 yards and plowed into the endzone. As he celebrated, the momentum screeched to a halt and the referees called no play on a holding penalty given to junior offensive lineman Hutson Lillibridge.
The quarter ended with little more from either team.
Missouri State made another holding penalty at the start of the second quarter, this time given to junior wide receiver James BlackStrain, and were pushed to second-and-19. Clark connected to Becks to make up 8 yards, and then to senior wide receiver D’Vontae Key for 14 and a new set of downs.
They’d get held there for four downs. On fourth-and-10, at the Montana 16, Obeid made the field goal kick for a 10-6 Bear lead over the Grizzlies.
On the Montana possession, the Bears would do the same to them, holding them without advancement for four downs. However, the Griz turned it around on MSU and scored a field goal from the Bears’ 18. Montana had the Bears within one point yet again, 10-9.
Nearing the end of the half, Clark struggled to make a connection with Key and ended up with a third-and-3 situation. His decision to bring in senior punter Grant Burkett to push the ball down the field allowed Montana to strike soon after, and it can be argued this was what cost the Bears the game.
Montana’s Ah Yat would struggle to complete his passes until the final two minutes of the half. The Grizzlies crept down towards the Missouri State endzone and got stuck within a few yards of it.
The Bears put up a strong defensive fight and kept several chances from being seen, but on third down, the Griz opted for a field goal and Morrison got the home team their first lead of the game while the final seconds of the half ticked down.
Coming back from the break with things seemingly as they should have been — Montana on top — the Bears showed they weren’t ready to take it lightly.
Though they seemed stuck once more at third-and-19, Wright proved his talent once more as he rushed 26 yards to get to the Montana 36-yard line and freshen up Missouri State’s downs.
On the next play of the game, Becks got his opportunity to redeem his overturned touchdown as he rushed 32 yards to score once more for MSU, 17-12 Bears.
After the Bears pushed the Grizzlies’ offense back to a third-and-25 and a fourth-and-23 turnover on downs, Ah Yat did not return, and Montana’s recent addition, Fresno State transfer redshirt junior Logan Fife, took over the quarterback position for the Griz.
The Bears’ Clark saw the game through to the end.
A few possessions after Fife came in, and following some struggle to connect his passes, he found senior running back Xavier Harris, who rushed 34 yards to score on the Bears — plus a good kick from Morrison — 19-17 Montana.
The final quarter saw the Bears struggle to make anything cohesive happen for almost five minutes of play. When the Griz offense took the field, they quickly made a series of plays to get within spitting distance of the MSU endzone.
Gillman came back out for Montana to push it two yards forward and scored a touchdown for the Griz, putting them up 26-17.
Missouri State made a few errors during the next possession. They were seemingly given a gift as Wright was downed at the edge of the field and it appeared to be a fourth-and-1 call, but after review it was determined to be a first down. The fourth false start of the night for the Bears tossed that chance away as they moved from first-and-goal to first-and-13.
Wright came out again to get them within 7 of the Montana endzone, and Robinson got it all the way in, letting the Bears breathe once more by putting them with two points, 26-24 Montana.
Missouri State’s defense showed up one more time over the Montana possession that followed, keeping them at bay and forcing them to work for their yards, but it ended up fruitless as the field goal attempt that came up on fourth-and-10 at the MSU 21-yard line was good and the Griz had the Bears back 29-24. Those were the final points of the game.
The final appearance of the Bears’ offense ended in a turnover on downs at fourth-and-15 as Clark was sacked twice in a row, first by redshirt senior defensive end Hayden Harris and then by redshirt senior defensive end Andres Lehrmann.
The Griz ran the clock down on their final play and claimed their home and season opener as a victory, while the Bears accepted the defeat, having played a strong game against one of the best FCS teams in the country.
Takeaways
The Bears needed a good performance in this game, and that’s relatively what they got. It’s clear there’s still a lot that head coach Ryan Beard needs to work out with his team and his staff, but there were many more highlights in this one game than there frankly were in all of last season.
Losing to Montana was not unexpected or shocking, but to validate — in the eyes of many, at least — the move to FBS next year, a win or a very strong performance was needed.
The Bears got a solid performance and an alright loss. It won’t be enough in the eyes of some, but regardless, it showed that the Bears can fight after all.
They have to be careful going forward however, as several members of their offensive line faced some kind of injury, most notably sophom*ore offensive lineman Cristian Laoiza and Lillibridge. Clark also took a beating to his hand around halftime, but stayed in the game.
If the Bears lose players like Lillibridge and Clark — the latter for the second season — they won’t have nearly as much hope as they were given in this game.
The Bears have one more game before they play their home opener against Lindenwood University on Sept. 14. First, they’ll travel to Indiana to play Ball State University on Sept. 7 at 1 p.m. The game will be available on ESPN+ and the Missouri State Radio Network.
Follow W. Paul Bohlen on Twitter, @wpbohlen
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