Wow, what a game! SDSU comes away with a very important victory over MSU winning 20-16 in an epic battle between two of the best in the subdivision. I don’t know if it is an instant classic but it probably will be in my book. I’m still exhausted as I write this and I can’t imagine how the players feel. Great game!
Rants & Raves
Rave: The atmosphere was electric! Tailgating was terrific all over the place and by 3:30 the Backyard was packed. The Library Lot area was packed much earlier than that! Great job, fans! The stadium itself was pretty quiet at first with large swaths of fans struggling to muster up the energy to get to their feet and/or make some noise to disrupt the MSU offense. There were even a few instances of fans yelling “Sit down!” during crucial 3rd down plays. However, the crowd of 19,332 did eventually respond and made it nearly impossible for MSU to communicate at the line of scrimmage in the second half and caused a bunch of false starts.
Rave: I feel like I’m in the minority but I REALLY liked the all black look, including the helmets. I guess I don’t know what they looked like on TV but in person they were legit!
Rant: A couple gameday operations things… cell service was as bad as advertised. About 15 miles north of Brookings my “X” (Twitter) timeline was blasted by unsent tweets in the first half before I realized they were not going through. I’ve heard from other folks who had a sitter/kids at home that they couldn’t communicate with. There has to be a way to get service in the stadium! I didn’t experience it but I’ve heard the traffic diversion efforts were a disaster for anyone south of the stadium. I know stuff like this happens with very large crowds and typically the crowd slowly starts to leave throughout the second half but yesterday virtually all 19,300+ were still there after the final whistle. I don’t know what the answer is and I know SDSU and other partners have tried multiple different ways to get traffic dispersed from the stadium area and nothing really has seemed to work for these monster crowds. The reason both of these things are important to get right is for the casual fan. The Jacks have their base of around 7,500 die hard fans but we have to get it right to keep enticing the causal fan to come back to Brookings.
Rant/Rave: The Jackrabbit first down defense was awful with MSU gashing the Jacks for large chunks of yards on first down. It felt like there were stretches where the Bobcats were picking up 5-9 yards every first down. But the SDSU defense was terrific on 3rd down defense holding MSU to just 4 of 12. The Jacks did really well in the redzone as well making sure that MSU settled for field goals twice instead of touchdowns. The Jacks run defense MUST be more consistent in those early downs.
Rant: Speaking of run defense. The Jacks gave up a whopping 211 yards on the ground (4.4 ypc). In the first half especially, it felt like the interior defensive line was getting caught out of position on some stunts and loops. Without a rewatch yet, I don’t know that for sure. In the second half it felt like the Jacks were simply shooting gaps a little more and winning their matchups. Again, could be totally wrong on this but that is what my first live impression told me.
Rave: I love the incredible grit from Grahm Goering! Following the INT by Cale Reeder, the Jacks had an opportunity to put the Bobcats away. On 3rd and 11, the Jacks took a shot. Grahm ran a beautiful route and beat his defender but never located the terrific ball Mark had thrown his way. The ball landed just yards away from Grahm and was 100% catchable. The next play was the blocked punt (more on that later) and the Bobcats would eventually tie the game on a field goal. Two series later, Mark went back to Grahm and they connected on a 40 yard bomb that setup the Griffin Wilde catch and run. Great job, Grahm and Mark!
Rant: The Jackrabbit special teams has not been good through two games. The team brought in a dedicated special teams coach and the results have somehow been worse. Missed field goal in week one and a missed extra point, long kickoff return, and blocked punt in week 2. This phase of the game MUST get cleaned up. Cashmore was very secretive in our preview interview and I thought it was maybe because he had something big planned and wanted to take the opponents by surprise. Through the first two weeks… that is not the case.
Rave: I thought the safety group was the highlight of the Jackrabbit defense on Saturday night. They played well in the passing game and provided strong support in the run game making a number of open field tackles that prevented big gains. Huerter had 10 total tackles (5 solo), Reeder had an INT and 10 total tackles (6 solo), and Large had 7 tackles (all solo).
Rant: The Jackrabbit offense didn’t play complimentary football for much of the game. The defense was on the field for wayyyy too long. Time of possession was 35:23 to 24:37. It is hard to win games playing like that. The Jacks offense struggled to find a rhythm for much of the game and I think we have to credit MSUs defense for a lot of that. They sent pressure on a lot of key 3rd downs and on the backend they did a great job of passing guys off in their zones.
Rave: The Jacks did run the ball well at times and I really liked the creativity I saw. Having Isaiah, Amar, and Angel on the field together was pretty cool. The Jacks continued to lean into the pony package of Amar and Isaiah on the field together and that really kept MSU on their toes. Amar averaged 9.4 per carry on just 5 carries while Isaiah had a 5.5 average on 12 carries. I would really to see both of these guys with a few more attempts. However, the way the game played out made that pretty difficult.
Rave: The student section was phenomenal throughout the game! The section was near capacity 54 minutes before kickoff. They are 2 for 2 so far this season in terms of showing up and making a difference!
Rant: The lack of pass rush is concerning. Through two weeks the Jacks have zero sacks. Montana State is a tough team to get sacks on because you are so focused on stopping the run but there wasn’t nearly enough pressure on MSUs quarterbacks, especially on the final drive when it was known that Montana State had to pass the ball.
Rave: Griffin Wilde just continues to impress. He’s the real deal, folks! That 35-yard catch and touchdown run was beautiful.
Rant: The Jackrabbits had way too many penalties again (7 for 75 yards). Two of those were unsportsmanlike conduct (Who throws a shoe?-Austin Powers). With this veteran group, this just can’t continue to happen.
Rant/Rave: The Jacks appeared to get out of the game without any major injuries. We’ll see on Jason Freeman who I don’t think returned to the game. Luckily, the team should be able to rest guys who are dinged up next week against Drake before their bye week.
Rave: This is maybe the best kind of win. The Jacks didn’t play their best and without one of their best players and still came away with a HUGE win!
Rave: Although this Rants & Raves is probably more negative than I normally would like. There is PLENTY to work on still. However, beating the #3 team in the country should be celebrated! The team will continue to work and will get better and better as the season progresses. You don’t want to peak on September 9th!
Game Balls
Offense: Isaiah Davis; 12 carries for 66 yards and 2 receptions 22 yards
Defense: Jackrabbit safety group
Go Jacks!
Matt
I love the all black look too, but go back to all the games and see what our win/loss record is when when wearing them and see how we have played. Same goes for the men’s basketball team. I’m superstitious and they’re just unlucky! Jacks in Black has a great ring to it but I honestly prefer a White Out theme due to the weather in SD! I think all white has a cool look.
You’re wrong on all your rants. SDSU’s defense was electric. The Bobcats run a 4 person RB scheme with a QB who doesn’t throw well.
If anything, I feel like the SD STate defense was to worried about strips and not enough about tackling. I feel like they let them have two or three extra yards to hack at the ball. Which only looks great if they cough it up.