MISSOULA, Mont. — From top of the world to buried several feet beneath it, Idaho State felt it all Saturday in an exciting, topsy-turvy, ultimately humbling 59-20 loss to No. 8 Montana at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
A 17-0 second-quarter lead the Bengals built in the early-afternoon rain and fog didn’t even last until halftime, melting away as the sun came out at Washington-Grizzly Stadium and Montana (5-1, 2-0 Big Sky Conference) finished the game on a 59-3 run for an easy homecoming win in front of 25,023 fans.
“We probably awoke the sleeping giant,” Idaho State head coach Rob Phenicie said. “I doubt (the Grizzlies) were overlooking us, but they were certainly trying to get their feet. We certainly woke them up, and they responded.”
Ty Flanagan ran for 130 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries for Idaho State (2-3, 1-1 Big Sky). His second touchdown was a scintillating 71-yard rampage through the Montana defense, as he spun off of one tackler, spun completely out of the hands of another, and went untouched from there down the left sideline.
The play, a career-long for Flanagan, gave ISU a 17-0 lead not even a minute into the second quarter, and left the Montana crowd stunned into silence.
It was also the very top of the roller coaster for Idaho State, and it was a long way down after that.
Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed, who threw for 397 yards and ran for 67 more, led the Grizzlies on four scoring drives — three touchdowns and a field goal — in the last 14 minutes of the half, while Idaho State’s offense cratered.
Montana led 24-17 at halftime.
“I think we just started flowing on offense,” Sneed said. “Once we hit our rhythm and are able to start going fast, that’s when things click for us. I was able to start taking the easy throws and getting the ball to our playmakers and they were able to do the rest.”
Griz running back Marcus Knight finished all three first-half touchdown drives with short runs, but what really got Montana going was Idaho State’s inability to cover Montana wide receiver Sammy Akem.
With the Bengals stifling his running game and his other receivers, Sneed went to the 6-foot-4 junior almost exclusively to get the Griz back in the game.
Akem had eight catches for 104 yards in the second quarter alone and finished with 10 for 135 and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, after taking a big shot from Griz safety Robby Hauck in the second quarter, ISU quarterback Matt Struck struggled.
Struck started the game 8-of-9 passing for 130 yards, including a 71-yard slant to Michael Dean that set up Flanagan’s first touchdown, a 1-yard plunge.
After the hot start, though, Struck was just 8 of 24 for 59 yards the rest of the game. After throwing 10 touchdowns in two-and-a-half games to start the season, he had none Saturday.
“Some of Matt’s throws were a little bit all over the place,” Phenicie said. “It was Matt Struck’s first time in an environment such as this. It’s a louder, more raucous environment even than Utah. We’ve got to be better at overcoming adversity.”
Idaho State had a chance to snatch momentum — and the lead — back early in the second half. After ISU went backwards on first-and-goal from the Montana 10-yard line, Bengal kicker Kevin Ryan made a 30-yard field goal to cut the lead back to 24-20.
But Sneed marched his team right back down the field. At the ISU 25, Montana ran a play on which Sneed committed unflagged pass interference, nearly made a spectacular diving catch and also nearly got his head taken off by ISU safety Adkin Aguirre on a wide receiver throwback pass intended for the Griz QB.
None the worse for wear, he hit Akem for a 25-yard touchdown on the next play to restore Montana’s two-score lead.
Idaho State punted on its next possession. Down 31-20 and needing a stop as the third quarter wound down, the Bengals defense came up with its best sequence since early in the game.
Kody Graves dropped Knight in the backfield on first down, Oshea Trujillo batted down a screen on second, and Anthony Parker pulled down the elusive Sneed for a sack on third, forcing a punt — or so ISU thought.
Parker was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as he got up after the play, giving Montana a fresh set of downs. Four plays later, the Griz were in the end zone, with Sneed hitting Samori Toure for an 8-yard touchdown and a 38-20 lead.
Idaho State, after having just 14 penalties for 139 yards in its first four games combined, had 11 for 121 against Montana.
“You can’t give up free yards,” Phenicie said. “We did something that’s relatively uncharacteristic of our style of play. You give up the penalties, that gives them hope, and a chance, and it gives them 15 yards at a time.”
Toure had seven catches for 180 yards and the score in the second half, and eight for 188 overall.
That score basically put the game to bed, but once it got started, Montana kept rolling downhill.
The Griz scored three more touchdowns in the fourth quarter — 2- and 1-yard runs by Sneed, and a 51-yarder by Adam Eastwood — as Idaho State’s tackling got worse and worse.
After outgaining Montana 173-66 in the first quarter, Idaho State put up 213 yards the rest of the game. Montana had 522.
“Obviously that’s a great win for us,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “Idaho State’s got a good football team. They were ready to play. They came in and pushed us and had us down big early on, so a lot of credit to them, and a lot of credit to our guys too, because we don’t have a bunch of give-in in us.”
Dean led the Bengals with six catches for 109 yards. Linebacker Darian Green, making his first start, had 10 tackles. Kody Graves and Hunter Eborn each had two tackles for loss.
Up next
Idaho State hosts North Dakota next Saturday for homecoming.
NOTE
Saturday was Phenicie’s first game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium as an opposing head coach. He was Hauck’s offensive coordinator at UM from 2003-09.
“You have to remain focused. There’s a lot of people wanting to say hi and all that stuff,” Phenicie said after the game when he was asked about his return. “You have to block a lot of that out. But it was good to see a lot of people that I consider friends. I’m an Idaho State Bengal. There’s 64 guys that are here and a hundred guys back in Pocatello, that’s who we are, that’s who’s my No. 1 priority.”