Game Day Notebook: Lights come to play on defense

The Montana State University-Northern Lights are young on defense - extremely young.

Of Northern's 11 starters in Saturday's game against the UM-Western Bulldogs at Blue Pony Stadium, nine were either freshmen or sophomores. And, for much of the season, Northern's youth on defense has shown.

However, in the first 30 minutes of Saturday's tilt with Western, it was clear, the Lights are starting to grow up on defense.

Western came into the game averaging a Frontier-best 37 points per game, and while the Bulldogs eclipsed that mark in their 42-13 win, Northern's defense completely shut down the Dawgs in the first half that saw the Lights take a 13-7 lead into intermission.

"Our defense played great today," Rolin said. "Not just in the first half but the whole game. They were flying around, making plays, making tackles and getting the ball back to our offense."

One of the biggest plays of the first half also came by way of the Northern defense, and in particular by corner/safety Caymus Thomas. Thomas converted from wide receiver to defensive back last spring, and in the first quarter Saturday, he picked off Western's Jon Jund, setting up Northern's first point of the day. The pick was Thomas' first of his career, and he would go on to finish the game with a team-high 11 tackles.

"It was a corner route, and I knew he couldn't turn it back to the inside," Thomas said of the INT. "So I was just ready for the ball to come my way, and I made a football baller play on it."

Thomas has been a vocal leader, and a playmaker all year for a Lights' defense who has really struggled at times this season. But Saturday, Northern made plenty of plays, with the Lights collecting two sacks, while red-shirt freshman Justin Pfeifer had two tackles for loss. Freshman Corner Damien Nelson also made a key pass breakup in the first half, and as a whole the Lights limited Western to their lowest offensive output in four weeks.

"I thought our defense took a big step forward today," Thomas said. "As a unit, I thought it was really encouraging the way we played today. So we just have to keep working, keep getting better."

Jund is for Real

Leading up to Saturday's game, Northern first-year head coach Andrew Rolin had high praise for Western sophomore quarterback Jon Jund. And having already played the Dawgs once, Rolin was speaking from experience.

While Northern was able to slow Jund down for a half, they couldn't put the leash on the Bulldog's top player for an entire 60 minutes.

Jund finished the game throwing for 253 yards on 20 completions. He also had a hand in three touchdowns, rushing for two scores and throwing a 24-yard TD to Nate Simkins. Jund also carried 11 times for 43 yards, and got plenty of help from his studded cast of WRs, including Melvin Walser, the All-Conference receiver who has missed the last four games with an injury, as well as Jake Messerly, the former Light, who is playing his final season of eligibility with the Dawgs.

Turnovers Not an Issue

As well as the Lights played Saturday, Rolin acknowledged that the team is still in the building process, and they have a way to go.

But one thing Northern is not doing with any kind of regularity this season is giving the ball away. Coming into Saturday's game, the Lights had committed just 11 turnovers on the season. Northern quarterback Tommy Wilson had only thrown five INTs as of Saturday, and for the fourth time this season, the Lights went a full 60 minutes without a giveaway.

In fact, Northern finished plus-one in the turnover department Saturday, as the Lights got a Caymus Thomas interception, which was the game's only turnover. MSU-N did fail to pick up a first down on three different fourth-down tries against the Bulldogs, but in the grand scheme of things, the Lights are certainly living up to Rolin's belief of just how important ball security is.