Title Town: Griz crush Cats in 122nd Brawl of the Wild

If indeed, Saturday was the biggest Brawl of the Wild ever played, then, it had to be one of the biggest shockers too. Maybe not in who won the game, but how the game unfolded.

In front of the largest crowd to ever see a sporting event in the state of Montana, the No. 3 Montana Grizzlies crushed the No. 4 Montana State Bobcats, 37-7 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula. The win gave the Griz (10-1, 7-1) their first outright Big Sky Conference championship since 2009, and they have won seven straight games after losing their league opener at Northern Arizona, their longest win streak since 2009.and the No. 2 overall seed in the upcoming FCS playoffs.

"What a great job by our players, our coaches getting ready to play this game, win in a demanding fashion and take the Big Sky championship," Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. "It was a great performance by our team today. We're very, very excited to get the 74th win over our rival. I'm proud of my football team. I love my guys. Just an awesome effort today."

It was an incredible effort considering all that was at stake. The Bobcats came in No. 2 in rushing in the FCS, No. 1 in scoring the Big Sky and No. 2 in scoring defense in the Big Sky.  But, none of that seemed to matter as Montana scored on its first two possessions in a game that never got close again.

"Not a lot of good things to say," Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said. "We didn't come out and play the way we certainly would have expected to, hoped to. That's pretty clear. We got beat in all three phases. ... A lot of things I think we can look at, what could we have done better.

"Certainly the credit goes to Montana and how they play. They played better than us today, and that's evident by the results, scoreboard, everything. This game does not end our season. .. We got to go back to work. We got to look at this film and say what could we, should we have done better and get off the mat and go after that next opportunity."

The Griz scored on seven drives, rolled up 430 yards of offense, picked up 21 first downs and was incredible on third down. Conversely, Montana State managed to convert just one third down and had just 280 yards of offense.

Griz quarterback Clifton McDowell finished 17-of-22 passing for 200 yards and one touchdown, while wide receiver Junior Bergen had a game-high 91 yards on six catches. Nick Ostmo ran for 85 yards and McDowell added 69 yards as the Griz were so balanced, rushing for 200 and throwing for over 200 against MSU's vaunted defense.

"He may have had games where he did certain things better this year," Hauck said of McDowell, "but in terms of running it, throwing it, managing the game, he's made great progress and today was his best game in my estimation without watching the film."

The Griz' defense was equally as good, holding the Bobcats to just 213 yards rushing, nearly 100 below their season average. Tommy Mellott did have a couple big runs, with 108, while Julius Davis had 107. But, besides being dreadful on third down, the Cats also passed for just 67 yards and had zero completions in a first half that saw Montana take a 20-0 lead in the lockerroom.

Trevin Gradney has battle injuries over the past couple of weeks but returned and made a huge play defensively, picking of Mellott in the fourth. It's the fifth interception of the season for the Billings native. Braxton Hill and Tyler Flink shared the team-lead with eight tackles. Kale Edwards had the lone sack of the day for Montana, coming on a crucial fourth down and leading directly to three points for Montana. They had five tackles for loss in the game.

Montana's offense was just as good. Eli Gilman capped off a 14-play, six-minute opening drive to give the Griz a 7-0 lead. The offensive momentum continued to roll for Montana, who found plenty of openings in the Bobcat secondary. He threw two early completions for 20 yards before finding Bergen wide open for a 38-yard gain to move into the red zone again. Ostmo ran for six yards, and McDowell did the rest with a six-yard touchdown score that put Montana ahead 14-0 with five minutes to play in the opening quarter.

A missed field goal by the Cats, and then a huge sack on fourth down with :01 left and a roughing the kicker penalty would give the Griz another Nico Ramos field goal as time expired to pitch a first-half shutout on the Bobcats.

MSU did drive right down the field and score on a Melott TD pass to start the second half, but the Bobcat defense didn't slow down the Griz. Bergen would return the ensuing kickoff 50 yards, and just two minutes later, the Griz answered the only MSU TD with a McDowell toss to Bergen to make the score 27-7. 

"If we can back that score up with a three-and-out or stop, I think that momentum is on our side," Vigen said. "The scoreboard wasn't on our side, but the momentum would have been on our side at that point in time. We didn't do that."

Ramos tacked on a 29-yard field goal with three seconds left in the third quarter to give Montana advantage to 30-7. Then, Gradney picked off Mellott with 7:45 left in the game and two plays later, Ostmo ripped off a 64-yard touchdown run to put UM up 37-7, which turned out to be the nail in the coffin, as the Grizzlies avenged the humiliating loss in Bozeman last year, and beat their arch rival for the second time in three season in Missoula.

"Both teams are good at home," Hauck said of the lopsided last three years in the Brawl, which now has Montana leading 74-42-5.

But for now, Montana wasn't thinking about the past, just this one, and the Grizzlies earned a huge win Saturday, capturing the school's 19th Big Sky title, setting themselves up for the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, and of course, bringing the Divide Trophy back to Missoula for the next 364 days,

"It feels awesome," Bergen, a Billings native said. "We're a really blessed team. A couple months back, no one really believed in us, but the guys in this room did, so we put our heads down, went back to work and now we're in the spot we're in now."

Montana will now await the winner of Delaware and Lafayette in a second-round playoff game Dec. 2 in Missoula. The Bobcats (8-3, 6-2) still earned the No. 6 seed and will also have a bye this week. The Cats will host either Drake or North Dakota State Dec. 2 in Bozeman.