Close but no cigar

Vikings football lost to 11th-ranked Montana on Saturday in the final three seconds.

After fighting back from a six-point deficit, Portland State had taken a 21-20 lead over the Grizzlies with only 2:34 left on the clock in the fourth quarter. It was a hard-fought game by both sides, but it ended with a 23-21 victory for the visiting Montana Grizzlies whose last-second field goal sealed the game at Hillsboro Stadium. 

The thing that shone through more than anything in this game was the Viking defense. They came into this game well-prepared by defensive coordinator Eric Jackson. They knew the routes that Montana quarterback Justin Roper likes to throw, and they disrupted him all night.  

Roper, last week’s Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week, completed only 17 of his 38 passes for 172 yards—almost 100 yards less than he had been averaging before Saturday.  

The Vikings’ (2-4, 1-2 Big Sky) defense also brought the pressure all night. Normally, Roper is a fairly agile quarterback who can run for the first down. In this game, he was sacked four times for a loss of 16 total yards. Even when he was able to escape the pocket, Roper only had 15 rushing yards on seven attempts. 

Montana (5-2, 4-1 Big Sky) saw a critical error from Roper in the fourth quarter, and the Viks made him pay for it. With 7:55 left in the game and the Grizzlies leading by six points, Roper threw an interception at the Viking 3-yard line on what should have been the go-ahead touchdown pass to lock up the game. 

Junior free safety Manoa Latu came up with the pick and gave the ball back to the offense, and from there junior quarterback Connor Kavanaugh and junior running back Cory McCaffrey went to work. With a drive that didn’t see a single pass being thrown, Kavanaugh and McCaffrey chewed away and the Montana defense drove 97 yards in five and a half minutes for a touchdown that put the Vikings on top, 21-20. 

While this drive may not have been offensively balanced, it did all of the right things to be effective. It was long and sustained. It took time off of the clock. It ended with a gain of seven points.

However, the offense didn’t do the defense any favors. Of the last six possessions by the Grizzlies, four of them came from Viking fumbles. Those fumbles resulted in 13 points for the Grizzlies and kept the defense winded and on the field. Without a chance to rest, the Viks weren’t able to keep the Grizzlies out of field goal range during their last series of the game. 

“We were able to stop them,” said defensive end Carl Somer. “We just weren’t able to stop them enough.”

“I’m proud of their heart,” said head coach Nigel Burton. “I told them also that they’ve got to find a way, though, to find that one play that changes the game.”

The offense had trouble with the stout Grizzly defense. The pasing game was virtually nonexistent, though Kavanaugh was accurate when he did take to the air. He completed 13 of 19 passes, and was a perfect 8 of 8 in the first quarter. After halftime, there were only six pass attempts and four of those came during the third quarter.  

Kavanaugh’s longest pass was for 12 yards. He only took one shot downfield and that wound up an incompletion. Even on third-and-long situations, the ball was thrown short of the first down line or run.

The lack of the long passing game is a serious disadvantage for the Viks. Without some semblance of it, the Viks appeared one-dimensional and were contained to within 10 yards from the line of scrimmage, an easy area to create traffic. For a chance at another conference victory, the game plan is going to have to be opened up to Kavanaugh and he’s going to have to throw for more than the 65 yards he did in this game. 

Even when he was throwing the ball, Kavanaugh didn’t wait for his receivers. He chose to go to his check-down often, and running back McCaffrey wound up the top receiver of the day with four catches for 22 yards. When he was under pressure, he more often than not chose to keep the ball himself and use his legs. He finished the game with 15 carries for 131 yards, the highest total for a rusher on either team. 

McCaffrey was the Vikings’ workhorse on Saturday, carrying the ball 24 times. During the drive leading to touchdown in the fourth quarter that put the Viks up, he was called on to run eight of the 11 plays and carried a long run of 20 yards to Montana one-yard line to set himself up for the touchdown. 

“If that’s what it takes to win, then I’m there for it,” McCaffrey said. 

Another bright spot during the game was a kickoff return by wide receiver Nevin Lewis. Without Aaron Woods, return-man extraordinaire the past couple of years, the Viks have been a little lackluster in that aspect of the game. Lewis’ 92-yard return for a touchdown in the second quarter gave a glimmer of hope that some of the explosiveness may be back in their return game.  

On a down note, linebacker Jaycob Shoemaker was seriously hurt in the third quarter and had to be carted off the field on a stretcher. He seemed to indicate that he had broken his leg. 

In order to be the best, you have to beat the best. The Viks may not be there just yet, but they appear to be getting close.

Next week, the Vikings play Weber State in Ogden, Utah. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m., and the game can be watched on www.b2tv.com. ?