The Bobcat Nation

What a game.

Nice day in Bozeman-upper 60's, low 70ish, but a little blustery. It was strange, the flag was pointed east, and the hotdog wrappers from the student section were blowing across the field to the west!

The wind played havoc with poor Mike Williams trying catch kicks and punts. He was totally lost out there today. I hope he can recover. Ryan Force did a good job of stepping back there and calming things down on punt returns.

Jimmy Beal also had a bad day, fumbling on the 1 yard line when we're about to score.

And Eddy Sullivan had a couple of bad penalties that resulted in plays coming back. Domineck had a long TD called back because of a hold by Sullivan.

Way too many penalties by us all day. Got a lot to clean up.

Jeff Bolton was getting used and abused by their defensive end in the first half, and was called for consecutive holding penalites. But he seemed to recover and Lulay had more time in the second half.

The no huddle offense implemented in the second half seemed to knock them on their heals a bit. Maybe the offense is starting to find something-17 points in the 3rd quarter. But yet another game with only 2 offensive touchdowns. We've got to bust out of that trend!

Weber's a tough team to come back on, because they use up a lot of clock.

Best play call of the day: Their left corner came up a little lame on a play. So Guinn lined up opposite him and went deep. He burned the guy and was absolutely wide open in the endzone...but Lulay over threw him. Dang that would have been nice. I think we should have taken another shot later on, but we stayed more conservative.

Cochrane was interviewed after the game. He said he just blocked everything out of his mind. He said Kramer said something to him right before the kick, but Cochrane had no idea what it was. He said they could have called a fake and he wouldn't have known about it. It was kind of funny.

Attendance was announced at something like 13,300! 4th game in a row going back to last season over 12K. I really like that trend. Lets keep it going next week (when does hunting season start?).

We won homecoming-how-about-that?!

What a strange game today. The first half was absolutely frustrating. Overall, we had great field position for most of it and could not do anything with it. Defense played all right, but no help from the offense at all.

I don't know what the coaches said or did at halftime, but it sure worked. it was a completely different team in the second half. Maybe we just spot the other team 10 points or so before the game and then go no huddle right away??

I thought Domineck played great in the second half. He ran hard, made some nice cuts and real nice catches, etc. he ended up with about 120 yards rushing and would have had close to 200 except for a stupid penalty on a long 50-60 yard run for a TD.

Speaking of penalties-way to many and some very critical ones that killed drives or took away points. We have to clean that up big time. This team is not that good to be able to overcome that very often.

Jimmy Beal seems like a great kid and I know he is trying, but he just has to use his head a bit more. One block in the back penalty on a punt was just plain dumb. Of course, the fumble on the 2 yard line could have been a killer also. Mike Williams also really struggled.

It did not sound good about Kory Austin on the radio. he was taken to the hospital on a stretcher and Kramer said they were not sure if it was a broken pelvis or internal injuries. I suspect we just lost another cornerback and are now down to one true cornerback left except for true freshmen. They moved ryan Force to cornerback again and he did a great job. I wish we could leave him at safety where he can roam the field more, but he will probably have to stay at CB now. He seems like our Kane Ioane of this team to me-he just keeps making plays.

Speaking of making plays, you gotta love Travis again. With less than 30 seconds left, he is trapped for what should have been a 3 yard loss, somehow gets out and runs for about 15 yards to get us into position for the last second field goal. No matter what people say about other QBs in this league, I still take Travis. he just somehow makes the plays when you need them.

Good for EJ Cochrane making the last second field goal. A great kick from 44 yards with a swirling wind. But he hit it so hard, the wind had no effect. I felt as happy for him as I did about winning the game.

I think that the "no huddle" got the offense into a rhythm and started them executing. Like someone said, maybe we should just play the whole game with the "no huddle" . It allows Travis to just play his game without regard to giving Bailey a chance to screw his head up! The second half we didn't give Weber a chance to get their breath. Good idea coaches...now learn from it!

Is it just me, or does this team only play good when they are under pressure. AKA they are losing, or need a win desperately (aka Cat/Griz the last 2 years)?

By the way, I'm really drunk. Just thought I'd throw that out there, even though my grammar is impeccable.

Couple things to add from the-guy-listening-to-the-radio-broadcast standpoint.

Atterbury said that Beal lined up against Wiley King a few times after Cory went out. That's pretty impressive. It sounded like he played great against the speedster.

I swear the Cats had 8 fumbles or muffs. It was excrutiating to listen to the play-by-play during Weber punts. Did it look as bad as it sounded?

Atterbury also said that Kramer said that he wanted the corners to be more physical and that the corners might have to take a penalty or two - I don't think Krames had personal fouls in mind when he said that - but, heh, you never know with Krames.

AND - IS THERE A BETTER COACH IN THIS LEAGUE THAT PETE KWIATKOWSKI? The answer is NO!

If not for 10 gift points, the D played lights out again. I don't know what it actually looked like, but from the play-by-play it sounded like the Cat D Line was relentless.

I don't remember seeing Beal in there on D, but Ryan force again shut King down...especially on a well thrown deep pattern...he was in his back pocket. King is a Big Sky sprint chapion.

We're down to no non redshirt DB's available. Looks like we'll have to put a couple redshirts on alert for the rest of the season.

I talked to Kane Ioane after the game and he said that they'll p[robabaly keep Force at CB for now and see what happens. He thought Austin had a hip pointer...but I've heard other "diagnoses" either way he probably won't be back for awhile.

I think Atterbury only called out Beal's number a couple times in the 4th quarter - I think both times, it was 3rd and long - mayber Beal was in there in Dime?