Worst griz team since……?

[RickRund]

Freaking gris look pretty good tonight

Very reminiscent to me of MSU's 2021 team. Sometimes an overdue change at QB can work wonders!

We are going to have our hands full

I don't think they can stop our offense consistently. And their offense isn't that scary.

Don't let Bergen get any returns over 10 yards and don't give up any 40+ yard TDs. Those are the keys to the game (which pretty much every team has failed at this year). With Hall we should be able to accomplish the first one. The second one will be a little tougher.

And what the heck happened with that 97 yard td bomb? Somebody had to really mess up.

[coloradocat]

Freaking gris look pretty good tonight

Very reminiscent to me of MSU's 2021 team. Sometimes an overdue change at QB can work wonders!

We are going to have our hands full

I don't think they can stop our offense consistently. And their offense isn't that scary.

Don't let Bergen get any returns over 10 yards and don't give up any 40+ yard TDs. Those are the keys to the game (which pretty much every team has failed at this year). With Hall we should be able to accomplish the first one. The second one will be a little tougher.

And what the heck happened with that 97 yard td bomb? Somebody had to really mess up.

Something like that seems to happen every single game. Every team has let it break them so far this year instead of recovering. Idaho turned it around but took too long.

[Grizfan7]

Freaking gris look pretty good tonight

Very reminiscent to me of MSU's 2021 team. Sometimes an overdue change at QB can work wonders!

We are going to have our hands full

I don't think they can stop our offense consistently. And their offense isn't that scary.

Don't let Bergen get any returns over 10 yards and don't give up any 40+ yard TDs. Those are the keys to the game (which pretty much every team has failed at this year). With Hall we should be able to accomplish the first one. The second one will be a little tougher.

And what the heck happened with that 97 yard td bomb? Somebody had to really mess up.

SS had UM pinned back at the 1 after a long punt, where the kept rolling with the wind blowing it slowly for 2 more yards. McDowell sneaked for 2 yards on 1st down. Then UM ran a two-move route, McDowell pump faked from the end zone, and then lofted a beautiful pass up the sideline to hit the receiver in stride. The receiver then outran the defenders. I didn't see a replay, but the corner must have bit on what was probably an out route at the start. Yes, big mistake. Good play call to catch the SS defenders sleeping. Some of McDowell's passes aren't picture perfect, but this one was.

[Grizfan7]

From the Missourian article:

"We had seen that look earlier in the game," White recalled of the play. "Clif (McDowell) said next time we get that look, he’s going to pump the out route to Junior (Bergen) because that boundary corner was biting on it. We pumped it and then it was open over the top. Clif made a great throw."

[GeauxCats41]

From the Missourian article:

"We had seen that look earlier in the game," White recalled of the play. "Clif (McDowell) said next time we get that look, he’s going to pump the out route to Junior (Bergen) because that boundary corner was biting on it. We pumped it and then it was open over the top. Clif made a great throw."

A Missouri based news outlet said that? Gris really are a national brand. Crazy.

[Grizfan7]

From the Missourian article:

"We had seen that look earlier in the game," White recalled of the play. "Clif (McDowell) said next time we get that look, he’s going to pump the out route to Junior (Bergen) because that boundary corner was biting on it. We pumped it and then it was open over the top. Clif made a great throw."

A Missouri based news outlet said that? Gris really are a national brand. Crazy.

You got me. Clifton played at Central Arkansas. He is still remembered in that part of the country. Some Cat fans don't like to write Griz; they write Gris. Some of us in Missoula have a hard time writing Missoulian too. I see that it was autocorrect; just happened to me again, but I saw it.

[Cataholic]

From the Missourian article:

"We had seen that look earlier in the game," White recalled of the play. "Clif (McDowell) said next time we get that look, he’s going to pump the out route to Junior (Bergen) because that boundary corner was biting on it. We pumped it and then it was open over the top. Clif made a great throw."

A Missouri based news outlet said that? Gris really are a national brand. Crazy.

You got me. Clifton played at Central Arkansas. He is still remembered in that part of the country. Some Cat fans don't like to write Griz; they write Gris. Some of us in Missoula have a hard time writing Missoulian too. I see that it was autocorrect; just happened to me again, but I saw it.

Some Gris fans like to write Gris. As a matter of fact, that all started when your tennis team wrote Go Gris in the snow! And then one of your douchiest fans of all time (Hooked) actually went to great lengths that “Gris” is an accepted form of the spelling. Hahaha! That is some golden stuff!

[The Butcher]

Griz look good. The game being in Missoula will make it harder, but I still am confident in a win.

Top 5 matchup between both teams will be fun!

I believe that the Cats are significantly stronger than the griz. My primary concern is our performance in hostile environments. Places like SDSU and Idaho were extremely loud, which seemed to affect both our players and coaches. I'm hoping that won't be an issue in Missoula, but this particular aspect worries me more than the talent we have on the field.

[BelligerentBobcat]

Griz look good. The game being in Missoula will make it harder, but I still am confident in a win.

Top 5 matchup between both teams will be fun!

I believe that the Cats are significantly stronger than the griz. My primary concern is our performance in hostile environments. Places like SDSU and Idaho were extremely loud, which seemed to affect both our players and coaches. I'm hoping that won't be an issue in Missoula, but this particular aspect worries me more than the talent we have on the field.

Well…Snell won’t be playing.

I guess that’s the benefit to playing multiple games in good environments on the road already. We’re battle tested. Nowhere we’ve been compares to a raucous Washington Grizzly though. It’s gonna be a fun game. We’ll win by 10+.

[RickRund]

So we know it will be extremely loud to disrupt the count. Didn't that also happen at SoDak? What is the solution? Since there was no such thing as a silent count when I played, QB was always under center, how does that work?

[BozoneCat]

Griz look good. The game being in Missoula will make it harder, but I still am confident in a win.

Top 5 matchup between both teams will be fun!

I believe that the Cats are significantly stronger than the griz. My primary concern is our performance in hostile environments. Places like SDSU and Idaho were extremely loud, which seemed to affect both our players and coaches. I'm hoping that won't be an issue in Missoula, but this particular aspect worries me more than the talent we have on the field.

Well…Snell won’t be playing.

I guess that’s the benefit to playing multiple games in good environments on the road already. We’re battle tested. Nowhere we’ve been compares to a raucous Washington Grizzly though. It’s gonna be a fun game. We’ll win by 10+.

All the more reason to RTDB and control clock, taking their crowd out of the game. Grab momentum and don't let up. They will make a couple big plays and that environment makes good coaches and players lose their cool and do things they normally wouldn't do. We're seeing it happen in Bobcat Stadium now too, including to the gris. Stick to your gameplan and DNA, run the ball 80% of the time and we win by 3 scores. Get away from that, I don't like it.

[RickRund]

Griz look good. The game being in Missoula will make it harder, but I still am confident in a win.

Top 5 matchup between both teams will be fun!

I believe that the Cats are significantly stronger than the griz. My primary concern is our performance in hostile environments. Places like SDSU and Idaho were extremely loud, which seemed to affect both our players and coaches. I'm hoping that won't be an issue in Missoula, but this particular aspect worries me more than the talent we have on the field.

Well…Snell won’t be playing.

I guess that’s the benefit to playing multiple games in good environments on the road already. We’re battle tested. Nowhere we’ve been compares to a raucous Washington Grizzly though. It’s gonna be a fun game. We’ll win by 10+.

All the more reason to RTDB and control clock, taking their crowd out of the game. Grab momentum and don't let up. They will make a couple big plays and that environment makes good coaches and players lose their cool and do things they normally wouldn't do. We're seeing it happen in Bobcat Stadium now too, including to the gris. Stick to your gameplan and DNA, run the ball 80% of the time and we win by 3 scores. Get away from that, I don't like it.

[Grizfan7]

It will be interesting to see which team is favored by the bookies/bettors, assuming both teams take care of business this coming weekend. It wouldn't surprise me if the Griz are favored. UM has not lost to a good team, only to a mediocre team. UM beat Idaho; Cats didn't. UM beat SS way worse than MSU did. Cats played SDSU closely. Cats have 2 losses. UM has 1 loss. UM appears to be a on roll. Game is in Missoula. I'm not trying to say UM is better than MSU. I'm just listing these other factors. I also don't think the best teams always wins in rivalry games.

[catatac]

It will be interesting to see which team is favored by the bookies/bettors, assuming both teams take care of business this coming weekend. It wouldn't surprise me if the Griz are favored. UM has not lost to a good team, only to a mediocre team. UM beat Idaho; Cats didn't. UM beat SS way worse than MSU did. Cats played SDSU closely. Cats have 2 losses. UM has 1 loss. UM appears to be a on roll. Game is in Missoula. I'm not trying to say UM is better than MSU. I'm just listing these other factors. I also don't think the best teams always wins in rivalry games.

I'm saying there is absolutely zero chance Vegas would put MSU favored above UM if both teams win this weekend. Not in Missoula. That's probably a 10 to 12 point advantage historically. If both teams win convincingly on Saturday, which I think they will, I'll predict an opening line of Griz -3.5.

[BelligerentBobcat]

Who knew losing to a mediocre team was better than losing to a good team.

[tdub]

Who knew losing to a mediocre team was better than losing to a good team.

Not that PR needs defending, but I didn’t read it that way. Only as a factor, which is true. The Cats have losses against strong teams, one of which the gris beat. But the gris have only one loss, but to a mediocre team.

[TomCat88]

So we know it will be extremely loud to disrupt the count. Didn't that also happen at SoDak? What is the solution? Since there was no such thing as a silent count when I played, QB was always under center, how does that work?

The Idaho game was louder than the SDSU game. There was an issue at SDSU but it appeared to be fixed at Idaho. If you rewatch the FS penalties vs SDSU the reactions by the players, namely OL and TEs, you can see it was more something MSU was doing than it was crowd noise.

[BelligerentBobcat]

Who knew losing to a mediocre team was better than losing to a good team.

Not that PR needs defending, but I didn’t read it that way. Only as a factor, which is true. The Cats have losses against strong teams, one of which the gris beat. But the gris have only one loss, but to a mediocre team.

I take my shots when I can, accuracy has nothing to do with it.

[TomCat88]

Who knew losing to a mediocre team was better than losing to a good team.

Not that PR needs defending, but I didn’t read it that way. Only as a factor, which is true. The Cats have losses against strong teams, one of which the gris beat. But the gris have only one loss, but to a mediocre team.

There’s a 35 point swing in the NAU games counting a last second TD or it’s be 42. MSU beat SAC on the road. There’s only a six point swing in the Idaho game. None of MSU’s wins have been close games. UM only has two decisive wins this year. One against a winless UNCO, the other against a team that might be falling apart. SAC is 3-3 since beating Stanford. Two of the three wins weren’t impressive.

Psu has nothing to play for after losing to Davis and if they get behind early they’ll just mail it in. PSU only had about 80 yards rushing vs Davis and 300 total.

[Grizfan7]

Who knew losing to a mediocre team was better than losing to a good team.

Not that PR needs defending, but I didn’t read it that way. Only as a factor, which is true. The Cats have losses against strong teams, one of which the gris beat. But the gris have only one loss, but to a mediocre team.

There’s a 35 point swing in the NAU games counting a last second TD or it’s be 42. MSU beat SAC on the road. There’s only a six point swing in the Idaho game. None of MSU’s wins have been close games. UM only has two decisive wins this year. One against a winless UNCO, the other against a team that might be falling apart. SAC is 3-3 since beating Stanford. Two of the three wins weren’t impressive.

Psu has nothing to play for after losing to Davis and if they get behind early they’ll just mail it in. PSU only had about 80 yards rushing vs Davis and 300 total.

But you need to judge each team by how they are playing lately, and now. UM hasn't lost since Sept. 23, to NAU on the road in its worst game of the season, which was before UM picked McDowell as it's starting QB. Vidlak played at NAU. MSU lost to Idaho on Oct. 28, on the road. UM beat Idaho on Oct. 14, on the road. MSU beat Sac St. 42 - 30 on road on Oct. 21. UM beat SS by 34-7 at home on Nov. 4.

To me, the most relevant games are Idaho and SS, not NAU. You can disagree. UM also beat Davis on the road when they were ranked. Davis is 5-4. Weber is 4-5. Davis could still make playoffs with win over SS at home.

Do the Cats have any impressive wins, other the 12 point win over SS? You seem to believe the Cat loss is no big deal, nor is the UM win over Idaho. If that's true, I disagree completely. Huge difference.

The polls are picking UM over MSU now. Since we have talked about where the games will be played, obviously the Griz/Cat game is in Missoula. I believe that will be a significant factor. Bobby has lost to the Cats only once ever in Missoula, and that was the timeout game which switched from Griz win to Cat win at the end.

The team you say may be falling apart is no. 9 in the Stats poll. If SS does fall apart, Davis will beat them and likely make the playoffs. That would then surely be another good win for UM.

All this being said, I am just laying out what I see as the facts. I am not even trying to say UM is better than MSU. I really don't know who is the better team. That will be determined in 2 weeks.

The Cats have been good all season, except for the Idaho loss, and UM has been playing very well lately. 74-7 in the last 2 games, with almost no yardage given to either opponent. It should be a great game. I look forward to it, win or lose. This is what sport is about. Thanks for the discussion.