BROOKINGS — It wasn’t a national championship game this time but South Dakota State’s defense inflicted its will on Montana once again on Saturday.
After clamping down on the Grizzlies for only three points in Frisco last season, the Jackrabbits merely allowed three points through the first 50 minutes of the game before Montana came through with two late scores in a 35-18 SDSU triumph at Dykhouse Stadium in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
After an early SDSU turnover, the Jacks’ defense held Montana to a 34-yard field goal to cap a 10-play drive. But that was a win in SDSU coach Jimmy Rogers’ book, and the third-seeded Jacks never looked back from there, holding the Grizzlies off the scoreboard for the next six drives.
“I thought we played really good.” SDSU safety Tucker Large said. “I thought guys were flying around, making plays and just being ourselves. We've got a standard and we try to live up to that week in and week out.”
Statistically, it wasn’t quite as dominant as the title game in January, when the Jackrabbits held Montana to 47 rushing yards on 30 carries and 259 yards of total offense. This time, Montana finished with 306 yards and had 75 yards on 29 carries.
Much of that was from freshman quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat, who finished with 25 yards on nine carries but ripped off a few big scrambles, including a 27-yarder. The Grizzlies did not play two quarterbacks on Saturday, as they have for much of the season, letting the athletic Ah Yat handle the duties.
Regardless of who was taking the snaps on Saturday afternoon, the ability for Montana to keep pace with SDSU was limited. Montana coach Bobby Hauck pointed to the Griz’ struggles on third downs (5-for-13) as being one of the key factors in the game.
“Every time we tried to seize some momentum,” Hauck said, before pointing out the team was up 3-0. “We didn’t win on third down. That’s the story of the first half.”
Trailing 14-3 in the second quarter, Montana was able to drive to the Jackrabbits’ 21 yard line when Ah Yat was picked off by Tucker Large at the SDSU 3-yard-line and was able to bring the ball back out 26 yards to snuff out Montana’s best drive of the first half.
SDSU also found the end zone with the defense when Adam Bock intercepted a tipped pass in the third quarter and ran it back 40 yards for a touchdown, keeping his balance halfway through after nearly being tripped down and pushing the lead out to 35-3.
“That was a lot of fun,” Bock said. “I was going to get some crap for that if I fell. I had to stay up.”
The defensive line also earned some praise, only allowing 50 yards rushing to the Grizzlies’ backs and picking up three sacks of Ah Yat.
“As far as them in the run game, I thought they were great,” Rogers said. “They didn't really get much going and we made them one dimensional and we were able to get some plays off of it.”
Up next is Incarnate Word in the FCS quarterfinals, which already made the trek to Brookings this season, which former SEC quarterback Zach Calzada — who was at Texas A&M and Auburn — threw for 351 yards on the Jacks’ defense. The weather probably won’t be as nice as it was in September when SDSU won 45-24 but Rogers said they know they’ll need to be better on defense.
“We felt like going into that game they had great skill and great wide receivers and a dynamic quarterback that can put the ball in place and on time,” he said. “I doubt anything has changed in that sense for them to have this type of success.”
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