Cats looking for momentum against W. Oregon
With the Montana Grizzlies on a bye this week, it seems my Bobcat fan colleagues at Mint Sports decided to make this their bye week as well. It’s all me this week and I have a lot of questions about the Bobcats heading into their third game of the season against DII Western Oregon.
Western Oregon went into Sacramento State’s house in week one and beat the Hornets 38-30. It’s never a good look when a DII squad comes in and upsets an FCS team – I remember being at the Chadron State game a week after the Cats knocked off Colorado. Damn, Danny Woodhead.
So can Western Oregon come to Bozeman and pull off their second win against a Big Sky team?
This is an interesting game because after Western Oregon beat Sac State, they lost to fellow DII Central Washington by 21 points. What I take from this is that Sac State is really bad or Central Washington is a damn good team. It makes me think the Cats are going to be able to hold their own and it’s not going to be Chadron II.
Against Sac State, Western Oregon allowed Hornet QB Nate Ketteringham to throw for 370 yards and 3 touchdowns. Ketteringham then went 9 for 25 for 89 yards last week against FBS Fresno State with 2 interceptions. It’s not like Ketteringham is this dynamic QB so I like this matchup against the Western Oregon defense considering they made him look pretty legit in week 1. If Bobcat Offensive Coordinator Courtney Messingham can dial up some offense, get Tyler Bruggman into a groove, and get Bruggman looking comfortable I think this will be HUGE going into the Big Sky opening against North Dakota.
Bruggman has been… frustrating to watch. There are three drives I distinctly thinking, “Here we go. We have a QB.” The first drive of the game against Idaho, the first drive of the second half against Idaho, and the uptempo first touchdown drive for the Cats against Bryant. He looked sharp, looked like he was having fun, and had some momentum. I can’t remember any other drive where I was really impressed… in two games. Bruggman has to get it going this week against a DII school for me to think he’s going to be the QB that we want out there the rest of the season. Murray is 17 and Folsom hasn’t played yet – but another dud from Bruggman and there will be plenty of fans wanting a change. I might be one of them.
I am looking forward to seeing how the Bobcat defense comes out after a pretty successful afternoon against Bryant. Yeah, there were some big plays and some suspect tackling, but John Walker looked great en route to his Root Sports Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week and Bryson McCabe is fun as hell to watch. The Cats rank second in defensive efficiency in the Big Sky and right now, with where the offense is, this has to continue to give them a chance to be in games once Big Sky play rolls around. A strong afternoon against Western Oregon gives them that continued momentum for North Dakota. I figure every game that the Cats defense plays well is another game where the confidence grows and the defense of the last two years becomes a distance memory. Side note, per his twitter account, it seems like former Washington Husky CB Naijiel Hale is going to get into the mix next week against North Dakota and that can only help.
Western Oregon has everything to gain and nothing to lose when the come to Bozeman and it’s the exact opposite for the Cats. I don’t think there are any Cat fans that are overconfident about this game and I haven’t talked to one fan that is looking past this game. I’m confident the Bobcats are going to win but we are all hoping we get to see the offense open up a bit and get rolling. I’m going with the Bobcats winning 31-14. I can’t believe that after the offense we have had the last seven years I’m predicting the Cats will only put up 31 on a DII school, but such is the confidence I have in the offense right now.
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Hot Take Nate Hot Take Nate now resides in Northern California but still calls Montana his home. It'll always be home.
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