Game #1 - @ Montana

[JD24]

Tough on that fumble for a guy trying to get future playing time.

Dave has to find the right "people" to visit the replay official before these games.

[valpofb16]

Offense went completely away from Navarro, Duncan. Throwing Earley in there with 10 career carries entering the redzone. Still very proud

[JD24]

Offense went completely away from Navarro, Duncan. Throwing Earley in there with 10 career carries entering the redzone. Still very proud

The OL got a little leakey as well. Just may be worn a bit.

[vu72]

Can't say enough about the effort.  Our best DL did not play.  We had 450 yards of offense.  The heat and altitude no doubt had an effect as the game wore on.  Very solid.   I'm sure 62 will give us a full report. 

[hailcrusaders]

I'd be ecstatic if we kept them in low 40s and Valpo scored around 20. It would also be great if Valpo could score first so that Coach C can pull a Lee Corso: call time out and take a picture of the team under the scoreboard.

Well..?

[valpotx]

I am happy to say that I was completely wrong about this one.  We did not look overmatched at all, especially as we have in previous FCS scholarship games.  We usually get run over by halftime, and outside of a few quick drives, we looked like we belonged.  It got very quiet in the stadium several times, and a lot of griping from Grizz fans around me, and rightfully so, as they are a class and a half above us in football (not other sports).  Hopefully a good sign as we get to play against our conference.  Well done guys, great effort!

[usc4valpo]

We were all wrong about this game, and Valpo has a lot to be proud us of. Great job guys.

[MTGriz]

Damn you guys have a scrappy team. #2 is legit
I'd put money on you guys finishing near the top of your conference.

Good game.

[VUOR63]

Very pleased with what I saw out of our team today.  The deficit was 22 pts.  I figure the first two red zone appearances  should be TDs.  That's 8 points.  Two of the Grizz's TDs were mental errors/blown coverages.  That's 14 pts and 22 total.

Obviously, fatigue played a role.  But that's the depth difference between the two programs.

I think this group will have a lot of success this season.

Great to run into VULB62 and put a face to the name.

I have a pic of the 13-10 score but have to figure out how to share it.

[vu84v2]

Well...I was the leader in predicting this game incorrectly. I did not see the game, but looking at the summary and box score it looks like Valpo hung tough for the entire game against a quality D-1AA opponent. Nice effort!

[VULB#62]

Where to begin 

The setting was electric and the announced attendance of 22,260 was really into the game from the get-go. Large video scoreboard with instant replay,  marching band, big cheering squad, incredible tailgating all contributed to one of the best college atmospheres I can remember. AND.. the nicest fans I have ever come across.  Welcomes and greetings everywhere we went. Very complimentary of our play calling, execution and grit. A number of fans were very knowledgeable and shared some great assessments of what we were doing and how we beat their secondary with a number of big plays.

The Valpo fan turnout was also beyond my expectations -- and we got pretty loud too. Great meeting OR63 and was looking for Tex but couldn't find him.  But then, the kids gave us things to cheer about throughout the game (so refreshing!).

VERY proud of how well the players and coaches handled the pressure, incredible heat (over 100* on the field), adversity and the size of both Griz fronts. We really looked small in comparison on both sides of the ball. At no time could I see any of our kids going into that loser's funk we often have seen in the past. Our kids were into the game throughout and did not let things like a downed punt on the ½ yard line, or an int, lessen their determination.  I didn't see any major injuries, but I did notice Navarro grabbing his hamstring in the second half and then noticed he wasn't on the field for the rest of the game. Hope it was cramps and not a pull.

Commented to MLB at the half that, in light of our performance, there is one point of perspective that, to me is astounding:  not one kid in a brown jersey today was "worthy" of an FCS football scholarship, yet you could not tell that by watching that game today. 

[rink]

Local news segment with game footage:

http://www.montanasports.com/2017/09/02/montana-grizzlies-pull-away-late-in-opening-win-over-valparaiso-45-23/

[JD24]

Solid game overall by Valpo. Quality QB play means so much.

This all considering the opponent and really more with an eye towards league opponents:

Run defense I thought very solid considering the line play was always going to work against Valpo. Concerned about the pass defense a bit.

Offense was good if not a little too dependent upon the big play. Duncan gives them an attribute they haven't had in a while. He'll only get better and could be the guy at some point this season.

STs: Not going to run kicks back every week and the only place Valpo came out a loser was in punting yardage. There is no other punter on the roster however the team can't lose 20 yards per punt and not have it bite them in the butt at some point.

Other PFL opponents didn't appear to put up any overwhelmingly good performance. Dayton lost to Robert Morris who they beat last year. Stetson got run over by Sacred Heart who had to come from behind last year to beat Stetson. Stetson's had a rough week however with an on the field death of a player and that has to be factored in. The rest of the games I thought the pummelings were a bit more one sided than you'd expect. Morehead St. whipped a team slightly better than College of Faith and Campbell sledgehammered Div III Methodist.

[PolsonGriz]

Great game yesterday. Your team should definitely be proud of the effort. I hope all of the fans who showed up had an awesome time. Good luck the rest of the year.

[crusadermoe]

Sounds like a GREAT performance!!   

Let's see how they do against the U. of  Washington next week and we can calculate a hypothetical score for Valpo vs. UW.  The Grizzlies might hang tough.

[IndyValpo]

http://www.gogriz.com/boxscore.aspx?id=2028&path=football

Per Montana's box score we played a whole bunch of people on Saturday including a bunch of true freshmen.

As far as I can tell only Valpo doesn't publish a participation chart. Each week I go to the opponents site to see who played.

[JD24]

http://www.gogriz.com/boxscore.aspx?id=2028&path=football Per Montana's box score we played a whole bunch of people on Saturday including a bunch of true freshmen. As far as I can tell only Valpo doesn't publish a participation chart. Each week I go to the opponents site to see who played.

They definitely traveled with more than the usual number of players....particularly for flights. I don't know whether they chartered a flight which may have allowed for a larger crew. Todd and Brandon mentioned this during their broadcast (the bigger game roster). They also played freshmen and played them early rather than introducing them more slowly which was good and, obviously, some stepped up. Seemed like the defensive freshmen came in late when the game was out of hand.

I've noticed the lack of a participation chart as well. It may be a function of the game tracker site that Valpo uses. LiveStats doesn't seem to have a participation section while I have seen it with other game tracker sites.

[ClarkWGrizwald]

With apologies to Ms. Franklin:


R E S P E C T!!


Congratulations on a great game Saturday.  We've had a few teams from the Pioneer play in Wa-Griz in the past, and the Crusaders were head and shoulders above any of them, including playoff teams like SD.  Griz fans have NOTHING but respect for your program, your players and your staff. 

I hope that anyone attended had a good time in Missoula and that you were treated well.   Good luck the rest of the way.  I'll be watching your season and rooting for you.  Go Crusaders, Go GRIZ.

[VULB#62]

I thought this was a significant excerpt from the Duquesne preview regarding our previous performances (or lack thereof) against scholarship FCS programs (CLICK TO ENLARGE).  It really puts the way the kids played into some perspective.

[FWalum]

It really puts the way the kids played into some perspective.

Yes it does! Hard to know how Montana would stack up against those other teams, but the difference from previous performances is really eye-popping. Football is such a game of confidence and emotion that I can't help but hope this performance can help set the stage for positive change in this program and a great season.

[VULB#62]

It really puts the way the kids played into some perspective.

Yes it does! Hard to know how Montana would stack up against those other teams, but the difference from previous performances is really eye-popping. Football is such a game of confidence and emotion that I can't help but hope this performance can help set the stage for positive change in this program and a great season.

That is so true.  Look at Drake this past weekend.  Home opener in DesMoines.  Coming off a 7-4 2016 season (6-2 PFL).  What do they do in front of their own fans?  They got blown up by South Dakota (not SDSU)  77-7     .  77-7?  This is Drake, a perennial PFL top half team, not at all like Davidson (or Valpo for that matter).

PFL scores in other games against scholarship programs:

Bucknell 45 - Marist 6
Sacred Heart 42 - Stetson 3
Robert Morris 13 - Dayton 10
Illinois State 45 - Butler 0

Valpo scored more points against the Griz than the entire rest of the PFL scored against their FCS opposition.

[VULB#62]

   Gotta chuckle at the following quote I cut from the Griz forum post game critiques (lots of fans were not pleased that we gave them a game)    :

"Agreed there's things to clean up. There's always things to clean up. I think that Valpo team beats ISU, Sac St, UC-Davis & maybe even CP the way they're playing currently."

Nice to hear that, of course, but I think the Griz poster gave us a little too much credit.  We will have to play our hinders off just to be competitive with Duquesne on Saturday, much less line up against full scholarship Big Sky teams.

[VULB#62]

The Griz got killed by the University of Washington yesterday 63-7   

I was hoping they'd give a better showing. Griz fans must be really fretful today after allowing us to stay in the game last week and then getting crushed yesterday. I hope they pull it together.