POCATELLO — When the game ended, the scoreboard at the ICCU Dome showed Montana State 37, Idaho State 17. But for the 6,894 fans in attendance and those watching on television they realized the final score didn’t indicate how close this game really was. The Bobcats came in ranked No.
3 in the nation and with the Bengals suffering even more injuries to key players, may have expected the game to be an easy one, especially when they jumped out to a 17-0 lead. But it was 17-10 early in the fourth quarter, ISU had just kicked a field goal and suddenly nervousness set in among the MSU faithful who made the trip to Pocatello. Montana State though is a championship caliber team and championship caliber teams make championship caliber plays when the game is on the line and that is exactly what the Bobcats did which is why they moved their record to 5-0, 1-0 in league play.
On the first play from scrimmage after ISU’s kickoff following the field goal, MSU quarterback Tommy Mellott used play action, saw the Bengal defense make a mistake, fired a strike to the outside to receiver Rohan Jones and he was off to the races. Literally no Bengal defender was near him and he went untouched 70 yards for what turned out to be a back-breaking play. Bengal head coach Cody Hawkins was asked about the play and what went wrong.
He said, “We had a ‘cloud’ cover called, we were supposed to have a safety back there and the player who was supposed to be in that spot, he got excited and he want.
