GRAND FORKS, ND — It was a tale of two halves at the Alerus Center on Saturday evening.
The game was dominated by Montana in the first half, then dominated by North Dakota in the second, and the Fighting Hawks walked away with the win, 27-24. And for the Grizzlies, more questions arose as they fell to 1-1.
GRIZ POSTGAME: BOBBY HAUCK BREAKS DOWN NO. 4 MONTANA'S LOSS TO NO. 23 NORTH DAKOTA
The first half couldn't have started any better for Montana as the Grizzlies' offense was flowing, and the defense was sharp and stout, as UM led 24-7 at halftime and looked well on its way to a big win. The Griz had 271 yards of offense in the first half, 195 of which came in the opening quarter.
But North Dakota rallied behind four scoring drives in the second half — three of which were 10-plus plays and two that were longer than seven minutes — as the Fighting Hawks completely dominated the time of possession by holding the ball for 24 minutes, 7 seconds of the 30 minutes, and Montana couldn't get a stop to get off the field.
"It was a lot of zone scheme, just split zone or just straight zone," UM head coach Bobby Hauck said of UND's offense. "They did a good job getting some push. They made some critical plays at certain times in terms of moving the chains, keeping it going. They just did a good job of getting one more yard than 10. There's a lot of that.
"There's a lot of old school three times four equals 12, move the chains. That's what they do."
Like they did in their opener against Missouri State, the Grizzlies struggled to get third down stops.
After going 1 for 5 in the first half, the Fighting Hawks were 5 for 8 in the second half on third down as they kept creating third and short opportunities and also converted on a key 3rd and 10 that set up their go-ahead field goal, as UM's tackling and ability to create stops struggled again. Even on the three missed third-down conversions, UND converted on a fourth down, and kicked two fields goals as a result.
"We failed in every aspect in that second half," Hauck said. "And you know, they did a good job of making some second and longers into third and shorters, which gave them the ability to run it. Because they weren't throwing it particularly well."
Offensively, the Griz ran just 16 plays total in the second half.
Their first three drives were three and outs, and by the time they got their final possession, the lead was gone, and they trailed, with their lone first down in the half a long scramble by Keali'i Ah Yat as they attempted to get in scoring range.
In total, after the hot start, UM mustered just 34 yards on offense in the second half.
"We didn't generate any first downs. We missed throws, we missed blocks," Hauck said. "You know, we didn't turn it over, we handled the noise, did all that stuff and thought the guys did a really good job with that. I was enthused about the way we managed it, but we didn't make any plays."
The defensive struggles and offensive inconsistency were issues in the opener, and they came to a head against a ranked opponent in North Dakota.
It'll be a tough pill to swallow for the Griz knowing how that one slipped away.
"Obviously not very good job by us, particularly the second half," Hauck said. "You can't do what we did the second half and hope to hold on to a big lead or win in any form or fashion. So bad job by us. That starts with me. Got to do better job figuring out how to get a first down."
