Big Sky Picks Thread - Week 9

[CrunchGriz]

Montana at Weber State
The Griz are the "luckiest team in America" and this week they continue to escape adversity more often than Houdini. They were lucky to win, at least, 3 games this year and will likely avoid losing again at Weber State. WSU is not the team they have been the past two years and QB Cameron Higgins struggles against better teams. Unless it snows like last year during the NAU-WSU game, Montana should prevail. Look for Chase Reynolds to run wild against the Weber defense and QB Justin Roper will do "just enough" to make it happen.

MONTANA 24 WEBER STATE 20

Why should we expect Chase to "run wild" over WSU, he hasnt run wild over anybody yet this year. No smack intended, I think Chase is a great RB, its just that the current um offense isnt designed to have a RB have a big game.

...and Chase has been playing hurt all year. He's just started to get healthy in the last couple of weeks.

[weberwildcat]

Hears to the WSU receivers catching the ball against the Griz and also hoping for a big rainstorm. I believe Higgins is 100% in win column in bad weather games over his 4 years. Great weather is bad news for WSU. Higgins' targets are responsible for 6 of his 11 picks, yes 6, hard to believe. Some have bounced off their hands, facemask, chest, butts...etc.

WSU gets the nod due to black endzones; it worked for the Eags. I think the Griz practicing look really nervous about the endzones.

[JALMOND]

38-6 so far. Still hoping for perfection as I've been missing one game each week for awhile now. Five games this weekend, I would like to go 5-0, but there are some tough ones in there. Northern Colorado is the only one not playing within the conference, yet they head down to South Dakota. Here are my predictions

EWU @ PSU---It is no secret that both teams live off the run, which may be a good thing being that it is supposed to rain throughout the game in Hillsboro. The Vikings had some practice last week as they played in the rain at Weber State and still amassed over 600 yards in total offense. The Eagles stayed relatively dry at home in a win over Sacramento State. The Eagles are trying to continue their great year, the Vikings are now playing spoiler in a matchup that is being played in its fourth city in the last four years. First round in the Dam(n) Cup...EWU 25, PSU 23.

UM @ WSU---The Grizzlies are back to winning but it seems they are not winning "pretty", as they needed late scores in the last two games for victories. The Wildcats finally showed some offensive spark last week at home against Portland State, but it always seems Higgins and company always come alive against Portland State. The last time the Grizzlies came to Ogden, it was not pretty and that was with arguably a better team than this one. The Wildcats are beginning to show some life, is it a little too late?...UM 28, WSU 24.

MSU @ ISU---The Bengals have had two weeks to prepare for the Bobcats at home. The Bobcats prepared by letting Northern Colorado hang around, almost to the point of letting the game get away from them. The Bobcats once vaunted defense has been hit by injury and as a result, as given up over 30 points in each of their last four games. This game could be interesting, if not for the Bengals not scoring 30 points since their first game against Montana-Western...MSU 30, ISU 10.

UNC @ South Dakota---Taking a break from the conference, the Bears head on the road to face their former DII rivals in South Dakota. The Bears are still smarting from what they thought was a good shot at getting a win on the road against Montana State last week, but have to be brimming with confidence in going back on the road against what is perceived to be a "lesser" opponent than last week. One thing, though, South Dakota is a pretty good team this year...South Dakota 21, UNC 17.

Sac State @ NAU---Are the Jacks going to play without Herrick again and if so, will they get the same inspired play from their offense that they got against Montana? Will the Hornets still get the same gutsy play on the road that has shown against Eastern Washington and Montana, only this time will it result in a win? All things probably come true except for the Hornets win...NAU 28, Sac State 21.

3-2 this week, missed the Griz game (again) and the beginning of the annual NAU fall from grace. 41-8 for the year. If I can just think rationally, I'd be OK, no matter how crazy a rational thought may be.

[EWURanger]

EWU 35 @ PSU 28

UM 31 @ WSU 28

MSU 42 @ ISU 24

UNC 21 @ South Dakota 34

Sac State 35 @ NAU 38 (1OT)

3-2 this week. Scores were waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy off, but I don't think anyone could have predicted the Sac and EWU blow-outs.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

38-6 so far. Still hoping for perfection as I've been missing one game each week for awhile now. Five games this weekend, I would like to go 5-0, but there are some tough ones in there. Northern Colorado is the only one not playing within the conference, yet they head down to South Dakota. Here are my predictions

EWU @ PSU---It is no secret that both teams live off the run, which may be a good thing being that it is supposed to rain throughout the game in Hillsboro. The Vikings had some practice last week as they played in the rain at Weber State and still amassed over 600 yards in total offense. The Eagles stayed relatively dry at home in a win over Sacramento State. The Eagles are trying to continue their great year, the Vikings are now playing spoiler in a matchup that is being played in its fourth city in the last four years. First round in the Dam(n) Cup...EWU 25, PSU 23.

UM @ WSU---The Grizzlies are back to winning but it seems they are not winning "pretty", as they needed late scores in the last two games for victories. The Wildcats finally showed some offensive spark last week at home against Portland State, but it always seems Higgins and company always come alive against Portland State. The last time the Grizzlies came to Ogden, it was not pretty and that was with arguably a better team than this one. The Wildcats are beginning to show some life, is it a little too late?...UM 28, WSU 24.

MSU @ ISU---The Bengals have had two weeks to prepare for the Bobcats at home. The Bobcats prepared by letting Northern Colorado hang around, almost to the point of letting the game get away from them. The Bobcats once vaunted defense has been hit by injury and as a result, as given up over 30 points in each of their last four games. This game could be interesting, if not for the Bengals not scoring 30 points since their first game against Montana-Western...MSU 30, ISU 10.

UNC @ South Dakota---Taking a break from the conference, the Bears head on the road to face their former DII rivals in South Dakota. The Bears are still smarting from what they thought was a good shot at getting a win on the road against Montana State last week, but have to be brimming with confidence in going back on the road against what is perceived to be a "lesser" opponent than last week. One thing, though, South Dakota is a pretty good team this year...South Dakota 21, UNC 17.

Sac State @ NAU---Are the Jacks going to play without Herrick again and if so, will they get the same inspired play from their offense that they got against Montana? Will the Hornets still get the same gutsy play on the road that has shown against Eastern Washington and Montana, only this time will it result in a win? All things probably come true except for the Hornets win...NAU 28, Sac State 21.

3-2 this week, missed the Griz game (again) and the beginning of the annual NAU fall from grace. 41-8 for the year. If I can just think rationally, I'd be OK, no matter how crazy a rational thought may be.

3-2 as well for me, which means I'm still two games back and 39-10 on the year. I was really contemplating throwing a hail mary this week and picking Sac State and Weber in upsets to even up the score, but I couldn't bring myself to do it... didn't think it would happen. FML.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

P-State over EW 38-31
UM over Web St 31-17
MSU over ISU 44-10
SD over UNC 23-17
NAU over Sac St 24-21

Keep dreaming/hoping/wishing.

[weberwildcat]

anyone able to explain what happened with nau or psu?

nau got destroyed had 0 offense. doesnt make sense. 0 nau offensive TD's and it was at home.

psu looks good in the box score yet barely any points. for one that didnt watch it the box score looks like like a 50-40 type game.

[EWURanger]

psu looks good in the box score yet barely any points. for one that didnt watch it the box score looks like like a 50-40 type game.

Game was over at half. EWU got up big very early, took PSU out of the pistol formation, and forced them to throw all game to try and play catch up. Yeah, their stats look good but the majority of those passing yards came in the second half with EWU up huge and just sitting back in zone keeping everything in front of them. Game was never in question.

[JALMOND]

psu looks good in the box score yet barely any points. for one that didnt watch it the box score looks like like a 50-40 type game.

From the PSU perspective, it looked like we totally abandoned the pistol when Kavanaugh got hurt after the first series. Backup QB Howland, as much as they've practiced with him in the pistol, is a much more run and shoot type quarterback. I saw many more run and shoot formations in the game. Burton even said after the game that, while Kavanaugh is more of a run first quarterback, Howland has more of a pass first mentality. Barnum (EWU alum, by the way) has been tinkering with Burton's pistol offense by adding more passing to take advantage of Howland (and Hubel who is redshirted now), but I don't think 55 passes in a game is what he (nor Burton) had in mind when they came here.

[SDHornet]

anyone able to explain what happened with nau or psu?

nau got destroyed had 0 offense. doesnt make sense. 0 nau offensive TD's and it was at home.

psu looks good in the box score yet barely any points. for one that didnt watch it the box score looks like like a 50-40 type game.

The Hornets jumped all over NAU. The Hornet D held NAU to 43 rush yards and 123 pass yards and forced early turnovers that the offense cashed in for TD’s. The Hornet offense went crazy and put up 333 pass yards and 155 rush yards. The game was over at halftime.

*I was looking for a youtube video of a hive of hornets attacking people but I didn’t turn anything up on a very quick search.