MISSOULA, MT. — As I left Washington-Grizzly Stadium late in the night I was still as stunned as I had been five hours before when the clock hit “0:00” in the fourth quarter. Fans of the #1 team in the country also stayed in their seats for several hours as chaos and confusion ran amok. One young boy with a maroon paw on his shirt looked up as his dad as they slowly trudged toward the parking lot. “Did the Grizzlies lose Dad?” His father nodded and tried to hide the bitterness in his words as he patted his son on the head. “Yes, you can’t win them all, but sometimes you shouldn’t lose them either.” As I listened to his words I thought back over the events of the evening and scratched my head while staring at the scoreboard.

It had started innocently enough. A scoreless first quarter punctuated only by the Montana defense forcing a fumble and recovering on their own 43 yard line. However the time taken off the clock by Weber State’s offense left Montana with only a minute and thirteen seconds before the break. Those of us in the press box watched with narrow eyes as the quarter ended on a Grizzly punt to the 25 yard line.

A Wildcat punt, a failed Grizzly fourth down conversion, and then the first score of the game, a 35-yard scamper to the end zone by the Weber State running back, made it 7-0 in favor of the visitors with 2:29 left in the second quarter.

It’s important to note that the Montana fans had begun booing the Wildcat offense at this point. The quarterback would take his time getting to the line, they huddled at every opportunity, and put forth every effort to take as much time off the clock as possible before snapping the ball. Which, would’ve been fine, if not for the Montana faithful being some of the smartest fans in the game. They knew about the Weber State head coach’s previous comments and weren’t afraid to start taunting him from the stands. They reminded him he was 1-8 before this week and claimed he was being hypocritical.

Montana moved the ball well on their next possession, looking like the Grizzlies of yore, and scored on an electrifying 50-yard pass with over a minute and half left before the break. Grizzly fans began to relax a little and the crowd grew quite loud when the Weber State offense trotted out onto the field. It must have inspired something because the Montana defense held and gave the ball to their offense with 0:28 left before halftime but the Weber State defense held and both teams went to the locker room tied 7-7.

A scoreless third went by quickly as Weber State forced a 3-and-out and continued to chew the clock on offense. Our third period was nearly half over before Montana had the ball back but the Wildcat defense continued to hold and the teams traded punts as Montana possess the ball to start the fourth.

At this point I was looking at my fellow writers and beginning to have questions. No one so far this year had been able to shut down the Montana offense this consistently and it would seem that the Wildcat offense, despite spending the majority of the game on the field, was not tiring out like we initially thought they would. The Grizzlies broke the tie game with a 25-yard field goal at the 6:18 mark and the crowd once again relaxed a little. Surely there would be blood now as Montana, 10-1 before the game started, had their first lead of the game.

Weber State went 3-and-out and Montana marched down the field, kicking a 39-yard field goal to go up by six with 2:08 left. Surely there would be no comeback now, was the prevailing attitude in the press box as Weber State lined up to return the kick. A missed tackle and a crucial block proved us all wrong as the Wildcat return man brought the ball all the way to the end zone and jumped into the arms of his blockers. Silence reigned in Missoula as the kicker put the ball through the uprights and made it 14-13 in favor of the visitors.

Montana returned the ball to the 30-yard-line and began moving down the field with ease, as their fans pleaded with them to reconcile what was certainly a mistake. But two sacks and a failed screen pass brought the Grizzlies to a crucial 4th and 12 with 0:53 left to play. The pass was caught! But the runner dragged down 6 yards short of the first down marker, giving Weber State the ball with 0:37 left.

By this time Montana had used all their timeouts and their coach could be heard cursing the opponent as the Wildcats knelt the ball and melted the clock away to secure their 14-13 victory over the home team. Weber State’s head coach, affectionately known as “Jags,” was subdued in the post game press conference.

One reporter said (and I quote) “How does it feel to win in the cheapest possible?”

Jags shrugged and answered “A win’s a win regardless of how it pans out.” Then after a moment he added “And if there’s anymore questions about the playbook used, this shows that nobody is [safe] from the style of play used in the game and it needs to be changed.”

Three more reporters fired questions in rapid succession:

“So you basically did this as a protest?”

“Can you speak more about your defensive performance? What was your approach to limit Montana to field goals vs TDs?”

“Yes, I think the key takeaway is that you held Montana to 13 points, how’d you do that?”

Jags answer was once again simple and direct. “We really anchored down when they put the ball in our territory and our [big] guys up front and all our defensive backs came up big time.”

Montana’s leader, Habes, was unwilling to meet with the media directly after being heard cursing in the hallways outside the locker room. Shortly after the team meeting ended the Grizzly sports information director released the following statement, directly from Habes, and a copy was given to every member of the media. (editors note: this was copied word-for-word from the release)

“I’m not gonna take questions; but I will answer the probable and generic questions about my game against Weber State. What happened?! Weber used a fair, but cheap strategy to be a mercenary to beat my team for the week. While I may have outplayed him in terms of yards and successful plays, he came up with the necessary score and played great defense all day. I give him credit for making the stops when he needed to. Do you think you should still be #1? I have the best resume in the FCS. Yes, I have a tough loss to NorCo and now Weber. One week doesn’t define a team’s whole season. I have beaten the only other #1 to ever hit FCS this season and have beaten two other #2 quality teams at the time. In the end, it’s not my decision and I respect it and understand it either way. But no one has the resume I do. What do you think of his strategy? I think it’s cowardly. For a game you sign up and volunteer for willingly, to use a strategy to cut down as much game time as possible to me doesn’t warrant any respect or show any integrity for yourself or the great league and opportunity we have before us. I outplayed him, and he outschemed me with a strategy that is well known to be a little overpowered. It’s unfortunate but in the end, he would rather make his legacy beating the #1 by abusing a strategy rather than trying to outplay me. Congrats, you have your 15 minutes of fame. All it cost was the respect of dozens of your peers. Hope it was worth it. Where do you go from here? Does your strategy change for the next week? I keep doing what I’m doing. We were in a good position to win and in the end we fell just short. 1 loss doesn’t define this team, and the teams we play going forward don’t incorporate the same tactics. Montana State is our next opponent and he’s gonna be tough as nails. I can’t wait to play against a coach and team I respect more than pretty much anyone in all of FCFB. Should be an exciting game. How do you feel about your chances to make the conference championship? Good, still. I have no faith EWU will win out, but even then, we are just going to do everything we can to beat Montana State next week and hope we get in.”

As I read through the statement I could understand the frustration stemming from the comments made by the opposing coach earlier in the year. As a member of the media I have tried to remain unbiased and I may not have done the best job during the aftermath of this game. But sitting here now, after having several hours to think through everything that happened, I have a few things to say about what we saw happen today:

Weber State played defense like no one else had against the Grizzlies this year. Montana’s first field goal would’ve been a touchdown had they thrown the ball. Weber State’s linebackers were out of position and were not looking for a difference of 196 on the play. Montana’s second field goal would not have been a touchdown as Weber State had adjusted and their players were able to keep the difference in the 500s. Weber State competed the best way they knew how with the #1 team in the country and whether Coach Jags was hypocritical or not, winners do what is necessary within the rules of the game to compete with their opponent. The FCS Committee will need to take a long, hard look at the way “chew the clock” is set up during the off season to see if any changes need to be made.

In the end I believe we saw one of the better defensive games of fake football that has been played in a long time, from both sides, and that fact should not be overlooked in all this clock talk. But, I heard that a camera crew may have been present for the entire week of Weber State’s prep, and that a documentary may or may not be released in the future, so we can all get the first-hand scoop on what really went down during Week 10.

For FCFB Overtime, this has been Joshua Average, saying thanks for reading, goodnight, and keep those ranges tight.