The Weber State football team has been best known for its high-powered passing offense for the past several years. But Saturday night the keys to the Wildcats' 24-7 victory over Montana were, get this, defense and the running game, two areas that haven't been particularly strong for Weber this season.
Weber, which gave up an average of 34 points per outing in the first five games this year, didn't allow any offensive points. Montana's only TD came on a fumble return."We had a great effort on defense," Weber coach Dave Arslanian said. "That's the first time since 1986 that we've held a Big Sky team under 10 points."
The win evens the Wildcats' record at 3-3 overall and 2-2 in league play. Montana fell to 1-5 and 0-3.
In addition to holding the Grizzlies scoreless, the Weber defense forced five turnovers. The Wildcats had only one interception all season coming into the game, but picked off three in the first half against Montana, two by cornerback Mark Hood.
Quarterback Jamie Martin completed 19 of 34 passes for 221 yards, but the Wildcat offensive player of the game was running back Dwight Richards. Richards carried the ball 28 times for 161 yards, including a nifty 33-yard touchdown run in the second half.
"Dwight had a heckuva game," Arlsanian said. "He ran hard and broke some big tackles."
Meanwhile, Martin became the all-time passing leader in Big Sky Conference history - with more than 10,800 yards - and he did it in style late in the first half. Following a Derrick Beatty interception, Martin hit Nate Burchette in stride on a bomb down the left sideline for a 51-yard TD pass. The Patrik Schmidle extra point was good, giving Weber a 14-0 lead.
Weber looked certain to go into the halftime locker room with at least a 14-0 lead, but with 30 seconds remaining the Grizzlies received a gift. Martin completed short a pass to running back Von Robinson, who fumbled as he turned to run with the ball. Montana Free safety Todd Ericson caught the fumble in mid-air at full speed and returned the ball 74 yards for a touchdown.
Montana threatened to score several times in the second half, but the Weber defense was up to the task in each case. The Grizzlies moved inside the Wildcat 25-yard line on three occasions, but in each case they went for it on fourth down and were turned back.
Weber, which entered the game averaging 79 yard per contest on the ground, rushed for 208 yards Saturday night.