No. 3 Montana State Rallies Past No. 22 Weber State 38-33 With 21 Straight Second-Half Points

Montana State was a 24.5-point favorite. At halftime, it was down 10, had fumbled a kickoff, had a field goal blocked and had given up a 100-yard kick return touchdown. On Native American Heritage Day and Parent and Family Weekend in Bozeman, Bobcat Stadium was not happy.

Then the second half started, and the No. 3 team in FCS remembered who it was.

Montana State scored 21 straight points out of the break and beat No. 22 Weber State 38-33 on Saturday in Bozeman, a game that was far tighter and far stranger than anyone expected. The Bobcats improved to 7-1 and 4-1 in the Big Sky, and Brent Vigen is now 22-0 in home Big Sky games as Montana State's head coach. Weber State, which came in tied for first in the league, fell to 5-4 and 4-2.

A first half full of haymakers

Weber State, under first-year head coach Eric Kjar, came out swinging. On the opening possession, freshman quarterback Nate Dahle hit Noah Kjar, the coach's son, on a 68-yard catch-and-run that set up a David Dellenbach field goal. Montana State answered the way Montana State usually does, with Jared White bursting through the line for a 57-yard touchdown run.

Dahle found Ammon Munyer for a 2-yard touchdown to make it 10-7, and Montana State went back in front when Justin Lamson capped a 17-play drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Rylan Schlepp. That lead lasted 14 seconds of game clock. Dyson Parker took the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, the first kick return score Montana State had allowed since October 2022.

The rest of the half belonged to Weber State. Myles Sansted's 29-yard field goal tied it at 17, but Seth Rigtrup broke a 31-yard touchdown run with 1:53 left, and then White fumbled the kickoff that followed. Trevian Tribble recovered for the Wildcats, and Dellenbach turned it into a 37-yard field goal. Sansted's 37-yard try at the horn was blocked by Ashton Oberg, and the Wildcats jogged to the locker room up 27-17.

Montana State had outgained Weber State 299 to 226 in the half and held the ball for nearly 18 minutes. It was losing anyway.

The turning point came on one snap

The second half lasted one play before it swung. On the first snap of the third quarter, Dahle could not handle the exchange, and defensive end Zac Crews fell on the loose ball.

"I think we just came out and set the tone," Crews said. "(We were) maybe a little lackadaisical coming out in the first half, second half down 10, we knew we had to start fast and I think that's exactly what we did."

Lamson cashed it in with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Reed, his second score as a Bobcat, and suddenly it was 27-24 with 7:07 left in the third quarter.

"(That play) maybe was that catalyst (we needed)," Vigen said. "But that's no good if we can't turn it into points, so we were able to do that."

Weber State fumbled again later in the half when Josaiah Asuega punched the ball free from Dahle and Bryce Grebe recovered. In total, the Wildcats lost three fumbles, and every one of them hurt.

Closing it out

Montana State took the lead for good on the first play of the fourth quarter, when tight end Rocky Lencioni plunged in from a yard out. It was his first rushing touchdown in three college seasons, and it made it 31-27. White thought he had put it away later in the quarter with another long touchdown run, but a holding penalty wiped it out.

Adam Jones did the job instead. With 1:54 left, Jones ripped off a 27-yard touchdown run to make it 38-27.

Weber State refused to go quietly. Dahle hit Robert Young for an 11-yard touchdown in the final minute, but the two-point try failed and Jones recovered the onside kick. Ballgame.

The players who carried it

White was electric in limited work, rushing for 125 yards on just 13 carries, 100 of them on seven first-half carries. The 57-yard touchdown came from reading the defense before the snap. "(With) the look they gave us before the play, I don't know if Justin heard me, but I said, 'Oh, I might crease this one,'" White said. "But we go over the same looks every week, just repetitively."

Jones was the closer, carrying 22 times for 115 yards and the clinching touchdown. Together, they powered a Montana State run game that piled up 278 yards at 5.7 a carry. Lamson completed 23 of 35 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and he managed the comeback without forcing anything.

For Weber State, Noah Kjar was the best player on the other sideline, catching eight passes for 124 yards. Dahle threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns on 21-of-40 passing, a gutsy line for a freshman in one of the toughest road environments in FCS, but he also fumbled twice, and those turnovers swung the game.

The numbers that tell the story

Montana State outgained Weber State 510 to 364, and the Bobcats did not commit a single turnover in the second half. Weber State lost three fumbles to Montana State's one, and the Wildcats did not score after halftime until the final minute.

The first-half box score explains why the scoreboard was so misleading. Montana State ran for 180 yards in the opening 30 minutes, Weber State ran for 86, and the Bobcats held the ball for 17:56. But a kickoff return touchdown, a fumbled kickoff and a blocked field goal handed Weber State a 10-point swing it had not earned from scrimmage. Clean that up, and Montana State dominated the game. The official Montana State recap (opens in a new tab) and the box score (opens in a new tab) have the rest.

What it means

Montana State has now won two straight since a 35-34 loss at Idaho on Oct. 2, and it shares first place in the Big Sky with Northern Arizona. It also extended its winning streak over Weber State to five, all under Vigen. Next on the schedule was a home game against Cal Poly on Oct. 31, followed by trips to Idaho State on Nov. 7 and Northern Colorado on Nov. 14 before hosting Montana on Nov. 21. That is a strong position for a team that did all this without Taco Dowler, who missed a fourth straight game.

Weber State, meanwhile, leaves Bozeman with a loss it will think about for a while. A young quarterback, a first-year coach and a team that held a 10-point lead on the road against the No. 3 team in FCS is not nothing. Next on the schedule was a home game against UC Davis on Oct. 31, a chance to show the second half in Bozeman was the exception.

The last word

Vigen gave the halftime credit to his players, and then gave plenty to the people in the stands.

"I think our guys at halftime took the plan and ran with it, and clearly there was a play that would need to be made," he said. Then he turned to the crowd. "In particular, the standing room only people, I mean, those are my people right there," Vigen said. "They're here early, they get their spot, they stay right where they're at at halftime, they don't leave."

"Our fans are unbelievable with their support and energy and we feed off of it," Crews added.

Good thing they didn't leave. They would have missed one of the best halves of the Bobcats' season.

Sources: MTN Sports, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and The Associated Press via FOX Sports. More college football coverage on Undrafted.