MSU-N Notebook: Lights left searching for answers

Prior to the 2017 season, one of the big questions surrounding the Montana State University-Northern football team was who would be the starting quarterback?

At the start of the season, the answer was Tommy Wilson, but now, after an 0-4 start, the answer is once again unclear.

Despite the Lights 0-4 record, Wilson has been productive and explosive at times. Through Saturday’s loss to Western (61-7), the junior-college transfer is completing 52.8 percent of his passes, while throwing six touchdowns and nine interceptions.

In the first game against Rocky Mountain College, Wilson had the Lights in position to win, before a late kickoff return touchdown sealed Northern’s fate. But Saturday against Western, the Lights never really seemed to have a chance.

Certainly, there were some promising drives in the first half, but each of them ended with a Wilson turnover and after the fifth turnover of the first half, Northern head coach Aaron Christensen decided to make a change — the question now is whether or not it will be permanent.

Wilson’s replacement, Bryce Missey was able to engineer the only touchdown drive in the game for the Lights, but he only completed 3-of-10 passes for 105 yards, before giving way to redshirt freshman Dylan Cook, who attempted five passes and threw an interception.

“Right now, we just have to go back and look at the film and evaluate everybody,” Christensen said. “Tommy is a good football player and we aren’t going to make any decisions based on one half. But it is something that we need to evaluate going forward, just like every position.”

Of course, turnovers have plagued the Lights so far this season. Northern had nine in the first three games of the season and with five more in Saturday’s loss, the total is now 14. MSU-N also has a turnover margin of minus seven. Not surprisingly, the Lights rank last in the Frontier on both categories, so whoever the quarterback is going forward the top priority, will be taking care of the football.

Tough Up Front

While the offense had its issues against Western, the defense also struggled to contain the high-powered Bulldogs, who racked up more than 500 total yards of offense. For the season, the Northern defense is allowing 542 yards and 49.3 points per game, which both rank last in the conference.

There are a number of reasons for Northern’s struggles, but the fact that it ranks last in the Frontier in sacks is chief among them. Before facing Western Saturday, Northern had zero sacks through three games. In previous years, with guys like Tyler Craig and Jordan Brusio, the pass rush was a strength, but in 2017, it has become a weakness.

However, the Lights did get some good news on that front, as defensive end Josh Wright was finally able to break through with a sack in the second quarter Saturday. Obviously, the Lights are going to need a lot more disruption from the defensive line, but hopefully that sack will be a jumping off point for Wright, who could very well be the Lights best pure pass rusher.

Touchdown vulture

If you play fantasy football, then you have probably heard of a touchdown vulture. It’s normally a fullback or backup running back who gets the one-yard touchdown after the starting running back does all the work to get in scoring position.

Well, even though there are certainly no fantasy football teams with Frontier Conference players on them, the same phenomenon took place Saturday at Blue Pony Stadium.

Western running back Hunter Thomsen was a huge part of the Bulldogs victory, carrying the ball 23 times for 105 yards, while also catching four passes for 31. Yet, despite touching the football 27 times and racking up 136 total yards, he found the end zone just once or half as much as his quarterback, who finished the game with negative rushing yardage.

Bennett Gibson, Western’s quarterback, reaped the rewards of his backs hard work, which also allowed him to compile a rather unusual stat line: four rushes, (-4) yards and two touchdowns. Gibson certainly held up his end of the bargain with 295 yards passing and three touchdowns, it’s just strange to see a player finish with negative yards rushing, but two rushing touchdowns in the final box score, but that's what happened Saturday.