‘Everything matters’: Weber State can’t overcome mistakes in 28-26 loss to McNeese
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- Weber State defensive end Brayden Wilson (94) battles McNeese offensive lineman Greg Knox (79) on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State defensive back Logan Mackey (28) forces a fumble against McNeese quarterback Clifton McDowell on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Damon Bankston (1) sprints for a gain past McNeese defender Boogsie Silvera (4) on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State receiver Jayleen Record sees in a pass against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State receiver Marcus Chretien (87) celebrates a touchdown reception from Richie Muñoz (10) against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State defenders Trevian Tribble (9) and Logan Mackey (28) tackle McNeese receiver Kameran Senegal (16) on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Damon Bankston (1) tries to shake a tackle from McNeese safety Boogsie Silvera (4) on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State quarterback Richie Muñoz (10) runs with the football against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Davion Godley (27) runs the football as McNeese safety Boogsie Silvera (4) closes in on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Davion Godley carries the football against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Jayden Ah You (42) makes a stop on McNeese running back Joshon Barbie on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State running back Adrian Cormier (2) dives forward for extra yards against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State quarterback Richie Muñoz throws the football against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Gavin Ortega (71) battles McNeese lineman Marques White (3) on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
OGDEN — It could have been any one play.
With shadows of a mistake-filled road loss two weeks ago at Lamar, Weber State football needed just one more play Saturday hosting McNeese. But the Wildcats didn’t get it.
Instead, they tallied two FCS nonconference losses by a total of three points, dropping to 2-3 overall instead of a woulda-coulda-shoulda record of 4-1.
“Everything matters,” a somber but sure head coach Mickey Mental said first after the game. “We’ve got a play to make, you’ve got to make the play.”
The Wildcats fell short in a 28-26 loss to the visiting Cowboys (who moved their record to 4-1 against FCS teams) to close nonconference play for Weber State.
In a second-half track meet, Weber State answered McNeese’s final TD drive with one of its own midway through the fourth quarter. Richie Muñoz connected deep for 49 yards to senior Jacob Sharp, setting up a Damon Bankston 1-yard touchdown run to make it 28-26 with 8:15 left.
Due to a botched faked PAT in the second quarter, rent came due on that lost point WSU needed to make up. The Wildcats ran left, pitched the ball to a sweeping Sharp going right, and he sprinted toward the goal line.
Like in the play popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 52, Muñoz had run from his quarterback spot and was uncovered on the right side of the end zone. But instead of tossing an easy two points to Muñoz, Sharp tucked and ran for what he thought was a gap. A McNeese defensive back got free from his block and made the tackle, stopping Sharp inches from the goal line.
“It’s on me,” Mental said. “He’s thrown it every time we’ve repped it in practice, I’ve just got to do a better job of coaching … it’s always on myself as a coach to coach it better so he doesn’t make that mistake. I’ve got to do a better job.”
It wasn’t over there.
Weber State slowed McNeese and dual-threat QB Clifton McDowell, and the Cowboys punted from their own 32-yard line. WSU’s Clarence Butler caught the punt at the WSU 13, shook the initial defender and raced 21 yards for good field position — only to be caught from behind by the same initial defender, who popped the ball loose.
In what might have become the play of the game, WSU lineman Matt Herron was there to fall on the fumble and keep the ball. Weber State had a 66-yard field with 4:03 left.
Bankston and freshman Davion Godley rushed the Wildcats inside the McNeese 35. Just before the two-minute timeout, Godley ran for 9 yards to the McNeese 24 but a holding penalty behind the play nullified the gain — only the third penalty for Weber State in the game.
Still, Weber had the ultimate play to be made. On third-and-12 from the 40, Muñoz delivered a perfect ball to Jayleen Record who streaked behind the defense and had a touchdown. But when the ball arrived near the 5-yard line for a likely game-winning play with 1:30 left, Record dropped it.
Muñoz was 16 of 30 for 129 yards, and seven of those 14 incompletions were receiver drops.
On fourth down, Muñoz bought time and tried to squeeze a throw to a crossing Noah Kjar past the first-down marker. McNeese safety Boogsie Silvera came from Kjar’s blind side and delivered a crushing blow as the ball whizzed by, which drew a penalty flag.
The flag was announced for a targeting penalty, which requires immediate review. The penalty was overturned, resulting in a turnover on downs. Mental said he received an explanation but would not comment about referees publicly.
In college, the rules appear to require some form of targeting in order for a penalty to stand for a hit on a defenseless player when the play is on a potential pass-catcher; it’s unclear why the call was overturned.
McNeese kneeled out the game and celebrated its two-point road victory 1,600 miles from home.
Bankston and Godley led Weber State to a 287-yard rushing night. Bankston rushed 21 times for 140 yards. Godley, who took over second-string carries in the second half, added 75 yards on 10 carries. Over five games, Godley has 21 carries for 151 yards on a 7.2 yards-per-carry average.
“There’s really no surprise for me. I knew since his first practice, he was going to play eventually,” Bankston said about Godley. “Immediate impact in practice, hard to bring down in practice, it was only a matter of time before he got there and showed everybody else in-game.”
Sharp had three catches and four drops for 59 yards. Record totaled 28 yards on four catches.
The 6-foot-5 McDowell was difficult to contain. The senior who led Montana to the national title game last year was 14 of 27 for 203 yards through the air and rushed 15 times for 109 yards while not taking a sack or any loss.
“He’s a big kid, tough to wrap up. He didn’t lead them down to Frisco for no reason, for Montana,” Mental said. “Just got to get more hats on him, bring him down earlier.”
“What it came down to,” linebacker Garrett Beck said, “was our defense executing our jobs. We had a lot of guys out of their gaps, me included, and that’s what really hurt us … that quarterback can find the hole, he’s a good quarterback.”
Joshon Barbie added 70 yards on 13 carries for the visitors. Jonathan Harris caught two passes for 76 yards.
The game didn’t start as wild as it finished.
McDowell got McNeese going on its first possession with his feet and his arm, setting up Barbie for a gashing 25-yard touchdown run to go up 7-0 early.
Weber State’s defense held McNeese to one first down over its next three possessions. But the Wildcats couldn’t get out of first gear offensively, running 27 plays to McNeese’s 12 when punting the ball away one minute into the second quarter.
“The game was lost, to me, in the first half. We’ve got a start faster. Second half, you just have to find a way to win but first half, we started slow,” Bankston said. “Six points before half, that’s just not our expectation … we left a lot of points out there in the first half. Defense was balling in the first half so if we just score and play complementary football, I feel like the second half’s not even close.”
Weber used a timely Muñoz keeper to drive inside the McNeese 20 on its next possession. Muñoz threw to Sharp on third down and a scrum going out of bounds at the 9-yard line left him a half-yard short of the line to gain.
Mental elected to kick a field goal. Junior Sloan Calder missed right on the 26-yard attempt, leaving their first decent drive without points. The Wildcats went 4 for 4 in the red zone with four touchdowns the rest of the night, but that empty trip proved crucial.
Mental drew criticism for going for it on fourth-and-inches down 17-16 in the fourth quarter at Lamar two weeks ago, a play that failed, instead of kicking the field goal. This time he elected to kick and that play failed, too.
“Trying to get points on the board, because we hadn’t moved the ball the whole first quarter. So we got down there, in the back of my mind, I want to get points,” Mental said about the decision. “Our defense was playing well, I trust that we’re going to put the ball in the end zone a couple more times, so I elected to kick the field goal.”
The Wildcats got the ball back with 1:06 left in the half when Bronson Childs stripped a running McDowell and Jayden Ah You recovered the fumble at the WSU 49.
Bankston ripped a 30-yard run on the next play, setting up what became a 10-yard touchdown pass from Muñoz to Marcus Chretien.
Another key play followed: punter Oscar Doyle — who otherwise punted for a 42-yard average and made McNeese earn every yard — rose from his holding position on the point-after-touchdown kick. He appeared to have a lane to score two points but bobbled the ball as he stood up and ultimately went down at the 1-yard line.
“We did not execute at a high level. The look was there, we practiced it all week, they gave us the exact same look. We just had to execute the blocking and he walks in,” Mental said.
That made it 7-6 at halftime.
Each team had 191 yards at the break. The game took off in the third quarter and resulted in a similarly deadlocked second half. McNeese gained 232 yards after halftime, Weber State netted 225.
WSU forced a punt out of halftime, then used 2:17 to go five plays and 64 yards. A 43-yard rush from Bankston set up a Muñoz 5-yard touchdown toss to freshman tight end Dahlyn Jones to put WSU ahead 13-7.
McNeese answered in five plays and 2:07, a 59-yard pass to Harris leading to a 1-yard scoring run from McDowell to give the visitors a 14-13 lead.
Weber came back Godley toughing out a 31-yarder going right with zone blocking, then reversing left and finding space. To end it, Bankston plunged into the middle, fought outside to the left, broke a tackle at the 3-yard line and finished a 9-yard touchdown run. WSU led 20-14.
McNeese had another answer, needing nine plays to go 75 yards, capped with a Barbie 3-yard scoring run. The Cowboys led 21-20 with 0:51 left in the third quarter.
WSU punted two plays into the fourth quarter and McNeese put together what became a game-winning drive.
What would’ve been a third-and-3 on McNeese’s side of the field became a first down when Beck made a tackle at the sideline but was flagged for a facemask. Barbie finished that drive with a 9-yard touchdown, making it 28-20 with 10:33 left — setting up WSU’s touchdown answer with the missed two-point play.
McNeese scored touchdowns on three straight possessions in the second half.
“We started slow in the first half but kind of got our rhythm going and made some good stops,” Beck said. “But the second half, we were having troubles getting lined up, they were in a hurry-up offense quite a bit of the way, long drives, we just couldn’t get out of those long drives and that really hurt us in the end.”
It doesn’t get easier from here. Weber State, at 1-0 in the Big Sky, travels to Montana next week to face a Grizzlies (4-1) team that escaped with a 52-49 win at Eastern Washington (1-4).
“We’re 1-0 in conference so just gotta build on that and put this loss behind us quick, because we’re going up to Montana,” Bankston said. “My mindset is, what more can I do … because football’s about winning.
“So just wake up tomorrow, watch film, see what I can do better and then Monday has to be a super hard practice.”
AROUND THE BIG SKY
No. 3 Montana State 37, Idaho State 17
No. 14 UC Davis 28, No. 4 Idaho 26
No. 8 Montana 52, Eastern Washington 49
Northern Arizona 34, No. 10 Sacramento State 16
McNeese 28, No. 25 Weber State 26
Cal Poly 28, Northern Colorado 7
Chattanooga 45, Portland State 30
