NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Illinois State coach Brock Spack and his players didn’t sign off on their Cinderella billing in the FCS national championship game against Montana State.
Yes, the Redbirds entered the playoffs unseeded, but they won four road playoff games to reach their first title game since the 2014 season. And they knocked off No. 1 North Dakota State along the way.
They believed they belonged, and there they were at FirstBank Stadium on Monday night, trading blows with the No. 2 Bobcats. Clawing back from a 14-point second-half deficit to tie it. Taking their first lead in overtime — the first time the FCS national championship went to an extra period in the 48-year history of the game.
Until the magic finally ran out in Montana State’s 35-34 overtime win.
Montana State blocked Illinois State’s extra-point attempt on ISU’s overtime touchdown — after blocking a Redbirds field-goal attempt that would have won it in regulation with 57 seconds to play. The Bobcats (14-2) then scored the winning touchdown on Justin Lamson’s 14-yard pass to Taco Dowler on fourth-and-10 and made the extra point to win it.
Montana State players jumped around at midfield, some tossing their helmets, to celebrate the team’s first national championship since 1984. Many in the crowd of 24,105 — the most for an FCS title game since 1996 — joined them on the field for the trophy presentation.
Lamson was named the game’s MVP after throwing for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Dowler had eight catches for 111 yards.
“We just couldn’t find one more play, and we needed to make one more play in order to win it,” Spack said. “But when you look at a game, it’s a one-point loss like that, there’s probably 10, 15, maybe even 20 plays in the game. If you just make one of them, you win it. We weren’t able to do that, and we came up a little short.”
ISU quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns, hitting redshirt freshman wide receiver Dylan Lord 13 times for 161 yards and two touchdowns.
Rittenhouse and Lord connected with 5 minutes, 10 seconds to play for a 25-yard touchdown. Lord spun and scrambled around defenders to get across the goal line to tie it at 28-28 after the Redbirds (12-5) had trailed from the first quarter on.
Rittenhouse hit Lord again with a 10-yard touchdown pass on their overtime possession. Lord’s performance was big for the Redbirds as Montana State held leading receiver Daniel Sobkowicz to five catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.
“You put your all into this team. I have no doubt that we all did,” Lord said. “You get to this spot and it’s so close. Sometimes you just fall short, and that’s part of life. I’m proud of our seniors and our whole team. They were calling us a Cinderella run, and we obviously proved we deserve to be here.”
But after Lord’s overtime touchdown, Montana State’s Hunter Parsons blocked kicker Michael Cosentino’s extra point.
Montana State’s Jhase McMillan had gotten to Cosentino’s 38-yard field-goal attempt on fourth-and-1 with less than a minute to play to block it. Spack said they went back and forth about whether to go for it, but believed it was the right decision to kick at the time.
Spack said he needed to look at the film but thought there may have been ball-handling issues on the kick attempts.
“We spent a lot of time on special teams, but there are no gimmes,” Spack said. “You have to execute, and we didn’t. … Yeah, it’s very disappointing.”
The Illinois State defense had trouble slowing down Montana State in the first half. After ISU scored its first touchdown with 54 seconds to play before halftime, the Bobcats responded with a three-play, 75-yard drive that took just 36 seconds and gave them a 21-7 halftime lead.
But the Redbirds clamped down in the second half, including coming up with a stop in the final minute of regulation after the blocked field goal. The Redbirds sacked Lamson for a 6-yard loss on second down, and a botched snap on third down pushed the Bobcats back another 20 yards, forcing a punt and then overtime.
“In the second half we tackled a lot better, and that was the reason we played a lot better in the second half,” linebacker Tye Niekamp said. “There wasn’t really a crazy amount of adjustments. I think the only thing really adjusted was bringing a lot of pressure on third down, because we were getting home.”
The Illinois State offense also kept fighting.
Illinois State cut Montana State’s lead to 21-14 when offensive lineman Logan Brasfield recovered Victor Dawson’s fumble in the end zone on third-and-1. The play was ISU’s sixth inside the 6-yard line and fourth from the 1. That included a pass interference penalty on Montana State defensive back Seth Johnson against Sobkowicz on a previous third-and-1.
Sobkowicz added a 4-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter.
“I think Tommy kind of settled down a little bit,” Spack said. “He had some guys open in the first half, and he missed them, but I think he settled down and played a lot better in the second half. We converted on third down, and our running game was pretty good. It was efficient. We were able to keep Montana State off balance with how we were attacking them with our run and throw.”
Rittenhouse and Niekamp were emotional in the postgame news conference, fluctuating between “heartbreak” at the outcome and appreciation for having been part of a historic game.
“That was a classic football game right there,” Rittenhouse said. “I mean, I had a blast no matter win or lose.”
“It was an electric atmosphere for sure,” Niekamp said. “It’s probably the most fun I’ve had playing in a game.”