O’Connell and Macias earn weekly honors from Big Sky
11/22/2021 9:27:00 AM | Football
The Montana Grizzlies earned a pair of weekly honors from the Big Sky Conference on Monday following a 29-10 rivalry rout over No. 3 Montana State.
Linebacker Patrick O'Connell was named the ROOT Sports Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week, while kicker Kevin Macias earned the ROOT Sports Big Sky Special Teams Player of the Week.
Surprisingly, it's the first weekly accolade from the league for both O'Connell and Macias of the season and of their respective careers at Montana. And with Robby Hauck earning conference and national accolades after the NAU game, the Grizzlies have now won the Big Sky Defensive award for two straight weeks.
O'Connell was once again a leader in Montana's dominant defensive effort against MSU, spending much of the afternoon in the Bobcat backfield. The junior put up a game-high 11 tackles (four solo) with 1.5 sacks for 11 yards and one quarterback hurry.
With 13 sacks on the season, he leads the Big Sky and is now fourth in the FCS in total sacks and is No. 8 in the conference in total tackles with 91 on the season.
In a coin-toss decision, fellow linebacker Jace Lewis also had a Player of the Week-worthy effort on Saturday with nine tackles (one for loss), and a game-changing forced fumble on a botched fake field goal that led to a scoop and score for the Grizzly special teams.
With their help, Montana's defense stretched its run to 14 quarters of play without allowing a touchdown against the Cats, with MSU not finding the end zone until 48 seconds to play in the fourth quarter.
Macias was once again nothing but money for the Griz in the kicking game, going 5-for-5 on field goals and 2-for-2 in PATs for a personal haul of 17 points against MSU.
His career day was highlighted by a season-long 50-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter, with three of his five attempts landing from 40-plus yards out.
His 50-yard attempt comes on the heels of his previous career-long field goal of 49 yards slotted just last week at Northern Arizona. The senior now ranks second in the Big Sky and sixth nationally in field goals-per-game, having made 18 of his 22 attempts on the year, having not missed now for five-straight games.
With the win over MSU, Montana advanced to the FCS playoffs and earned a first-round bye with home-field advantage in the second round. The Griz are now set to host the winner of the Northern Iowa/Eastern Washington game on Friday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. in Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Tickets for the playoff game are on sale now at GrizTix.com.
Linebacker Patrick O'Connell was named the ROOT Sports Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week, while kicker Kevin Macias earned the ROOT Sports Big Sky Special Teams Player of the Week.
Surprisingly, it's the first weekly accolade from the league for both O'Connell and Macias of the season and of their respective careers at Montana. And with Robby Hauck earning conference and national accolades after the NAU game, the Grizzlies have now won the Big Sky Defensive award for two straight weeks.
O'Connell was once again a leader in Montana's dominant defensive effort against MSU, spending much of the afternoon in the Bobcat backfield. The junior put up a game-high 11 tackles (four solo) with 1.5 sacks for 11 yards and one quarterback hurry.
With 13 sacks on the season, he leads the Big Sky and is now fourth in the FCS in total sacks and is No. 8 in the conference in total tackles with 91 on the season.
In a coin-toss decision, fellow linebacker Jace Lewis also had a Player of the Week-worthy effort on Saturday with nine tackles (one for loss), and a game-changing forced fumble on a botched fake field goal that led to a scoop and score for the Grizzly special teams.
With their help, Montana's defense stretched its run to 14 quarters of play without allowing a touchdown against the Cats, with MSU not finding the end zone until 48 seconds to play in the fourth quarter.
Macias was once again nothing but money for the Griz in the kicking game, going 5-for-5 on field goals and 2-for-2 in PATs for a personal haul of 17 points against MSU.
His career day was highlighted by a season-long 50-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter, with three of his five attempts landing from 40-plus yards out.
His 50-yard attempt comes on the heels of his previous career-long field goal of 49 yards slotted just last week at Northern Arizona. The senior now ranks second in the Big Sky and sixth nationally in field goals-per-game, having made 18 of his 22 attempts on the year, having not missed now for five-straight games.
With the win over MSU, Montana advanced to the FCS playoffs and earned a first-round bye with home-field advantage in the second round. The Griz are now set to host the winner of the Northern Iowa/Eastern Washington game on Friday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. in Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Tickets for the playoff game are on sale now at GrizTix.com.
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