It is perhaps with maroon-colored glasses that Montana coach Bobby Hauck views his team’s 57-41 win over Eastern Washington in the FCS playoffs last Friday.

“Certainly dominating them and winning that game comfortably felt good,” Hauck, in his second stint coaching the Griz football team, reiterated Monday.

It did eventually get comfortable for 26,000-plus at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, but for three-hours plus you wondered what EWU quarterback Eric Barriere might do next.

Now Montana takes its stingy defense, opportunistic offense and lights-out kicking game into Bridgeforth Stadium tonight to play the James Madison Dukes.

It could be the end of the line for the 2021 Griz, since JMU is higher-seeded and, this almost goes without saying, has another excellent quarterback (Cole Johnson) to deal with. Then again the lessons put to use against Eastern can serve Montana well: Namely, that it ain’t over until it’s over.

A 37-28 load with 5:27 left in the third quarter? Not over. Same goes for the 44-28 lead built later in the frame.

This is because we saw what happened at Eastern in 2012 (two Vernon Adams TD passes in the final 2:39, Eastern won 32-26) and in 2010 (a field goal with 4 seconds left and a fumble return as time ran out on a 36-27 Eagle victory).

While Barriere had a terrible fumble and a pick-6 against the Griz, he also threw two perfect deep balls that his receivers dropped. They almost certainly would have been touchdowns. It makes you appreciate what he was able to do, even if he was a deadline-crusher, and begs the question: How does Eastern keep finding these guys?

Fellow Royals fan Bill Lamberty — I should also mention the sports information director at Montana State — notes that since Fred Salanoa ended his EWU career as the second-team all-league pick in 2001, every Eagles starter has been a Big Sky Conference MVP.

How do you compete with that? See the Griz combination above.

Now comes JMU, which has the distinction of being Montana’s one true road playoff victim in the Grizzlies’ proud history.

In 2008 the Dukes were top-seeded and top-ranked, had a pair of special teams fumbles, fell way behind in front of a boozy finals week crowd, rallied, got an upside-down two-point conversion from their backup QB and finally — after a last-minute fourth-down pass into the end zone fell incomplete — lost 35-27.

Which is to say it wasn’t a comfortable win, though the Griz, as Hauck would put it, “got after them.”

It’s striking that this was 13 years ago and is still so vivid, and former MSU quarterback Matthew McKay’s quote, “We’re not done yet, though,” seems like ages ago (it was Nov. 20; McKay was demoted to backup the next day and left the team a few days later).

MSU heads to Huntsville, Texas, with freshman Tommy Mellott — No. 16 to Troy Andersen’s 15 — at the controls Saturday. The Bobcats keep finding those guys, too.

If the Griz have a specialty, it’s finding that walk-on Montanan that turns into a fierce defender. There are a bunch of them on the Montana defense, which poses a unique challenge for JMU, or so says Dukes coach Curt Cignetti.

Along the way, Hauck’s Grizzlies have sharpened their claws.

“We do expect to be there,” Hauck said Monday. “Trying to get from our first season to our third season, I think the expectation in the locker room is there, rather than, ‘What’s this guy talking about?’ They’re not hoping we’re going to win, they know we’re going to win. That leads to us being a hard team to beat.”

“It’s exciting to know that you’ve earned the next week,” one of those former walk-ons, Glacier High product Patrick O’Connell said. “During the regular season you know you have a game the next week. At this point you earn it, and that’s what makes it special for us.”

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or [email protected].