A frightening October — as in, this squad is in danger of missing the playoffs — is over for the Montana Grizzlies, and a common refrain from coaches is to be playing your best football in November.

The Griz, who have lost three straight Big Sky conference games for the first time since 1992, are in a spot where they have to win one in a row three times to ensure a berth in the FCS postseason.

The November schedule starts with Cal Poly Saturday evening (6 p.m. kickoff at Washington-Grizzly Stadium), and includes a home game with Eastern Washington and a finale at Montana State.

“I’m not going to act all overwrought, and act like everything’s broken,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said Monday, at UM’s weekly press conference. ‘We just need to perform and get a win this weekend. And that leads us into Cal Poly: This has become a huge game for our team, certainly. Just an enormous game for our season.”

The Mustangs are 0-5 in league games and sit at the bottom of the standings. They’ve fallen on hard times despite the presence of head coach Beau Baldwin, whose Eastern Washington teams ranked near the top of the Big Sky in wins and offensive output during his tenure.

The Eagles went 85-32 in his nine seasons as coach from 2008-16; the Mustangs are 3-19 under his tutelage, including a 59-17 loss Saturday to the suddenly high-flying UC Davis Aggies.

Spencer Brasch has thrown for 1,759 yards and 13 touchdowns for the Mustangs — receiver Chris Coleman is the real deal — but also has 11 interceptions. Cal Poly has rushed for four TDs and given up 17 on the ground.

Meanwhile the Grizzlies managed just 114 yards of offense in a 24-21 loss at Weber State, their lowest total since at last 1994. Kris Brown fell to 3-2 as the Grizzlies’ starting quarterback in Ogden, and it’s not known if erstwhile starter Lucas Johnson is ready to return to the lineup after a head injury suffered two Saturdays ago.

Hauck is loath to talk about injuries, and the Griz still list senior linebacker Patrick O’Connell as starter; O’Connell, a Buck Buchanan Award candidate out of Glacier High, left the Weber game with an apparent leg injury.

The defense held up well until the end, when after Malik Flowers hit yet another kick return for a touchdown, the Wildcats ran the final 5:34 off the clock. The offense didn’t hold up at all.

“From me on down to the backup snapper, nobody played well on Saturday,” Hauck said. He later added: “I’m confident in every one of our players and coaches.”

His son, senior safety Robby Hauck, sounded confident enough.

“We’ve just got to keep chopping wood and good things will come,” he said.

Still a threat

It’s a wonder that Flowers gets kicked to at all, since he went into Ogden with five career kick return touchdowns. But Weber State gave him three chances, and he took the third one 100 yards, bouncing off a couple of his blockers along the way.

“It was nice to get in the end zone, have the ball kicked my way,” said Flowers. “And just know I have the guys there to protect me and help me get into the end zone.”

Hauck noted that Flowers took the opening kickoff 36 yards and almost had more.

“The opener, their kicker got him down,” he said. “Where he kind of ran out of space on the boundary, the kicker ended up getting over there and getting him. Or else he was out for two on Saturday.”

Low mileage

From 1994 on the Griz had six games where they gained less than 200 yards of offense, and half were against FBS teams: Washington in 2017, Oregon in 2005 and Iowa in 2006.

The Griz gained 174 yards in a 17-3 win at Sac State in 2007, and 199 in MSU’s streak-stopping 10-7 win at Missoula in 2002.

Oddly enough, the Griz allowed just 113 yards to Weber in a 2019 playoff game, but lost 17-10 with the Wildcats blocking a punt for a TD.

“They did to us what we did to them the last couple times out,” Hauck said of the Weber defense. “They returned the favor.”

Recovery time

Montana State had a bye week to recover some health, as did its next opponent, Northern Arizona (kickoff is at 1 p.m. Saturday in Flagstaff).

Bobcats coach Brent Vigen isn’t sure it is enough time for No. 2 quarterback Sean Chambers.

“Sean is still a work in progress,” he said “We kept him at two spot with the idea there will be an opportunity to play.”

Tommy Mellott, the sophomore out of Butte, shined brightly while taking most of the snaps against Weber State on Oct. 22: He piled up 273 rushing yards, and is bearing up well under expectations heaped on him after his exciting freshman season.

“I think the expectations were out there, based just on the body of work he had played,” Vigen said. “For him to be preseason all-conference, it’s almost like, OK let him have it.

“But he’s got to become the best version of himself. It’s been a process, and in the midst of it he missed a couple games. I think the passing game is slowing down for him, and I think his ability to hang in there is showing up more and more, while having the ability to pull it down and make the plays we know he’s capable of.”

Chambers still leads the FCS in touchdowns with 16 despite missing the Weber game, and he still leads Mellott for the team lead in rushing, 659-550. Both are averaging 88 yards a game on the ground.

“As a runner he’s looked way better recently than he did at the beginning of the year,” Vigen said of Mellott. “It’s all come together for him but I also think he’s got a ways to go.”

RJ is the guy

Northern Arizona is coming off a 24-10 win at Idaho State, and sits tied with Montana and Portland State (for sixth) at 2-3 in Big Sky games.

Quarterback RJ Martinez makes the Lumberjacks go, and he’s thrown for 1,925 yards and 10 scores. His five rushing touchdowns lead the team; no other Lumberjack has scored more than two TDs.

“I think Northern Arizona is a team that coming into this season had high expectations,” Vigen said. “They’re pretty lopsided with passing yards vs. rushing yards. How (Martinez) goes is how the team goes.”

Hornets do it again

Sacramento State staged another fourth-quarter comeback to hand Idaho its first league loss Saturday, 31-24.

That’s the same score as the Hornets’ win over Montana the week before, though this one didn’t need overtime.

Ashley O’Hara’s spinning touchdown run with 1:48 left capped a 75-yard drive; Idaho, which picked off two Jake Dunniway scores, had gone up 28-24 on a touchdown pass from Jevani McCoy to Hayden Hatten with 6:26 left.

The Vandals’ final chance ended at their 42 with a fourth-down sack.

“Another day at the office,” Hornets coach Troy Taylor told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. “Guys on the sideline were convincing me to run the ball. Our offensive line was great. The receivers blocked hard. They’re real warriors when we run the football.”

O’Hara helped the Hornets go 11 of 15 on third downs, and ran his season rushing TD total to 14, fourth in FCS.

“Great vision. A complete warrior,” Taylor said. “The nicest kid you’ll ever meet, and then he competes.”

The game drew 17,241 to Hornet Stadium, the fourth-largest crowd in stadium history and the best not to involve the annual Causeway Classic game with UC Davis.