The Sicatoka

Robert O. Kelly (ROK) is a University of California at Berkeley graduate. (Hold jokes, please.) UC-Berkeley is the flagship of the UC system. (Stand by for flagship fight.) The Berkeley mascot/moniker is Golden Bears. The Golden Bear comes from the animal on the California state flag. ROK is far from "original" or "novel and new", much less daring*, groundbreaking, or PC-challenging. I suspect he'll follow that "animal on the state flag" theme. *Daring would be "Rough Riders", as that's a state nickname. However, ROK comes off to me as a PBS watching kind of ... "guy" and "The Roosevelts" have been featured the last couple of weeks so that may give him some courage.

FPD was very tight-lipped.

Seems FPD got a tip to search an area of Moorhead. Twenty minutes into the search they found a body. FPD is rather tight-lipped right now about details (as expected).

Fargo PD holding a press conference at 1 pm today: They've found a body in Moorhead with clothing and a description matching the missing NDSU student. My thoughts and prayers to the family.

I guess I didn't realize how badly ATL had tipped over until last night. The Mets have caught them in the NL East!

Updated. Actually, Pittsburgh's in a good spot to host the NL wild card game as they're tied with SF.

No, I'm pretty sure CAS is sincere on this subject (offensive lines). I'm quite sure he enjoyed his collegiate undergraduate Saturdays much more when the opponent's offensive line was suspect.

Maybe not "Ice Men" but ... The Yeti. No, wait. They'll find living Yeti and they'll be offended. < facepalm >

Red ones like Nebraska-Omaha, or Purple ones like Minnesota State Mankato

Then, to steal an old but good line: Act your age, not your shoe size.

Tillman (92 yard int for TD) is BSC Defensive POTW. Sure, ... but Rich made 19 tackles! Then again, I hope we have this problem (which UND guy should be BSC Defensive POTW) every week.

This long without reported leads. Including the Red River, and an area that has a train yard, in the search areas. Here's hoping the young man found a fabulous distraction and has just been out of communication because of it.

Updates from the Fargo Forum: http://www.inforum.com/content/updated-search-expands-missing-ndsu-student-including-campus-and-river

You asked "How". That's the "how" answer. To date UND has shown little to no ability to execute point 1.

I just heard about this on the local news. Please follow the link and look at the photo. If you see him, and he could be anywhere in the region since Saturday morning, he's probably in some sort of distress. Do what you can to help or at least call law enforcement. Just assume he's 18-20 years old. (I get not having height/weight for non-athletes, but don't college applications still require a DOB? Or can't they say because of FERPA.)

One play stands out to me as a microcosm of the offensive woes: It was second half and UND had the ball. It was second and seven or eight. It was supposed to be a simple play off right tackle. The snap went and the right guard felt a breeze; it was his man blowing by into the UND backfield and blowing up Norberg just as he got the handoff from Mollberg. Welcome to third and eleven. The replay showed the RG knew he'd been "pwned" by his reaction. It is a classic "only ten guys executed" scenario. He should've felt pretty "warm" in the film room today sitting with his peers and trying to explain what happened. Until all eleven are executing correctly on every play, and especially the front five (or six), it doesn't matter what the play call is. (I've intentionally not said the jersey number.)

Yup. Play defense like you have a plan and the plan is taking the ball back.

Honestly? 1. Ball control offense: limit the number of possessions they have. 2. Put pressure on the opponent offense, create confusion: Go all "Dick LeBeau" on them with random blitzes out of the 3-4. (Think bizarre stuff like Hinohosa or Walker dropping back in a middle zone to cover the under crossing routes while both inside backers blitz.) 2a. Pressure the QB: if you get a chance to knock him down, knock him down. But you must be disciplined to stay in your rush lane and not lose contain. Hopefully 2 or 2a gets you a turnover.

"Ouch!" Stat of the weekend: the three Florida teams (TB, Jax, Mia) all lost by a combined 88 points.

If you can't block a simple play over the guard or off-tackle, how are you going block anything requiring keeping the pressure away longer?

So instead of run we should go all "Air Coryell" (aka "Mussman 2.0*")? *We don't have the WRs for that right now, much less the blocking. <-- It all starts up front.

Welcome to the Teddy Bridgewater era.

More importantly, they have more than 11 guys who can execute effectively a given play. They pick and choose who to put in. As Ben Henson put out in a recent interview, too often we only have ten guys executing (and that's when the trouble starts).

I've harped on the OL. I watched on television. Every replay from the end zones showed our DL being crunched together like an accordion whenever the SB OL chose to. It was very noticeable whenever SB went off tackle or outside. In a 3-4 with wide splits, I guess I'm very surprised to see all there DL green shirts being bumped into each other, and then put on the ground, by the SB OL. Then again, if the goal is our 3 DL occupy their 5 OL I'd say mission accomplished as our LBs seemed free to roam.

The plays they called and the ones they didn't all depend on executing the same or similar blocking schemes. The difference is where the play falls on the risk/reward curve. They stayed extremely "low risk". When SB has a DT just about taking the hand off half the time on a fast developing dive a longer to develop play is doomed.