BigGame

I guess I don't really agree about opening up the playbook, he did a few things differently but the big difference was in the offensive execution of the play calls. Much better and more consistent specifically in the passing accuracy most of the game and I don't think we had more then one or maybe two dropped passes. Studs only had 22 or 23 attempts which isn't much different from previous games but his completion percentage was dramatically better.

I think the block below the waist call on UND was a bad one. The guard pulled around the center and turned up and cut the guy. This is legal along the LOS and inside the tackles and it was both of those. The holding call on the center would have been OK if they had been calling that the entire game but they hadn't and Montana State was doing as much or worse on most of it's pass attempts. The poor officiating is expected but at least be consistent with the bad calls.

He was one of three guys that made the play but Newell gets in if the others hadn't hit him first. The guy is strong and very good and not letting defenders get a solid shot on him.

Yet the rushing numbers on the season aren't bad, but the completion percentage of 50 or less in pretty much all quarters but the 4th of each of the games makes more sense to rely upon. I do think the offense needs to expand with more play action and bootlegs but the problems are with execution more then anything at this point. The main reason Brady had a better game than John yesterday IMO is that one back for all but one play followed the blocking scheme and the other kept trying to bounce everything to the outside. Brady is a tough runner and a good back although Santiago is much more explosive. The blockers can't guess when a back will improvise, so when a back bounces a play they basically have to make it happen themselves. The UND offense isn't very well suited to handle 2nd and long or 3rd and long situations. So on 1st and 10 it would be better to stay with the blocking scheme most of the time and get 1 to 5 yards depending upon how well it's blocked. 2nd and 7 or 8 is a lot better situation for this offense then 2nd and 14 or 15.

I get ya big guy, the coach gets all the blame and zero credit.

How much credit does Coach Stepps get for the improved play in the secondary? Outside of a handful of busted coverages they have been a very improved part of the team.

My thought today during the game was we should change #leavenodoubt to #justwinugly

Ugly game for both teams and the officiating was terrible. The offensive line has a long way to go and as great as JS can be he did a very poor job of using his blocks today. You can't bounce it outside on runs all the time when the blocking isn't designed for that. It works sometimes when the defense collapses inside but today it looked like he kept trying to bust it outside and it wasn't happening. The secondary had a very good game overall and I can think of two PI called that were bad during the game as well. Oliveira had a good game, he ran hard and followed the blocking when it was decent. it's great to win but the entire offense needs to play a lot better going forward.

Football is a crazy sport, UND loses to a good Stony Brook (defense) team on the road in a close game. Turn around and for the most part play a pretty good game and lose a heartbreaker to an FBS team with a delusional head coach. Finally they get a win in the USD game in which I thought was the worst one in terms of play on the field. Little things can make a huge difference in a football game and if the offense can continue to improve I feel pretty good about the season going forward.

Did you see any of the USD vs New Mexico game? Almost like playing Cal Poly and what they did to SDSU.

I still question how fans think we should throw more on first when Studs has been very off early in the game and the pass pro hasn't been great early either. Maybe run Studs a little more early but as I see it we have two big issues in the pass game right now. QB play early in the game needs to be better and more consistent, and our WR speed is a problem. Not that we don't have some good players but it helps dramatically to have one or several WR's that can scare the defense.

I just watched the press conference with the Montana State head coach. I really like that guy, he gave good information about his team and his impressions of UND.

People have been ragging on Rudolph from the time he was hired. He is running a ball control offense and when executed is very good as we saw at the end of last season. So far this year Studs hasn't been very good and the run blocking hasn't been very good. The positive thing is that both have been better in the second half of games which makes me believe he makes the correct adjustments in order to find success in the second half. The other thing that some fans seem to forget or not understand is that Bubba is the guy who selected what type of offense fits his coaching philosophy. It you want Mussman back to chuck it around and leave the defense out to dry it will be more exciting but the defense will certainly give up more points.

So let me get this straight, a UND fan comes on the board and posts about his views or perspective and is promptly attacked by a group of fans that don't agree. As far as I can tell he is pretty correct in a lot of what he says. If you leave as "a fan" at halftime because the team you claim to support is losing you are pussy and didn't belong at the game in the first place. I get that some people have good reasons they might need to leave early but you are kidding yourself if you think most people that walked out had an actual reason other than they suck, I am leaving. Yes people support a winner, but how do you even know if you don't stick it out to watch the game.

The defense is good but for parts of the game they forgot to wrap up which just shouldn't happen.

Well UND and Grand Forks does have a lot of "snowflakes" but that isn't new.

I do take a little offense at the attitude because you imply that student shouldn't show or the football team is lucky students showed up because they were 0 - 2 going into the game.

Outside of a handful of years the student section at UND football game has been crap. They only support a winner and sometimes not even that. Most fans in all sports are fair weather type fans and UND has plenty of them and I am not just talking about the student section this is all fans. If the game is important enough to attend I would like to think most could stick it our to support the team. Some likely have good reason to leave early but a mass exodus does seem more like they aren't really at the game to support and cheer on the team. Most college students don't have anything so important they need to leave mid game although large chunks of this game were hard to watch.

It's pretty obvious at WR now that Clive is hurt.

Cut and chop are different most people don't seem to grasp the difference. Chop or High/Low is illegal and cut of the legs isn't and I generally don't like cutting (if you miss you can't recover) but at times because of position and angle it's the only way to block a guy. I actually thought the chop call was questionable because the d lineman engaged UND's O linemen in front of him but the UND guy was zone blocking and trying to get the second level. The lineman from UND that went for the cut can't control what the defensive lineman does and certainly couldn't stop once he had thrown to run through the defenders legs.

It seems like they have a lot of FBS drop down transfers.

It is nice to see the depth chart but I don't think it really means all that much at UND. The d-line will rotate a ton and the LB's will as well to a lessor extent. In the end the second and maybe even the third players on the depth chart might play as much or more than the starter. Who would be the next guys on OLB and ILB depth chart?

How has Bolinski looked so far in practice?

I really wish he would have been drafted but after round 5 it's almost better to get signed after the draft as a free agent. I am not a Falcons fans but I am starting to feel connected to the team somewhat. I coached and taught Jake Matthews in Middle School, my current neighbors daughter is in a relationship with another player on the team, and now Will signs with them. I really think he is going to stick and think the Falcons just got very lucky.

I haven't heard much about him but Connor McGovern should get drafted fairly high as well. Two guys that played HS football in ND going in the draft the same year is pretty remarkable. I think he is likely a 2nd or 3rd round pick.