BigGame

The offense did actually look a little better at times during the SFA game. A lot of that was just throwing down field a little more. The offensive lines isn't great when it comes to run blocking but seems OK when pass blocking. The RB's haven't helped out the run game much either. I think UND would have been able to sustain drives better if Landry was so completely off at certain times in the game. Consistancy will help at least give the defense a chance to rest for a few minutes, which didn't happen much against SFA. Defensively most seem to be placing the blame on the secondary which is warrented to a certain extent but the entire defensive display related to tackling was just terrible against SFA. If UND does a better job in this area the SFA offense would have been shut down most of the time on Saturday. Even when blitzing the pass rush is poor, so we see teams pass all over the place and think it's the secondary but I don't feel the deserve all that much of the blame right now.

UND has pretty much zero pass rush to speak of right now, but the secondary did look pretty bad at times especially when SFA could just run a simple slant against man coverage on the goal line and the DB wasn't within 2 steps of the WR. Some of that is SFA having some quick and talented WR but that shouldn't happen more than one time during a game... but it happened at least twice that I can recall.

I understand the traveling is tough, but UND tackled very poorly from start to finish! This clearly wasn't a travel problem, and Landry does have some big time accuracy issues at times. The overall talent on offense just isn't what it needs to be right now. I am not saying they can't get better but UND is clearly weaker than is has been in the past at RB and on the offensive line.

This is the second game I have watched this year and the first time in person. UND is not very good on offense in pretty much every area, it is going to be a long year as far as the offense. The sad thing about the game is that SFA most likely only scores about half the points if the UND defense wraps up when the hit someone and actually keeps their feet moving when tackling instead of diving at ankles. SFA was athletic but certainly not more then Tech and probably very close to the skill players the Louisiana school put on the field, they were a much better though.

I am driving up from Houston on Saturday.

I was lucky enough to be able to watch the entire game on local cable in Houston and disagree with some of what you say. Run offense needs a lot of work, none of the backs seem to be able to break a tackle or at least they didn't yesterday (several did push the pile a little at times though). Sutton is fast, he just doesn't get to full speed extremely quickly and NSU had a lot of team speed. The Oline has a lot of work to do! Landry may have been great against Tech but he was fairly erratic at times yesterday. Even some of the catches were bad throws that WR had to adjust to catch and then could possibly get any yards after the catch. Landry also did make some nice throws though. Bamba kept falling or slipping every time he got the ball until the long TD anyway. I think if they can figure out what to do with Davis in the passing game he could make some big plays, he looks like a very nice athlete. Pass defense was OK most of the time, I think the bigger issue is getting a pass rush. UND was chasing down the QB a lot but couldn't get to him fast enough to make much difference most of the time. Needs work, but it was very clear that NSU had a pretty healthy speed advantage. I think the big pass play in the 2nd must have a mental screw up, on TV it really looked like he thought a safety was behind him but the camera work didn't show the play that closely. I thought the run D played well especially considering the amount of jersey pulling the NSU offense was getting away with. On the first drive I was very surprised NSU didn't get several holding penalties. The big standout for me was that the Sioux need to tackle better (wrap up) a few big hits with no wrap up led to first downs for NSU. Special teams was very good overall, but the punts made me a little nervous because a few times they out kicked coverage and big returns could have been had if the NSU punt returner wasn't having so much trouble. He fair caught the ball when I don't think he would or should have but I am sure he was thinking about his mishandling of the ball earlier. The offense needs to get better to win next week. SFA will be a good team and they will not be nearly as mistake prone as NSU (they were terrible). I get to go watch the this next game in person, which will give me a much better perspective about how good the sioux are and can be.

Well I go to a lot of HS games in the Houston area and most don't draw the huge crowds. Typically 2-4 K per game with a few exceptions, usually specific schools like Katy draw big though.

Outside of a few High Schools in the Houston area, the crowds usually aren't that big. Quite a few people just show up to watch marching bands at half time (crazy)

Klancher had a lot of strong points but man did he almost always have all day to stand in the pocket and throw.

I was thinking about a lot of the UND football players I have watched over the last twenty years (about as far as I can stretch the memory) and wanted other peoples thoughts. Who are the best players to play football at UND over the last twenty years? Give positions and names and please feel free to give reasons for your choices if you would like to do so.

I am not hurt, nor do I resent my parents. When I got the belt, I completely deserved it and didn't repeat the offense. I guess I don't fit into the nice little box you have built for all the children of the world.

I think it's to bad people can't move past the past mistakes from the adminstration at pick your school (I put the blame mostly on UND, but opinions differ). UND and NDSU should be playing each other in football every year like it was in the past, it would be nice if we could just move on and do the right thing.

I think they are clearly better than they have been the past several seasons, but I don't know how much of that is them and how much is a result of playing all the weak NSIC teams. I haven't seen them play this year so I don't know but I don't doubt they could have beat UND, USD, or UNO this year. I think Central Washington is likely better this year than all 3 teams I just mentioned. I hope they move on through the playoff and pound GV, but I don't think it likely they can get a win with that head to head matchup. RD17 - Does ACU have a good shot at winning the D2 title this year?

UMD ends up 11-0, I wonder what that record would look like if the NCC hadn't fallen apart?

NDSU isn't a very good offensive team.

I really think the talent is down both at LB and of the DL.

Greg was a volunteer and not official on staff, and Mussman is a very good Offensive Line coach. I don't think it was an intended to be a slight but I do think credit should be spread around. All a coach can do is get the most out of the talent he has to work with and put his players in the right positions. So if the talent wasn't in place the O-line would not have been good no matter who the coach is. Spread the love around to coaches and players.

I work with parents and kids every day and this seems to be the case. Every year I notice less actual parenting with the average kid and more blame being placed on schools, government, and society by these dead beat parents. Why is it that every Mormon student I have is highly responsible and has a strong work ethic? It's not a religion thing; it's a family values thing that happens to be part of the Mormon faith. This isn't intended to drag religion into the conversation, just make a point about it's relation to parenting, values, and eventual success of the kids.

Most people in the US seem to have lost any sense of personal responsibility. When my wife and I were approved to buy our first house about 5 years ago it was well above what we could afford and we did a little research. We actually bought a house about half the value we were approved for because we didn't just jump in blindly. People shouldn't have been approved for the loans they got but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. It's frustrating for me because once again the government looks to bail out the idiots, while responsible people suffer.

I do agree with what you are saying (or typing) but injuries that happen throughout the course of a season do have an effect on any expectations. It isn't an excuse, but with a healthy secondary this game could have had a much different result. I don't think UND has been as good on the defensive side of the football the last 3 years or so and that needs to change.

Trenbeath has 13 catches for 201 yards right now, that's a great game and he may not be done yet.

You are probably right, but I feel NDSU has a more hardcore fans in relation to football. UND has those fans as well, but most of them seem to focus on Hockey.

Most fans in general are clueless and UND has more than it's share. I actually think the bison have a lot of fans that are good natured and realistic. We just hear to much from the minority of Bison fans that are nuts (I can think of a couple of them) and it twists our perspective of them. I would say at least in relation to football, UND has more fair weather fans than NDSU. NDSU does have better overall fan support for football even if they struggle. I wonder what the UND stands would look like if Sioux football had a couple down years in a row?

When I stopped playing I was willing to stick it out for 1 or 2 years of PT, but after I got hurt I couldn't justify any more damage to my body so I walked away. It was a very difficult decision, but I still feel it was the correct one. Most of the guys that quite while I was at UND were just not good enough to ever become an everyday starter whether they were on scholarship or not.