Midwestern Hawk

That should be interesting.

We need to be able to throw the ball down field and/or be able to run the QB with scrambles and designed QB runs. Did you happen to watch SDSU victories over NDSU and SIU(playoffs)? If SDSU wins it all, Gronowski will be the difference.

I think you hit the nail on the head with "serviceable". UND is close to winning a National Championship. Like I said, QB is by far the most important position on a football team. I'm not sure any football team can be good enough at the other positions to win it all with a QB who is "serviceable". I just don't think the ceiling on Tommy is high enough to ever get beyond throwing a lot of screens and short passes with the occasional well designed deep throw. Maybe Tommy will start running 5-10 times per game, that would help take the pressure off Danny a bunch. I completely agree with your thoughts on Rudolph, this spring would have been an utter dumpster fire with him calling the O.

While I always appreciate your opinions on all things UND football, I find your thoughts on on this post fascinating. You make the case that UND needs to improve its athletes at DL, S, RB behind Otis, add a WR to stretch the field and improve the OL. I would agree with all those thoughts to varying degrees. The part I don't understand is the "QB is not the issue"? I would say with the evolution of offensive football the QB position has never been more important, as NDSU found out this spring. YOu thoughts are the QB performance in both those games was good enough to win? It seems like you are not judging the QB performance with the same critical eye on improvement you are judging some of the other positions. That being said, if you were to rate the UND QB performance in the game at Fargo and at JMU on a scale of 1(better off going wildcat) to 10(QB took the team on his back and won the game for UND), where would you put that performance? Both the games are on youtube. QB stats in both games: NDSU: 13-26 for 143 yard with 1 TD and 1 INT, 1 carry for 3 yards. JMU: 16-26 for 213 yards with 0 TD and 2 INT, 3 carries for 16 yards. TOP at NDSU was 23:23 TOP at JMU was 21:38

Actually quite the opposite, Danny has done a great job overall matching the offense to our personnel. Not sure why posting a drive chart makes me someone who hates our offense. I am sure the staff will do some serious self evaluation on all phases. The two questions I would have for Danny are why we didn’t run Otis more the last 3 games(13 carries per game) and how will we attack an 8 man box going forward.

21:38 UND TOP UND 1st UND25 15:00 14:03 INT 3-5 0:57 UND 1st UND25 10:49 9:00 PUNT 3-1 1:49 UND 1st JMU39 9:00 7:42 PUNT 3-5 1:18 UND 1st UND25 0:30 13:12 TD 6-75 2:18 UND 2nd UND30 10:12 7:56 INT 6-26 2:16 UND 2nd UND09 5:08 1:40 TD 10-91 3:28 UND 3rd UND17 10:47 7:09 PUNT 7-26 3:38 UND 3rd UND20 2:16 0:00 PUNT 5-33 2:16 UND 4th UND10 9:59 6:39 TD 9-90 3:20

Strangest transfer portal move I have seen unless he has always dreamed about Texas.....

I agree. We CAN'T EVER miss XP's and the punting game is not good. Sunday night first punt is 35 yard shank and then we need a pooch he kicks it well into end zone. Inexcusable.

Football is the ultimate team game and the while not dominating the game, the UND defense played well enough to win. If UND goes up 7-3 after the muffed punt or even is tied at 3, it changes the dynamics of the game. I thought the D came up with 3 huge stops in the game: After the fumble/INT on first drive after the 2nd INT and the first drive of the 2nd half. IMO, if we score TD after muffed punt or TD on first drive of 2nd half we win the game.

Watch the game again with a critical eye. MSU changed up the defense and the screen/short passing game became much tougher as did running the ball.

Like I have said, watch the MSU game again. He hit Maag on a 50 yard double move and Maag was wide open and then hit Belquist on a 48 yard TD where Bo was open by 10 yards. Any QB who can't make those 2 throws has no business playing college football at any level. After that he hit a couple of screens and short throws. He went 6-6 in 1st qtr for 143 yards. The rest of the game(after MSU changed D) he was 7-12 for 80 yards. Again, my posts are more about scheme than Tommy. One high safety, tight corners and 8 in the box, we have to be able to go deep or have the QB run or the numbers don't work out well, doesn't matter how great your OL is. IMO Bubba and Danny have realized this and it will be an interesting off season. If Tommy is the guy he needs to bulk up a bit and we need to have some designed QB runs and read option and RPO or we have reached our ceiling.

The offense and swing passes was effective in first qtr, after MSU went to tight man on outside receivers, 1 high safety and stacked the box our offense ground to a halt. Thankfully our defense was able to manhandle the MSU O or we would have had a much different game.

What NDSU has done is historic and IMO will never be repeated at the FBS or FCS level. That being said, I think they are at the end of the rainbow and it has showed this spring.

I agree on the moments with Q. That first fumbled snap was huge after we had gotten a first down via PI and we needed to score in that moment. The loss of 10 yards killed us. Using him near the goal line where he scored was brilliant. i am not sure why Danny didn’t use Otis and Quincy in a read option. Otis pulling defenders to the left and Quincy taking ball straight ahead or to the right would be tough to stop.

Tommy struggled the last 3 games. Teams have figured out his strengths and weaknesses and have made adjustments in how they play UND with Tommy as QB . Early in the season it was loose zone making it much easier to run screens out of multiple formations and to multiple guys. Also easier to get guys open in the flats. Most of Tommy’s throws are set throws, if you watch closely he is not usually going through his progressions post snap. If the targeted receiver is covered he throws it away. It’s also one of the reasons for the low number of sacks and pressures along with a designed moving pocket. UND was very effective with this and Tommy made most of those throws. The last 3 games the coverage is much more tight man on edges with one high safety over the top. making the swing passes ans screens obsolete. It also allows the defense to bring 8 into the box depending on our formation. We have not been able to attack this defense which is the main reason for all of the offensive struggles the last 3 games which puts tons of pressure on the defense and wears them down. tommy was far more effective the first 4 games then he has been the last 3. I’m just afraid the book is out on Timmy so to speak, and Danny only has so many ways to compensate for the lack of deep balls and an running threat. Danny drained the playbook getting us back into the game in 2nd qtr last night. He has done a fantastic job overall this spring making the offense work.

Thanks. We are so close! So damn close!

Completely agree. His performance yesterday was bad. He seems to have regressed from appearances earlier in the season.

Gonna be interesting in Fargo. Cam does not appear to be the answer, at least based in yesterday game. Maybe the VT drop down is transferring to NDSU because he is magic....

JMU was no longer playing dbs as tight. Give up short stuff and don’t give up any one strike plays.

That’s part of my point. Our longest drive was 3:28. Defense was on field for almost 37 minutes. We stopped the run much better early than late. Needed a couple 8-10 play drives that take 7-8 minutes. other than first qtr of MSU it was largely the same story the last 3 games. I’ll shut up now. We are so damn close.

JMU adjusted defense because game was over. 6-6 for 75 yards on last drive. Pre final drive 10-20 138 yards and 2 ints(only 1 was his fault). Less than 7 yards per attempt. And how much of that was on the 2nd qtr drive where Danny emptied the playbook? 2-2 for 48 yards on gadget plays. 8-18 with 1 pick for 90 yards previous to last drive and without gadget plays.

Ok. You win. Tommy has a cannon and we don’t throw deep because of our receivers. the late season offensive slump(sans1 qtr)had nothing to do with opposing teams figuring out the screen a Rama. we will never have ol and dl good enough to win a natty with a qb who can’t/won’t run and can’t throw deep effectively.

About 10 yards further I think. The arc and velocity was much different. Did you see the PI pass in first qtr? Just hung up in the wind . The deeper the throw the more Tommy has a tendency to throw it up like a blooper in baseball. Why do you think Danny never had Tommy try and take the top off the JMU defense?

What was Tommy’s longest throw attempt last night? what was Tommy’s deepest throw attempt last night? How did that go?