UND92,96

In fairness, there was one pretty big change made in the defensive staff after last season.

It's tough to accept the fact that UND is one of only two Big Sky teams to lose a conference game by 30 or more points this year, and it's happened twice (Idaho St. has three such losses).

They haven't had a bye week. Their season ends a week before most everybody else's (Nov. 10). I'm not sure if they've played anybody with two weeks to prepare for them like UND has with NAU and MSU.

UND and SUU have had nearly identical Big Sky schedules, with the only difference in opponents being that they played (and inexplicably lost to) Weber St. instead of Cal Poly. They haven't been blown out by anybody in the Big Sky, and their defense is giving up about 12 ppg fewer than is UND. Prior to the season, I had penciled in this game as a likely UND win, but right now I'd have to make SUU a favorite.

Here are the UND defensive numbers after yesterday (FCS games only): 39.14 points allowed per game 269.14 rushing yards allowed per game 251.43 passing yards allowed per game

High praise for the UND offense from Rob Ash: http://www.bozemanda...1a4bcf887a.html

Some possible clarification regarding the idea of Benton as a starter--Tom Miller said in today's live chat on the Herald web site that Jones mentioned the possiblity of starting Benton in Mitchell's old spot last spring, prior to the additions of the two jucos and (hopefully) Nash.

It's interesting to look back at the boxscore from the 2010 UND-Montana game: http://www.undsports...DB_OEM_ID=13500 UND had more passing yards in the 2012 game than the combined total offense of the two teams in the 2010 game. The fairly respectable defensive performance of the 2010 game also begs the question of what UND's record might be right now if the defense hadn't regressed so significantly?

UND just announced that Kristen Gay's contract won't be renewed.

I look at this game as an opportunity, and the only real one left on the schedule, to show that the EWU game was an aberration. Given where our defense is right now, I can deal with competitive losses on the road against highly-ranked teams, but not even being competitive is inexcusable.

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. For example, I believe the Big Ten was the first conference to use instant replay, before anybody else in FBS (then I-A).

100% agree. We did it before with 36 scholarships back in 2006 at UNI. There's an opportunity for a similar statement this Saturday.

Do you have a better explanation for the rather drastic dropoff in attendance since the middle of the 2009 season? I'm not saying people SHOULD stay away. Just that the numbers show that there's a big difference pre and post 2009 Sioux Falls game.

Agreed. Here's proof of just the financial impact: In the 17 regular season home games prior to the 2009 Sioux Falls game, UND averaged 10,212 per game. In the 18 home games since that game, UND has averaged 8,244 per game.

Not as well as they used to. It's actually very easy to see where things all changed. UND had its best attendance year ever in terms of per-game average in 2008--the first year of the transition and despite a terrible home schedule. In 2009, even with no home games until early October, through two games UND was averaging about 10,300. Then the Sioux Falls game happened. And we are still dealing with the after-effects.

I think it's safe to say that regardless of whether or not they're at their usual level, Montana was the biggest name opponent UND has had at home in a long time. UND's football stats only go back to 2006 on undsports.com, but all of these opponents (2006-2011) listed below drew more than the Montana game did on Saturday. This kind of puts into perspective, at least for me, how much the transition has killed attendance, because the majority of these came either immediately before the start of the transition, or in the first year of it. Winona St. MSU-Mankato Humboldt St. Central Washington Augustana Nebraska-Omaha St. Cloud St. Texas A & M-Kingsville Wisconsin-LaCrosse Western Washington South Dakota Northeastern St. Southern Utah Cal Poly

The 6'9" kid was Carson Hogan, an OL from Bemidji.

How in the world did Montana have EWU on the ropes, at EWU, just three weeks ago? Hard to imagine given what we saw from the Griz defense yesterday.

Portland St. is leading Cal Poly 25-20 about halfway through the third quarter.

Price for Minnesota getting out of its contract with North Carolina? $800k. Watching that same UNC program lose to perennial doormat Duke? Priceless. I hope Kill (and the Minnesota a.d. and president) were watching.

There were a few plays today where I wished there was instant replay in FCS football. That was definitely one of them.

28 Sac St. 31 EWU final 7 UC-Davis 21 N. Arizona final

As bizarre as UND's decision was to run up the middle on 3rd and 3, perhaps as odd was Montana's decision to throw a long pass with a little over 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and up 34-31. The incompletion stopped the clock, and played a big role in Montana going three and out and only running a very small amount of time off the clock. I felt that Montana's clock management/play calling in the last five minutes was terrible.

Kind of an unsung hero today was Blair Townsend. I believe he had more receiving yardage today than in the rest of his career combined.

A fun, but incredibly frustrating at times, game to watch today. If I were Mussman, I think I'd tell Breitbach that he's not allowed to call a run between the tackles on third or fourth and short the rest of the season. It just doesn't work this year.