Figure I could chime in about what I witnessed at the Alerus. It was my first home game live for about 5 years (was at Montana a few years back), and it was great to make it back. My thoughts:
The Good:
- Hendrickson: On Sunday morning, my buddy (who was also at Montana with me) said to me "Did you ever think you'd see a Herald headline saying that Hendrickson leads the UND offense with 6 TDs?", as he was terrible that day in Montana. He put great touch on most of his passes, was very accurate, and did a great job with his feet. I wasn't sure what to expect, but he did a great job and I was very pleasantly surprised.
- Hardin: Same stuff, different game
- Golladay: He will be the real deal. His size and the way he moves makes me think that he'll be a great player. While I wish he would have kept the redshirt, at least he saw the field quite a bit and should be able to make an impact
- WR Depth: If you would have told me at the end of last year that Blair Townsend and Ivery weren't going to see the field hardly at all because they were low on the depth chart, I would have said you were crazy. They are both talented guys, but the top 4 we throw out there are VERY talented. Passing game should be scary good for the next couple years at least.
- Special Teams: Block party continues. 50 yard FG. Only negatives were fumbled punt and missed FG, but the blocks and other good returns made up for that
- Pass blocking: The line did a very good job of protecting Hendrickson for the most part, considering PSU was very strong at the DE position
The bad:
- Pass rush: very limited pressure on the QB. We need to get a more consistent rush going, as our DB's need all the help they can get
- Mackey: I've never been much of a fan of his, mainly because he gets burned a lot and is very cocky when he does someething right. He does have skill, but his aggressiveness / awareness costs us way to many times. Monahan is a very talented receiver, but he shouldn't be able to burn us as many times as he did.
- Run blocking: Some blame the lack of running game on the RBs, but there was definitely nowhere for them to run. There was almost no push or lanes up front, and it really hurt later in the game when UND was trying to run time off the clock.
- DB rotation: I understand the concept of why they rotate like they do (new CBs every 2 series), but why take Daryl Brown off the field at all? Rotate the other side. I thought Rumeal Harris looked decent, and I was hoping to see Dwayne Brown a little bit, but why not rotate through the other guys and keep Brown on the field at all times? On a side note - anyone know the injury status of Daryl Brown? Or why Dwayne Brown wasn't out there much?
- Closing out the game: This would probably be on the coaching staff, but UND has had some troubles recently in closing out games when ahead. Last year was a little better, but even a 21 point lead in the fourth wasn't enough to give me comfort, and my fears almost came true.
The Ugly
- Tackling: Adams is a very special RB, but I'm not sure that we didn't help him look a little more special than he should. He isn't special enough that we shouldn't have been able to tackle him a little better. It was just brutal.
Overall, I thought the team played alright, but we could have played much better. I think that UND could potentially be a top 4 Big Sky team this year (I thought it wouldn't be until next year originally), but they need to shore up on the fundamentals around tackling and run blocking again. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year, and hopefully they can pull it together and get that first FBS win next weekend!
Lastly, I'm hoping to make this an annual thing with my son - he's only 9 months old so this was his first game. He even made the jumbotron near the end of the game (I think dad was more excited than he was ). I wish the crowd was a little more raucous, and like everyone else wish the students stayed longer (although I salute how many of them came out to the game). Back in my day (second senior year was the 2001 championship year), no matter what happened I stayed until the very end and always celebrated the victories with the players. There were a lot that did that back then. But, keep winning and they will come
