Bison06

FG gets them nothing. Would still need a touchdown to win. With only 2 minutes left they had no other option.

That's definitely a point that is worth discussing. Teams do change a lot as the season progresses. To be able to measure something as nebulous as that seems like the type of thing that would be impossible to be objective about. When USD beat NDSU last year, did they really beat the best team in the country? Based on how NDSU played that day I would say no, but how much of that was due to USD making them look bad? So hard to say. So, what you're saying absolutely has merit, just have no idea how you would objectively use that information in your assessment of wins and losses.

They definitely haven't been their usual dominating force lately, hope they can turn it around. A strong Montana is good for FCS football.

Not sure a couple of down years is enough to call a program like Montana a has been.

This year you can say that, on most other years you would have to add ISU and UNI to that list.

The standing logic on ranked wins or losses could be fixed entirely IMO by not ranking teams at all until midsession. eg. (hypothetical) UND is unranked in week 3 of the season. They are 2-1 with a loss to Fresno state and wins against drake and Furman. UND has looked good in both wins and lost a tough game to Fresno 35-17, but the game was closer than that. Due to their record the previous season being 3-8, they were unranked in the preseason polls and continue to be unranked heading into a matchup with #13 ranked EWU. Now EWU has sort of the opposite scenario going. They are 1-1, had the bye week in week three. They lost a blowout game to Boise state and beat DII central Washington 87-12. They started the year ranked #8 following a deep playoff run the previous year. They lost 11 starters off that team, but the pollsters know EWU's pedigree and assume they will re-load their talent. UND beats the then ranked #13 eagles handily. UND goes on to an 8-3 season and EWU goes on to a 7-4 season and ends the season unranked, due to a late season loss to the Idaho state, who only had 2 wins all year. Due to preseason rankings, UND has a really nice win on their resume and EWU has a loss to an unranked team. Which dropped them from #13 to #24 and they fought the rest of the season to stay ranked. Due to preseason polls, which let's be honest are absolute BS. Pull names out of a hat, look at how many seniors they lost...made up with no logic IMO. Due to preseason polls, the entire world had a skewed view of what happened that day in September when UND beat EWU. UND didn't get a quality win, but their ranking the rest of the season was positively effected as if they did. EWU didn't have a bad loss, but their ranking the rest of the year showed they did. All these problems would go away if they waited a few weeks to rank the teams. Side note, people seem more willing to see how a team ends up when speaking about a loss then they do when speaking about a win. In my example above, UND fans would be happy to claim they have a win against #13 on their resume, but EWU fans would wait and see where UND ended the season ranked to decide if it was a good or bad loss.

Does it exclude Montana from being considered a powerhouse since a DII NDSU beat them in '03?

Not sure who's posts you're attributing to me, but that certainly doesn't describe my posts. You've yet to fully answer or show that even sort of comprehend why I posted the link. Whether you're feigning ignorance or are truly this dense is a mystery to me, so I'll just let you be. Enjoy the weekend. Good luck against the coyotes.

Brent qvale, Conor McGovern, Ryan smith, James johannesson. I cheer for all North Dakota born athletes.

I'm not sure why this is so difficult or why you are resorting to personal comments on my knowledge that I'm of course not Carson wentz. All I'm asking is that you define what success means for a rookie QB in the NFL so we can all have a discussion about whether or not he is having a good year without personal bias playing a role.

Not defensive. What's wrong with stating ahead of time what sort of season statistically would be impressive?

Afraid to answer the question because you like to be able to wait to see how he performs and then decide that "impressive" is just on the other side of your criteria? Sparky? I remember first grade too, good for you for coming up with such a high brow rebuttal.

If the people who are saying this game tells us very little about Wentz would've been asked before his first game what would be impressive in wentz's first start, I think his performance on Sunday would've exceeded your criteria for a successful first start. Since naysayers have a tendency to push back the goalpost after the fact, I'll pose this question. What would be your criteria for Wentz's rookie campaign being defined as "impressive"? For reference, here is a link to the stats of the 5 best rookie season ever in the NFL. http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/5-best-rookie-seasons-by-a-quarterback-in-nfl-history.html/?a=viewall

I agree, playing QB in the NFL seems to be so much about confidence. For Wentz confidence, I'm really glad that first game was more of a confidence builder and that the run game for Philly seemed to be effective too.

You must get bored with posting this after nearly every NDSU poster posts on this board. When are you going to just resign yourself to the fact that this is an open forum and as an open forum by definition you're inviting all opinions. In addition to that, I'm posting specifically in a thread that is about NDSU, my alma mater. You would think given you all consider yourselves to be relatively intelligent people that you would welcome comments from pertinent parties ie NDSU fans. As I've said countless times, if you don't want people to post here, then don't allow it. Until then, I'm going to assume that my opinion is welcomed here.

I'm seeing plenty more compliments on here than I am negative comments, so this is only directed to the folks who are giving sort of back handed compliments about this weekend's performance by Wentz. The Browns may be the worst NFL team, I don't know. They definitely aren't one of the better teams that's for sure. But you have to be honest with yourself if you aren't extremely impressed with his performance this weekend. Any objective viewer would be very impressed and the likely reason you aren't is because he played for NDSU and you cheer for UND. Every pundit, every analyst, every person who is paid to talk about these sort of things expected him to look much, much, much worse in his opening game and is extremely impressed with his first game. FCS school, no snaps in preseason, broken ribs, philly is a tough place to win, brand new head coach, no supporting cast etc. The list of reasons goes on and on about why his first game should have been a struggle, but he didn't struggle, he looked like anything but a rookie in his first game surpassing even my expectations as an NDSU homer. His performance wasn't perfect, plenty of room for an improvement and it was against the Browns. No doubt he'll see his fair share of challenges the rest of the season and will definitely look like a rookie at times no doubt, but nearly every NFL QB has a tough rookie season. So don't let your UND judgement of an NDSU guy cloud how impressive his opening performance was.

I would agree with you.

I hate to rehash an old conversation that I know strikes a nerve here, but the way they lost that game last night will play a role in the committees decision to include them in the playoffs if they are on the bubble. Even more so if they keep things respectable with fsu.

Who's to say what will happen with the teams in the conference? Thet only have one more "sure loss" on the schedule. They'll likely be 1-2 after the fsu game and could go 6-2 the rest of the way and get the autobid. Doesn't seem that difficult with their schedule. Not sure how that qualifies as "having to run the table".

I could be wrong, but their conference is an autobid conference right?. They could be 1-3 after the first four and still win their conference to make the playoffs.

Both of those examples of lower than standard performances, in my mind, are the exceptions that prove the rule so to speak. Most schools would have been extremely happy with the outcomes of ndsu's seasons in the early 2000's(02 being an exception), but because the program has such high expectations changes were made much more quickly than they might have at another school. That expectation level would take decades of losing to go away.

Of course NDSU can't sustain this level of success. Winning a championship every year is an impossible standard to hold up. However, given that NDSU has had sustainable success for the last 50 years, it's unlikely they would ever drop off in a significant way for extended periods of time. UND hockey is probably a great analogue to NDSU football. UND may have down years, but the competition always fears UND when they see them on the schedule. Even in down years UND hockey is formidable. Same with NDSU football. I obviously don't see them winning championships every year from here til eternity. But I do expect that the fanbase has a competitive expectation and if we ever saw a 2-3 year significant downturn, major changes would be made to return to competitiveness.

I have been following FCS/1-AA football since the late 90's, any long term fan of this level would put them on the list of "historical powerhouses". I'd even go as far as to sat If you don't put Delaware on the list of historical powerhouses then you don't know FCS/I-aa football. Only 5 teams in FCS/I-aa football history have more championship game appearances than Delaware. 15 playoff appearances all time. As a reference, Georgia southern(considered the most dominant program at this levels history has 19). I simply can't fathom a fan of football not putting Delaware on a list of one of the best(top 10 for sure, Probably more like top 7)football programs at this level all time. Hate on my post if you must(not directed at you 73) but NDSU has set it clear scheduling guidelines and playing an every year game with a non conference school flat out doesn't make sense. In my ideal world this game is played every year, but ndsu and und are in the same conference. i think if the roles were reversed UND fans would be singing a different tune. meant to quote the person you quoted 73 too, but I'm on my phone and tech illiterate

That's your choice, but they have been pretty consistent in their scheduling if you ask me.

I think they have been pretty up front about the fact that they don't want a yearly game. What have they lied about?