Devils

Just would be nice to see us put together a full game or close. Take out the 3rd quarter and it would have been pretty close to a perfect effort. A few observations/thoughts: It was pretty clear our defensive game plan was to spy the QB and not blitz a lot and keep him from running. Only problem was the QB had a lot of time to throw as the 4 man rush couldn't get a finger on him and he's pretty good. Seems our defensive backfield is much better than the last couple years and can actually get us off the field, however. Jerry was solid the first half but the inaccuracy we've seen at times came back in the 2nd half. Most of those deep balls were just chucked and not really close to being completions. Even a few of his shorter completions in the 2nd half were way off target and took the receiver off balance and turned 8 yard gains into 2 yard gains. Hoping Tai can get healthy. It seems like the passing game disappears at times. Wouldn't mind not seeing Dennis on the field. The TD drive midway through the 4th - as has been mentioned, what are we thinking throwing the ball on 2nd AND 3rd and 1 from the 5? Also as mentioned, run the play clock down - we easily could have run 1:30-2:00 more off on that drive. Saw that in a game earlier this year too. Is Caleb Olson out for the year?

Seems that we are close to being a fairly complete team. Plays being made from lots of spots and lots of contributors. Still a ways to go to get there and plenty to clean up, but I like what I see for the most part. UNI looked terrible. What happened to that program? Looking at their schedule, I'd be surprised if they won more than one more game.

Is Waletzko's NFL career over? I saw he got waived by Dallas back in August.

If we see Seidl between the tackles instead of Ziebarth on this drive...

The receiver was less than a yard off the LOS...I'm guessing it was the right call, but often ignored.

Definitely was a sloppy last 10 minutes by the offense. Jerry really wasn't great on the whole. Defense looks great, worried we can't keep that up but so far so good.

100% what I was thinking. Good to see the WR getting open downfield, haven't seen that much the last few years. Fleming, Tai, Deng is a nice group.

Boy, you guys are something. UND has played a nearly perfect first 12 minutes on the road in a packed house other than shanking an extra point and 75% of the posts are negative.

Always thought our defense lacked speed big-time, and size up front. Offensively hopefully the WR add an ability to stretch the field we haven't seen much of other than Bo.

This thread reminds me of the time I saw Phil Martelli speak in 2004 or so. He was the longtime basketball coach at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia and they were a #1 seed that year and made the elite 8. He won many coach of the year honors that year and he said in the talk I saw "do you think I just figured out how to coach this year, that this was the best job I've ever done as a coach, that's bs." His point was he had great players (mostly Jameer Nelson and Delonte West who both had successful NBA careers) that year and it all came together. Coaching is important, but put any coach somewhere with little talent on the team and it will be a struggle.

Seems it's been several years since I've seen a 'wow' play from a WR, outside of Bo.

Wouldn't the Higgins kid be taking Feeney's scholly? Aside from Erkmann, Rucker, McNeal, and maybe Sutton I don't think there's many departures from the defense that would be harmful. Hopefully don't lose any more OL.

Who are FBS drop downs that have helped us the past, say, 5 years? I can't hardly think of any.

There's risk with any hire of course. Wonder what percentage of fbs head coaches are fired within 4 years (some quick Googling put it around 30%).

Have a hard time seeing Schmidt, at ~46 years old, going from FBS coordinator to FCS.