siouxfan512

I'm guessing Z was still limited based on how little we saw of him, but Smith was running it just fine up the gut. We just stopped calling it. Danny gets a little too pass happy and want to score immediately. Might work against bad team, but can't do that against a good defense. Also needed more out of our receivers. Even when Tommy had time, nobody would get open. Did we even throw to the middle of the field today? I keep hearing that Caden Dennis is some speedster, but I haven't seen it. Makes catches and takes some hard hits, but I'm not overly impressed.

Absolutely pathetic! Everything to play for. Couldn't have had a better start. Defense actually played well outside of a few plays (unreal how many time we allow team to convert when they are backed up a mile). Tommy is a good QB that can't seem to get it done in big games. I don't know why, not sure what it is, but he looks so timid out there when we play a decent opponent. Not that all of the blame can go to Tommy. Is someone else calling plays when we play good teams? I've got some serious questions for anyone who thinks Danny is the heir apparent and ready to take over this program. His situation play calling is horrendous! Second to the last drive with plenty of time on the clock and we throw three straight passes. Passing into the flats hasn't worked all day, maybe stop doing it. What happened to committing to the run and running between the tackles. I get that Z was still limited, but we seemed to be finding room early in the game. Plus, in a do or die situation you have 4 downs to work with and if you can get 8 or 8 1/2 you bring in Q to do what he does. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced at all that we will win next week and could easily be on the outside looking in. Illinois St just pummeled Murray; I guess I'm glad its a home game. And even if we do win, we are likely going on the road first round, or at the very best get 1 home game. Could have had a seed, but just can't get it done. Also see UNI is getting beat up by Misery St. and Salukis are tied with SU. It'll be a weird playoff field, but this team definitely pissed away a terrific opportunity.

Just rewatched that part but still didn't see it.

Shout out to the UMD broadcast though. Far better than it has been in the past. I was ready for a drunk hockey fan color commentating the game. This was a huge improvement over what they used to do. Decent PxP and far less biased than what I'm used to hearing from UMD.

I wonder if we finally see Romfo make a throw this week. Seems like they have been building up to it all year.

Games and team matchups are not all comparable. Way to many factors in a game, but lets look at the below numbers. UND's defense has struggled recently and given up way to many points to Murray and Indiana St. #10 and #12 in Offense (Yikes). Though they certainly played well against NDSU, and held on for a while against UNI (could have used some help from the offense in that one). Actually the defense looked fine for the first half of both the Murray and the ISU game (Need to put together a full game). Our offense hasn't had to face many top defenses yet, so the next two weeks will shed some light on how we can perform in the playoffs. Obviously we rocked the Bison and put 21 on the bunnies. I have a hard time believe UNI is a middle of the pack defense, but that game seems to be a bit of an anomaly. Did we play that bad? Did they play that well? Was there a hangover from the NDSU win? Can we just not play on the road? A bit of everything? Huge factor for me this week will be playcalling. Kelly alluded to some of the defense play calls against Murray (ahem 4th and 25). And as much as I like Danny, he has had some very questionable calls against good opponents and in key situations as well. I have no clue what to expect this week. Do we get a shock and keep the offense churning with a big win? Do we get blown out? Is it a tight low scoring game? Is it a barn burner? No idea, but looking forward to watching!

Its not a bad prediction. UND struggles in Vermillion. USD has looked really good this year. UND defense has looked really shaky. Its just a prediction. What team shows up in Vermillion? or I should say "What Defense?" Offense has been awesome recently. Hoping Tommy and company can keep it going and really hoping having Z back will help out and allow us to control the clock as well. This isn't SDSU and is far from a guaranteed loss. Hoping for a win obviously, but will be extremely disappointed if we see a lethargic unmotivated team out there. This team has everything to play for so if Bubba can't get them motivated there is a major red flag. Hoping that is not the case. Would be great to see the defense we saw against NDSU, and the offense we have seen lately.

Any insight on why UND has so much trouble getting guys with legit size on the D line? Seems like this conversation has been going on forever. Are we not targeting the right guys, or not able to add enough weight to some of them? What would you say should be a target size for those guys? 275 DE and 300-310 Nose? I really have not clue what is ideal. Obviously height and frame is a factor too.

I remember being at that game. What a stop!

Agreed and Murray does have potential with some players, but it was still pretty disappointing to watch them cut through our D like they did. I never though they were going to steal this game like ISU could have, but we definitely have to clean things up.

Not much to say about this game. If the ISU-blue game felt like a loss, this wasn't much better. Looked like we were going to blow them out and then couldn't do a damn thing on D. I'll give them some credit, their QB played pretty darn well and I know we are missing some guys, but yikes. Also, the league needs to serious look at the officiating after all of those late PI calls, what a joke! Offense certainly seemed fine, especially for missing some guys; they did what they were supposed to do. -Need defense to figure out how to play like they did against NDSU -Would love to see Z back and our O line clicking. Control the clock and get the run game goin. -I feel like we need a big game from Eliodor being back in the Dakota Dome. Its been a rough few weeks, but from a record standpoint we are still on track. This is a big one! Win this and we are in a really solid position! Lose and it is more of the same.

Overall a solid weekend for UND Hockey. This team just looks different than last year. To keep it simple, they pass the eye test. Still stuff to work out and I'm sure they will continue to gel and get better, but tough to not be happy about what they have done so far and with a pretty tough schedule. I like what I've seen out of this revamped D core. Great balance of experience and young talent. Blake is a dude! That guy is so much fun to watch. Can't wait for Perron to really get up to speed, he is going to be really fun. Bummed we couldn't get the sweep, but thats a good road split against a pretty good team. That being said, we were the better team pretty much all weekend. Some stupid penalties on Friday night, but the officiating was absolutely terrible on Saturday. Some of those call on us were ridiculous, yet they let BU go with 2 or 3 different boarding no calls. Road to winning the NCHC starts next weekend, unfortunately its at Duluth. For all of you whining about the BU broadcast, get ready for a serious clown show. I didn't care for the BU job, but it wasn't the worst I've ever seen either. They were totally homers, but also complimentary of UND, the program and the players. I don't know if Duluth has changed up their team at all, but in the past their PxP guy has been ok, but their color commentator is basically a drunk, life long UMD fan.... just terrible.

Hoping that isn't the case. Murray is a game I expect us to win, outscore, own TOP and just look good in general. Don't have to be perfect, but look the part. USD is a game where I would like the same, but honestly just find a way to win. I don't care if everything looks or executes perfect, but find a way to win. Tough place to play, on the road, against a good team …. Just find a W. There are good wins and bad wins (Indiana St.) and I don't care what we get against USD (I have my preference), but get the win.

Not a great opponent and hard to know much about a newcomer to the conference. My biggest concern here is not that we win, but that we dominate. Get things ramping up as we head to USD. Assuming Ziebarth is out again this week, but hope he is ready to go against USD. As a player you should never look ahead, but as a fan I'll look ahead a bit. My biggest concern is that by USD we have our Oline getting some serious push and that we have Z back to hit the holes hard. If we want to win against USD we are going to need to establish the run like we did against NDSU. Don't really care who the opponent is, I'm looking forward to watching some UND football on Saturday!

lol, the hawk part was just an added benefit. But really, I feel like we need a pretty dominant performance in this game.

A road split wouldn't be bad considering it is in Boston, but if we can find a way to sweep on the road that would be HUGE! Lets Go!!!

Only other thing I didn't mentioned was the play calling and coaching. What has happened to Danny? Some of the play calls have been unbelievably atrocious! And I may have missed something, but was there a penalty on ISU's XP that we declined? I was working in the garage and missed what happened, but if that is the case why wouldn't we make them kick again? Or maybe I had the call wrong. I just know there were some moments during the game where I was wondering if Bubba was even watching! Though maybe Bubba too busy being frustrated with the officiating because that was pretty terrible too. The too many men on the field penalty when they didn't allow us time to change personnel made no sense. There was some other terrible calls as well. Nothing that excused that game ever being that close, overall that was on UND, but wow was it a weird game.

Well I haven't written on here much as of late because there hasn't been much to write about. Partially watched UNI, as we were on vacation and it was an unmitigated disaster. If Tommy doesn't fumble that ball, maybe its a whole different game, who knows. We lost! If there was ever a win that felt like a loss, it is the ISU-B game. Yuck. Everything about that game felt uninspired. There was no emotion in the game and frankly it was just boring. For some reason I just never felt like we were going to lose until the very very end where it looked improbably. We are definitely the better team, but clearly didn't play that way. - Defense actually looked ok for a good chunk of the game, but WOW did they disappear in the 4th Q. - Wyatt Pedigo can play like a man possessed when he wants to. Hilarious watching him bull rush the RB and take down the QB. - Devin Hembry's INT was a pretty spectacular play. - Tommy had some terrible plays, but also had some very impressive scrambles. Should have had another TD in the game that Skokna just dropped, and that was after a very impressive scramble. Also made something out of nothing on the game winning TD. He still doesn't seem like he is playing to the level he was at last year, but hopefully he is ready to turn it out against Murray St. Need a blowout performance this week! Something to build momentum. - Not a fan of Jody Norstedt's commentary during the game. I don't care for guys that are total homers calling games, but he almost seemed like the exact opposite. Not trying to knock the guy personally, but there were multiple times during that game were he was tough to listen to. Ugly, uninspiring win! I usually re-watch games, but these past two games are not worth my time. Though at the end of the day, a win is a win. Our record improved. We are still ranked in a decent (not great) position and we still have some solid opportunities ahead of us. Dominate next weekend and you have an opportunity for a bigtime game against USD. I didn't expect USD to do much against SDSU, but they have clearly had a solid year and are ranked in a solid spot. A road win against a top 10 team would be huge for our resume (unfortunately I think UNI pretty much blew our seed opportunity). I will give some credit to ISU-B as well; they never quit on Saturday. As Kelly often says, there are two teams on the field and they both want to win. I'm sure they really want a win given their record and they have played everyone pretty close, so I wouldn't consider them as bad as their record shows either. Still plenty to be excited about this weekend, but if UND doesn't dominate against Murray State and show some explosiveness on offense, it will be tough to get very excited for USD. Hoping Z is back and the O-line can find that push they had against Moo U.

I'm not even sure why you'd make this comment at this point. (Think Motzko is on the hot seat after yesterday?) Anyhow, I agree that it should be a solid win, and we need to sweep at home. Hopefully no doubt by the 3rd period, but ya just never know. They will want to come in and knock off a top team.

Can't just win this. Need a complete blowout. Score fast and score often.

UND and MN is absolutely still a rivalry. UofM fans hate losing to UND, but it is probably a bit bigger for UND, as the Gophers also have Wisconsin. The beauty of the WCHA was there were multiple interconference rivalries. It will forever be said how that was the best conference. While this is still a rivalry, and I'm pumped that we play every year, the rivalry was so much better when we played twice per year. 4 games, plus WCHA tourney matchups, plus NCAA Tourney matchups. That many games between top programs is the recipes for a rivalry. Cheap shots, crazy goals, fights, heated tempers, close wins/losses, ending another teams season .... they all contribute. Just wish we could play them more often. I used to know their whole team. Who was good. Who was the agitator. Etc. Tough to keep track of their roster on a regular basis now.

Yeah, they really only had a few explosive plays in that game, and even on those plays we were a half a step from flipping the big play into a sack. Just an outstanding game by the D overall; need to keep playing like this and building on it.

If this is true, that is great to hear. I haven't been to a UND tailgating since probably 2007 or 2008, and back in 03 and 04 my only experience was marching through tailgating with the band. I have been to some Bison tailgating since, probably 4 or 5 years ago, and I was always really impressed. Tons of people and great setups; Not going to knock them for their tailgating. I'd really like to see Brookings tailgating someday and watch a game in their stadium.

I remember that same play a few years ago, but it was at mid field. A pitch from Q to Skokna for big yardage. Also, the USD game just got bigger. That will be fun!