Dustin

I don't want to put words in his mouth, but what I think he means is that we should have taken advantage of the situation and performed better to enable us to win. It was a lost opportunity in our minds.

It may not have worked out, as it turned out there were some critical pass plays that complimented your rushing offense. But to force more passing by the Bison QBs would have had a higher chance of UND defense success IMO.

This next week is a good test of whether we've turned the corner. If we have, we beat YSU by double digits.

I don't think people are saying the season is "normal," but it is the season we are allowed to play. I'll ask you this: why are the Bison playing?

Ironically, this is the precise game plan that I feel UND should have taken against NDSU.

I too felt that coaching adjustments could have helped our cause. We maybe wouldn’t have won, but the adjustments that seemed so promising in the other games weren’t there yesterday. We may have been outmatched at the line of scrimmage, but did we sell out to stop the run?

Was thinking the same thing. Or what if a fall season was going poorly, could you just forfeit the rest of the season?

At one point early on in the Midco broadcast they showed Danny upstairs with his hands on his head before a 3rd or 4th down and I was thinking he was very nervous.

I was going to ask about this. I've read on this board how NG is such an important position in the 3-4 defense, and that we are thin for depth there. Was Morrison going out when the tide turned against our run D for good? And who do we have coming in at NG for the fall?

Yes, I was deflated after that missed extra point. Gave me a bad feeling about the rest of the game. I wonder what the mindset of the team was this week. It seems like we thought NDSU's offensive struggles would basically hand the game to us and we wouldn't have to do anything special. Our defense, especially, seemed uninspired. We didn't bring any new wrinkles, offensively or defensively, that I noticed.

Thoughts: So, do we just put so much pressure on ourselves each time we play the Bison with "this could be our chance"? I couldn't believe the line play today. Didn't think we'd get owned like that. It will be nice to play them at home when they don't feel like they're doing us a favor by letting us come in the building. Bison would have to lose again for us to sniff the conference title, right? Yikes. Home field to Frisco doesn't seem within reach anymore. Needed this win bad to assert dominance on the conference, but it has alluded us. I'm sure I'l have some more thoughts later....

Not how I wanted my Saturday to go.

Good thing about this game is we can learn a lot.

I guess every MVFC team has a clunker in them. Today was ours.

I know exactly the shirt you speak of. I think it read something like “they built it, they paid for it, we own it.” UND actually won the first 3 games in the dome, and went 4-1 during the Division II era.

Probably fun to pick someone else against the Bison after all these years, so I’m guessing that’s part of it.

So if I am following all this correctly, that's 31-17 UND?

I agree that the passing game is going to have to be solid. If we can't connect on passes, our run game isn't going to be able to win it on its own against their defense. (Against most other defenses, I would not say that). How prolific our air attack will need to be, that I'm not sure of. It may be just a few key situations, or we may need to be a pass-happy offense. We have to make their defense respect our passing game. The good thing is that I feel our passing game is dangerous enough that we can overcome a hard day on the ground.

If you listen to the UNDFootball360 pre-game podcasts, they were pretty much in line with this opinion prior to the first game as well. It's like a "practice season." But really, it is the 2020 season being played in 2021. Now, yes, there are some differences. Some schools aren't playing. The playoff field is fewer teams (which makes it tougher). But there's no asterisk next to it. If Montana, Montana State, and Indiana State didn't play in the fall, would that make that season illegitimate? Not to me. If they're conceding a chance to win a championship, that's on them, not the season.

Same score as the 1994 game in the Fargodome.

You basically just said the same thing I did, so I'm not sure that you really do disagree. In the context of this season, NDSU has more to play for. In the context of a whole program/university/community, UND has WAY more to play for.

You said it. In the context of one season’s playoffs and positioning, this game is more important for NDSU to win than for UND. however, In the context of what it means to the psyche of a whole university and its community, this game is huge for UND, even if it doesn’t cost them anything for the postseason.

I said it before and I’ll say it again: the whole FCS was handed a gift when the fall season was postponed and Trey Lance bolted. Leveled the playing field immediately.

Well, they are the NCHC broadcast partner, so it may even be part of the contract.

Ok, so like normal.