Sioux94

Still don't understand why we don't have a screen play in our playbook.

Good opening drive, but the way this season has gone we'll get no points.....and then EWU will score on their next possession. That seems like it's the way it's gone this year. Let's get 7 here!

Studs was thrown into a tough situation 3 years ago, his first game was against EWU and his last will be against EWU. While Keaton has some flaws, thank god we've had him for the last three years. Would love to send him and the other seniors out on a high note........Go Hawks!!

Where does the 2 deep get listed? When I go to the UNDsports.com site and go to the football area I don't believe I'm seeing it.

Unfortunately our depleted secondary has made TRUE freshman starting their first game look like Joe Montana, you'll likely be quite pleased with his first game. Sounds like he is a good scrambler too, which doesn't bode well for us when we actually do get some pressure on him. I'm sure he'll have a few nice play making runs.

Certainly agree with this, which some of it is on the players. If you have a great OL things sure are a lot easier. Last Saturday NDSU had a 3rd and 4 from the SDSU 7-8 yard line, 3rd and 4 is probably more of a passing scenario. NDSU line up with two WR's on the right side.....short side of the field, one RB in backfield. Stick took the snap and ran to the right and picked up 5 yards for the first town to extend the drive and then eventually got a TD. If we run that play we probably get stuffed for little or no gain. Hoping our young lineman can use the experience from this year and put on some weight and muscle and can improve for next year....pretty critical for a run first type of team. We won't be making a deep playoff run until we have a stout OL.

You really think we are years away from making the playoffs again, or did you graduate high school the same year Hugh Hefner did?

Ummmm...I think they should expect a lot of passing and that not much will change. It's not like he is a true freshman and was running the scout team last week, like when Studs was thrown in there a few years ago. He has been in their system almost two full years now since he redshirted and is the number 2 QB who would have gotten more reps than Z did when he came in during the second half. Kid sounds like a stud, any sense of comfort of Gubrud being out is a false sense of security.

It is possible for a different OC to have the same general philosophy, but go about it and execute it much better.

I'm pretty sure Texas fans are pretty adamant about wanting and expecting a championship, and they have averaged 5-6 wins going on 4 years now. Even fan bases that expect to be on top are not always there. I do agree though that we need very high expectations. We MUST get another Natty in football to overtake the the perception of UND football again. A Natty needs to be the goal every year, however there will be years where things do not fall into place. Doesn't mean you have to be happy about it, but it is going to happen. Montana is another fan base that expects to win, they haven't come close to a Natty in years now and may miss the playoffs again this year. There are certain things that need to be re-evaluated in the off season that is for sure, but to change everything and go in a completely different direction.....that sounds like what the Cleveland Browns do......and look where they are. Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers and their success over the years. They have some off years but they don't fire everybody and completely start over every time they have an off year.

Will Holm be back, that would be big to get him back.

You know what, I'm sick and tired of hearing you tell me I lack expectations for our football team. This is about the 45th time you've said that in the past month. If you are going to say that 5 times a week for the next 9 months, maybe you should start a separate thread for it and you and a couple of others can banter back and forth the entire off season about how low UND's expectations for all of our programs other than hockey is. #BrokenRecord

Two years ago when we had a young secondary it looked VERY similar.....50/50 balls were not that....they were 90/10 balls with the offense completing them 90% of the time. The next year with a year of experience we were one of the top teams in INT's.

Thinking our motto next year goes back to being "Day by Day".

We start by finding a way to knock of EWU next weekend to end the season on a good note.

I'm thinking they were hoping they would kick a FG, and didn't want to give them another chance on 3rd down to throw a TD pass against our secondary.

This team just can't get out of their own way.

Exactly. Even though we aren't officially in the Big Sky going forward, I'm hoping we can win an "Unofficial" Big Sky championship and take down both Montana and EWU in the same year. I'm already looking forward to playing Montana in our house next year, with hopefully a healthy team.

Out of the last two games of the year, really hoping we can pull at least one upset. Of the two I'd rather knock of EWU......but what the hell....let's make it two upsets and get em both!

You can be a run first offense and still be a highly potent and respected offense and offensive coordinator if the team is successful in running it.

We have to be Thankful we've had Studs the last several years, but he doesn't throw a great deep ball. If you get a guy like Zimmerman dropping those deep passes on target burning trams next year, I think that will really help open things up. If you start hitting on those consistently, teams have to be worried about it. Nobody is too worried about it right now. We have gotten a few long pass plays this year, which we should because they often are 8 in the box. Nobody right now is really too concerned with us beating them over the top consistently throughout the game. They are willing to maybe give up one during the game to key in and !@#$ down the run the other 65 offensive plays.

You are probably right, I like Freund but having never been an offensive coordinator before.....it could be good, or it may not. Not sure if I would want him "learning" on the job next year. I believe it was Mussman's last year and both of our offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator were new, both internal guys that got appointed to that position probably because we were cheap and didn't go out and look for somebody who had the qualifications. I remembered thinking, man both our O & D coordinators have never had this position at any level before, this doesn't seem good. Well we saw the results of that season.

So true. Sometimes I'd like to see more fire out of Bubba on the sidelines.....but Tony Dungy, Tom Laundry and other NFL coaches won Super Bowls while remaining pretty calm at all times.

I watched the second half of the game but was too busy to keep up on the game day blog during second half, finally reading it now after getting home......it was a hoot reading it.....especially knowing we got the win. Nice to see the team overcome the adversity at the beginning being down 14-0 even though our offense was moving the ball. I'm still hoping for an upset against EWU!

He has a couple runs and a catch on the second series.