gundy1124

I like it. Maybe simplify down to one play though cause according to some we are incapable of executing anything else. (We do have college athletes on our team, right?)

Except for our favorite Sioux/Bison game in the Siouxdome. Hedberg installed a swing pass to Phillip and split Jimmie out more to get him the ball that game. Best game Hedberg ever called.

Now Hedberg.....he was terrible as an offensive coordinator and wasn't allowed to call anything.

So Muss's offenses under Lennon did 3 yards and a cloud of dust all game long.......good one. Anyway, I totally get what UND is doing, I just didn't think it would be so painful to witness.

I have had this feeling about Rudolph, too. It's just been so so ugly though thus far. Patience is a virtue with him??

One more thing to point out. Schmitty and Bubba have played Missouri State the past 5-6 years or whatever the year count. They knew how to defend them. This will be the 1st test against Big Sky tempo and speed. It's one thing to have played games against it, Missouri State, but it's another thing to project off of film to try to defend against it......if that makes sense.

Agreed, we need 12-15 1st downs resulting in some points or we'll get lit up. I don't want to air it out, but a message to Rudolph, show us some signs of life........

I would love to see our offensive goal sheet. Things like 150 rushing yards/game, 100 pass, 15 first downs, 3 or less 3 and outs, no turnovers, 4 yards a carry, 60 percent completion percent, win time of possession, etc. (every school has their own list) Is our list available?

Ya, Bison look like a machine they run things so well.

Then again, if the goal is our 3 DL occupy their 5 OL I'd say mission accomplished as our LBs seemed free to roam.

So a tweak in personnel to put a good athlete in a position to make a play. Call it what you want.

All true but NDSU does throw in weekly wrinkles. Against the Griz they had a safety running a series of end around plays as a wide out.

We could try stretching opposing defenses horizontally as some have eluded to. Bubble screens, slip screens, throwing hot to a WR if a DB is off......these are essentially run plays and a team can run vertical routes off these plays. It may actually open up the run game without changing what our goal is offensively. Couple things to point out, every offense has advantages over the defense. 1) they know the play 2) they know the snap count 3) film should show what the D is going to essentially 'give' you 4) run towards the D's weakest player and pass on the least talented DB. We seem to not take advantage of any of these things. And in our case I guess the D appears to know our plays as well, and when we are going to run them.

I would call the back sitting out very good. Their remaining backs are.........good, not great. I like that SB is shuffling their line around. I think we will confuse them some.

Mj23 said 'atleast this years teams'. I will be watching both games for a comparison.

UND has time and will be better next year. I have very good sources and one (coaches against SU) says NDSU will be down in talent and experience next year, another source from SU (current LB) admits they'll be down on experience but feels the strong recruiting classes will show on the field. All things considered, it will be hard to close the gap before next years game. The biggest wild card will be if UND can improve enough cause SU will be solid.

Looks like Stony Brook has 1 good running back, 1 serviceable running back, and 1 running back with a piano on his back. In Schmitty I trust.

inside jab/joke - my apologies

1st off, no one feels worse than the actual player(s) themselves when they have a bad game.....or a series of bad games (our QB's). I know these are good kids giving everything they have. UND is in a tough spot. Both QBs have under performed, especially to our expectations but I don't think we have any other option this year other than giving Mollberg a few more games, and if that isn't working, go with Bartels to finish up. I've heard Studsrud has the mobility that we want/need, not sure on his arm, but I'd hate to see Studsrud handed the reigns under the current set of circumstances. It's a tough spot to be in for the coaches. I'm pulling for Mollberg if he is in the game. If Bartles is in the game I'm pulling for him. If neither perform this year, we might have a couple Josh Morton's on our hands.

If you look at the FBS opponents we struggled and got kicked against San Jose and Stony Brook hung with UConn. We got kicked by the bears and Stony Brook played Bryant close. I can see the 9 point line, just believe this game is a serious gut check for our season.

Stony Brook has had trouble scoring, so do we. Rudolph and the offense will show better this game, couldn't be much worse than last week. UND - 16 Stony Brook - 13

I agree we don't have a QB to carry the offense right now. The O was terrible on 3rd down, but let's look at 1st down, too. We had 20 1st down plays (not counting the kneel down) for 66 yards, for a 3.3 yard average. Take out one 16 yard run on 1st down and we had 19 1st down plays for 50 yards, for a 2.63 yard average. 2nd and long sucks. Every team has bad 1st down plays, but you have to mix in some 6,7,8 yard plays to get drives going, opens up the playbook. I think Rudolph needs to focus on 1st down, maybe mix in a jumbo set or unbalanced line, maybe a play action to TE.....whatever, but focus on 1st down success. Maybe we need a little more trickeration to mask talent deficiencies. One more thing, we don't have an offensive identity.

Strategy worked for Auburn and Bo Jackson.