Week 4 UND at Sac St

[tjamz]

Jameer Jackson is really good. Defense got better as the game went on. Sloppy tackling early on. What happened to our true freshman receiver . Didn't use him much. Great win. We should be ranked next week.

Congrats on the win. Not trying to sound like a troll, but you gave up almost 500 yards against another un-ranked team, Granted there were some other surprising losses among the top 25 so anything can happen in the polls. I wouldn't be surprised to see UND at 21 to 25 on the polls in all honesty.

[mg2009]

und will probably be sitting around 20

The big sky, aside from ewu and maybe cal poly, appears to be one giant muddle of mediocrity this year. Several teams, including NAU, UND, and PSU, might not make the playoffs due to sub d1 teams.

ranked teams next week should include:

ewu, msu, cal poly, um, nau, und.

[Oxbow6]

Cal Poly will destroy our D if they play like that again.... Maybe the passing game and running game will click and allow us to dictate the entire game

UND will have a week to prepare against a team that is one dimensional. If UND can't tackle or scheme better, we might see 400+ on the ground hung on us. Worst tackling UND team I've seen since the mid 80's. And to top it off, we rarely get multiple hats to the ball. Bad bad combo against the run!

The D made some plays when it needed to last night to their credit. The Sac. St. fumbled exchange as they were going to punch it in was the game changer, but still some team had to recover the fumble.

Marcus wasn't great last night, but I still think you go with him to start next week.

IMO the O-line needed Sutton to get touches last night. He is a one cut downhill runner and sometime that's what is needed for a line to build on. Postitive plays then boom...bust one. Sutton needs to get 20+ touches next week too.

Bottom line...1st BS conference win and it's on the road. That's a big win for this team.

[Wilbur]

Cal Poly will destroy our D if they play like that again.... Maybe the passing game and running game will click and allow us to dictate the entire game

Cut the crap....

I'll eat crow though. Bend but don't break, but they only gave up 13 points. You give up 14 or less on the road and you have a great chance of winning in any conference.

[FSSD]

The defense is awful and I am afraid to think of what Poly is going to do next week. But, I will be in stands to watch - it is going to be ugly.

[Wilbur]

I'm very thankful that UND's offense was able to control the line of scrimmage and run the football. You look at the boxscore, and it makes you wonder. How in the world does a guy go for 9.3 yards a carry and 140 yards and not get into the endzone? How do you give up almost 500 yards of offense, but only give up 13 points?

I guess thats why we keep watching.....something always amazes you.

PS: Nice to see Garman get into the game.

[UND83]

Thought I would check out the Big Sky Standings. ESPN.com has us 0-0 in the conference. CBS Sports.com has us 2-0.

So, I guess we need to take the average of those two to see where we really are

[darell1976]

Thought I would check out the Big Sky Standings. ESPN.com has us 0-0 in the conference. CBS Sports.com has us 2-0.

So, I guess we need to take the average of those two to see where we really are

Yahoo has UND at 2-0 in the conference.

[Risky]

Is Golladay nicked up. Didn't hear much about him last night.

[geaux_sioux]

UND will have a week to prepare against a team that is one dimensional. If UND can't tackle or scheme better, we might see 400+ on the ground hung on us. Worst tackling UND team I've seen since the mid 80's. And to top it off, we rarely get multiple hats to the ball. Bad bad combo against the run!

The D made some plays when it needed to last night to their credit. The Sac. St. fumbled exchange as they were going to punch it in was the game changer, but still some team had to recover the fumble.

Marcus wasn't great last night, but I still think you go with him to start next week.

IMO the O-line needed Sutton to get touches last night. He is a one cut downhill runner and sometime that's what is needed for a line to build on. Postitive plays then boom...bust one. Sutton needs to get 20+ touches next week too.

Bottom line...1st BS conference win and it's on the road. That's a big win for this team.

I'm thinking/hoping that the reason for the woes of the run defense is a result of being spread out by Sac St PSU and SDSU. SDSU didn't spread as much as the other two but they were also FBS. I'm thinking that against a more compact alignment such as Poly Mont and NAU the run defense will improve greatly. Luckily the 3-4 was designed for the option (Poly) so next week we should be in position to hold them down in the stats but for that to happen we need to tackle. If I'm wrong about the spread thing than we've got a big problem if we can't force alot of turnovers ala the Saints defense recently.

[Risky]

Meant to post this on this thread. Cal Poly, UND, and Northern Arizona were all close to being ranked in the top 25 in the FCS coaches poll last week. A lot of the lower ranked teams lost yesterday . All three of us has a chance to be ranked in the top 25 this week. If that happened the Big Sky will have 6 teams ranked in the top 25. That would be tremendous. From top to bottom the Big Sky has be the best conference in FCS.

[UND1983]

und will probably be sitting around 20

The big sky, aside from ewu and maybe cal poly, appears to be one giant muddle of mediocrity this year. Several teams, including NAU, UND, and PSU, might not make the playoffs due to sub d1 teams.

ranked teams next week should include:

ewu, msu, cal poly, um, nau, und.

So when the MVFC teams beat each other up throughout the year it is because of their unbelievable depth and quality of the teams. When the middle of the pack Big Sky teams get better and beat the top dogs, then the whole conference is mediorcre. Got it.

Glad to see you are still neutral and a fan of both NDSU and UND.

[Hayduke]

So when the MVFC teams beat each other up throughout the year it is because of their unbelievable depth and quality of the teams. When the middle of the pack Big Sky teams get better and beat the top dogs, then the whole conference is mediorcre. Got it.

Glad to see you are still neutral and a fan of both NDSU and UND.

When the NDSU football goes on the road for a game, I'll bet the incessant beeping of their ankle bracelets bothers the Mountain Valley Hilltop Technical Alliance Conference fans at the other schools quite a bit.

[homer]

So when the MVFC teams beat each other up throughout the year it is because of their unbelievable depth and quality of the teams. When the middle of the pack Big Sky teams get better and beat the top dogs, then the whole conference is mediorcre. Got it.

Glad to see you are still neutral and a fan of both NDSU and UND.

I was thinking this same thing. I'm waiting for the article from Kolpack and crew when UND is ranked this week. Game was barely over and fans like mg are already trying to downplay the Big Sky.

[Teeder11]

Given how hypercritical we've been about our running game (and much of its justified), I find this headline amusing in the Sacramento Bee this morning:

"North Dakota ground game too much for Sac State" - headline from the Sacramento Bee

[mg2009]

So when the MVFC teams beat each other up throughout the year it is because of their unbelievable depth and quality of the teams. When the middle of the pack Big Sky teams get better and beat the top dogs, then the whole conference is mediorcre. Got it.

Glad to see you are still neutral and a fan of both NDSU and UND.

maybe you should reread that post, because I did say 6 teams should be ranked. Not sure how that can be interpreted as big sky bashing. Selective reading at its best right there.

Perhaps I can rephrase for the whiners: the big sky has a big muddle of pretty decent teams, but only ewu looks like a contender. aka a giant muddle of mediocrity. The MVFC is the best conference top to bottom, but the big sky is likely #2.

[JohnboyND7]

So when the MVFC teams beat each other up throughout the year it is because of their unbelievable depth and quality of the teams. When the middle of the pack Big Sky teams get better and beat the top dogs, then the whole conference is mediorcre. Got it.

Glad to see you are still neutral and a fan of both NDSU and UND.

Montana is down. Montana State is down. Those two statements are based on out of conference performances.

ISU-R, ISU-B are both up. NDSU is NDSU. UNI is UNI. Youngstown is back. SDSU might be good. Right now the Valley is up and the two traditional powers in the Big Sky are down. Can't blame people for maybe questioning the Big Sky at this point in time.

Whoever wins the Big Sky this year is going to kinda be like Andy Roddick when he won the US Open. After Sampras, before Federer, between powers.

[Dagger]

Montana State is undefeated and ranked number 2 in the country. They are down. Interesting

[geaux_sioux]

Montana State is undefeated and ranked number 2 in the country. They are down. Interesting

They aren't as good as their record or their ranking. Give them a few weeks to be exposed

[UND1983]

Montana is down. Montana State is down. Those two statements are based on out of conference performances.

ISU-R, ISU-B are both up. NDSU is NDSU. UNI is UNI. Youngstown is back. SDSU might be good. Right now the Valley is up and the two traditional powers in the Big Sky are down. Can't blame people for maybe questioning the Big Sky at this point in time.

Whoever wins the Big Sky this year is going to kinda be like Andy Roddick when he won the US Open. After Sampras, before Federer, between powers.

I know how you guys love to break down records for what they really are:

UNI is 1-3 with no FCS wins and 3 moral victories. Indiana State is 2-2 with a D2 win and a non-schollie win - they really look "up".

Youngstown, NDSU and ISU-R all look good. The rest are all "muddled up" in the middle of the pack with Western Illinois, Missouri State and USD being doormats.

How is that any different from the Big Sky?

[homer]

Montana is down. Montana State is down. Those two statements are based on out of conference performances.

ISU-R, ISU-B are both up. NDSU is NDSU. UNI is UNI. Youngstown is back. SDSU might be good. Right now the Valley is up and the two traditional powers in the Big Sky are down. Can't blame people for maybe questioning the Big Sky at this point in time.

Whoever wins the Big Sky this year is going to kinda be like Andy Roddick when he won the US Open. After Sampras, before Federer, between powers.

The UNI who got absolutely dismantled by Montana last year? UNI is no better this year and I'd still put Montana above them.

[UND1983]

The UNI who got absolutely dismantled by Montana last year? UNI is no better this year and I'd still put Montana above them.

UNI is a really good program but like you said they are not any better than they were last year. Another minor point is how bad Wisconsin and Iowa have turned out to be - they are still major BCS programs but are down compared to past seasons.

[homer]

UNI is a really good program but like you said they are not any better than they were last year. Another minor point is how bad Wisconsin and Iowa have turned out to be - they are still major BCS programs but are down compared to past seasons.

UNI is a great program but I find it interesting that just cause they are UNI they can only be beat by MVFC teams. They are down right now. They lost some key players from last season and are going to finish around .500 in their conference.

[Cratter]

UNI wont even make the playoffs. Through four weeks they have yet to beat a FCS team. They would have to win out to get 7 FCS wins.

[Bison06]

UNI wont even make the playoffs. Through four weeks they have yet to beat a FCS team. They would have to win out to get 7 FCS wins.

They have only played one FCS game and it happened to be against a pretty good team. You are right that they likely won't make the playoffs, but IMO it is because their strength of schedule was ridiculous to try and get the athletic department out of some financial woes.

Yet another example that makes the case for having too difficult of a schedule isn't a good thing.