Defense

[Matt]

LB's generally have the RB in man coverage. Sometimes the safety. It was a good call. The only thing that could have stopped that would have been a time out or some blatant holding on Otto's part right away.

or here's a thought....pull your LB and play nickel if you know you LB can't cover the RB in that situation.

[geaux_sioux]

or here's a thought....pull your LB and play nickel if you know you LB can't cover the RB in that situation.

And that situation was a nickel situation?

[BigGame]

LB's generally have the RB in man coverage. Sometimes the safety. It was a good call. The only thing that could have stopped that would have been a time out or some blatant holding on Otto's part right away.

The only way an inside LB should man up on a guy like that is if he knocks the piss out of him at the LOS and never has much chance to run a route.

The defense was bad but I watched it after because I had to be somewhere last night and the game on TV didn't look nearly as bad as the score. The reason I say that is because Montana is very good but UND made a ton of mistakes yesterday and many of those things are fixable this year. Tackling still sucks and I think improvement might require a whole new defensive unit. It sucks to watch a team that has LB's all able to make one on one open field tackles and I don't know if UND has a LB on the roster that can do it with any consistency.

I like Edwards but I think at times he might actually hurt the defense pushing upfield to far on run plays and creating a running lane and Hensen seems to have the opposite problem by getting pushed back but at least both of these guys seem to find a way to get to the ball at times.

I thought Corruthers looked pretty good during the plays I watched him.

As bad as the secondary was I think our LB play is absolutely brutal. Zero ability to sustain good play, they make a good play of two and then give up a long TD, rinse and repeat. I almost feel like they need to recruit about 12-15 LBs next year and hope they hit on a few.

My thinking is that move as much of the younger talent into play because it will be good experience and it doesn't seem like they could possibly be any worse.

Even as bad as the defense is right now UND can still win games if the offense plays they way it is capable of. The defense certainly wasn't the only problem yesterday but to not manage a stop and give up so many big plays, just terrible!

[Matt]

And that situation was a nickel situation?

situationally I'd have to go back to the film to review down, distance, and personnel groups. In general, if I knew my LB couldn't cover the RB past 10yds: 1) I'd play no man coverage. Or 2) pull him and play nickel.

Presumably Coach K watched film and knew what the result of that matchup would be.

[geaux_sioux]

It was 3rd and 5 and Montana had 2 wrs on the field a te and a fb. You wouldn't want nickel against that formation typically. It was a great call and a timeout should've been called or Otto should have switched with the safety during the motion but that's easy to say after the fact.

[Matt]

It was 3rd and 5 and Montana had 2 wrs on the field a te and a fb. You wouldn't want nickel against that formation typically. It was a great call and a timeout should've been called or Otto should have switched with the safety during the motion but that's easy to say after the fact.

Sure wish it was the UND staff with the "great call" once in a while.

[geaux_sioux]

Sure wish it was the UND staff with the "great call" once in a while.

Like Jackson in the wildcat? Seemed to work pretty well. Also worked well when they split the fb Iverson out wide and had him pancake a db on a bubble screen to Jackson that was a big gainer.

[Matt]

Like Jackson in the wildcat? Seemed to work pretty well. Also worked well when they split the fb Iverson out wide and had him pancake a db on a bubble screen to Jackson that was a big gainer.

You and I will have to disagree on what we view as "great".

[geaux_sioux]

You and I will have to disagree on what we view as "great".

Let me put it this way. They had two weeks to look at game film while we had one. We only had one game of their new offense to look at. They should have had a pregame plan advantage since they had so much time to prepare. We should look for the same from UND next game. If not then we're in trouble in that aspect. Coming off the buy should always be a huge advantage.

[Matt]

Let me put it this way. They had two weeks to look at game film while we had one. We only had one game of their new offense to look at. They should have had a pregame plan advantage since they had so much time to prepare. We should look for the same from UND next game. If not then we're in trouble in that aspect. Coming off the buy should always be a huge advantage.

I agree. 2 weeks to prep should allow for some personnel groups packages to gain an advantage. That, along with one of the best players in the nation watching the game from their sideline, UND may be in this game.

[Oxbow6]

Let me put it this way. They had two weeks to look at game film while we had one. We only had one game of their new offense to look at. They should have had a pregame plan advantage since they had so much time to prepare. We should look for the same from UND next game. If not then we're in trouble in that aspect. Coming off the buy should always be a huge advantage.

You seem to have a very good FB IQ and understanding of the game but with all due respect 2 weeks or 2 months isn't going to help this team beat MSU. At the end of the day, this team is not very good. In fact its a bad FB team that is poorly coached. You can spin it as to how they might make progress as the year goes along but Muss will still be the coach and a loss by 38 or 21 or 7 is still a loss...and there will be a few more of them before the year is over. No more excuses or what their potential might be...the product on the field is awful and it will still be at end of the year.

[geaux_sioux]

These next 3 games will tell us how good this team is. We now know how bad they can be because we saw their worst. The last game was unacceptable.

[Matt]

It was 3rd and 5 and Montana had 2 wrs on the field a te and a fb. You wouldn't want nickel against that formation typically. It was a great call and a timeout should've been called or Otto should have switched with the safety during the motion but that's easy to say after the fact.

From the Missoulian regarding that play:

“We worked on that play all week,” Johnson said. “We were praying they’d send a linebacker out with Tra and they did.

“He’s just too athletic I think for a linebacker to cover in space. It was a pretty easy throw.”

http://missoulian.com/sports/college/montana/football/griz-trounce-north-dakota/article_56020fee-1d93-11e3-995c-0019bb2963f4.html

[Wilbur]

Okay quick question to the defensive experts out there. Does UND play more dime or nickel on third and long situations?

[The Sicatoka]

It was 3rd and 5 and Montana had 2 wrs on the field a te and a fb. You wouldn't want nickel against that formation typically. It was a great call and a timeout should've been called or Otto should have switched with the safety during the motion but that's easy to say after the fact.

Why is the LCB put on the slot on the far side on a 3rd and 5? I could see moving the LCB across the field on 3rd and 15, but at 3rd and 5 you should be playing something close to a base defense.

A TO should have been called by the sideline ... by the coach.

That's another "What's he doing?" moment, kind of like going for it on 4th down in Greeley to end last season.

[geaux_sioux]

Why is the LCB put on the slot on the far side on a 3rd and 5? I could see moving the LCB across the field on 3rd and 15, but at 3rd and 5 you should be playing something close to a base defense.

A TO should have been called by the sideline ... by the coach.

That's another "What's he doing?" moment, kind of like going for it on 4th down in Greeley to end last season.

I still feel that should have been one of those athlete common sense moments where Carr instead of motioning for Otto to cover Van should have gone out there himself and had Otto take his man.

[iramurphy]

Okay quick question to the defensive experts out there. Does UND play more dime or nickel on third and long situations?

I am not sure you can answer that question unless you can find our safeties. Where were they. Our front seven missed tackles again and had some short lived signs of resistance but not much more than a speed bump. Didn't play well against SDSU and embarrassed themselves against Montana. Hard to believe we have regressed this much. This isn't a tough schedule this year, this is an FCS schedule with 7 home games. I didn't think we would contend for a title but this year we should be competitive against these teams.

[FSSD]

I still feel that should have been one of those athlete common sense moments where Carr instead of motioning for Otto to cover Van should have gone out there himself and had Otto take his man.

I don't know what the defensive call was - but Carr was 10 yards from the line of scrimmage when the pass was released. I think Montana attacked the safeties yesterday and won big time.

[Cratter]

UND defense was there all game....just a half step behind......cause they never had any time to rest!!

[UNDColorado]

I agree. 2 weeks to prep should allow for some personnel groups packages to gain an advantage. That, along with one of the best players in the nation watching the game from their sideline, UND may be in this game.

Good points. If we can't make some adjustments in a 2 week span then we are doomed. I want to keep the faith but it is very hard after what I say defensively on Saturday.

Also, is Montana back to their usual form? I thought they looked way better than SDSU.

[UND92,96]

Good points. If we can't make some adjustments in a 2 week span then we are doomed. I want to keep the faith but it is very hard after what I say defensively on Saturday.

Also, is Montana back to their usual form? I thought they looked way better than SDSU.

Hard to say for sure whether they're truly back to where they were a few years ago until they play some of the better teams in the Big Sky, but I don't think there's much question they're better than SDSU right now regardless of what the national rankings say.

[UND-FB-FAN]

Montana > SDSU

UND < SDSU

so, there you go...

[UNDColorado]

Montana > SDSU

UND < SDSU

so, there you go...

Thanks captain obvious

[Dagger]

After watching the games the last 2 weeks it does make you wonder just how good Montana is. They certainly appeared to be a lot better than SDSU.

[Matt]

Good points. If we can't make some adjustments in a 2 week span then we are doomed. I want to keep the faith but it is very hard after what I say defensively on Saturday.

Also, is Montana back to their usual form? I thought they looked way better than SDSU.

I thought UM looked better than the jacks, but they also play such a different style than UM. UM beats the jacks I think, but ball control with Zenner limits possessions.