UND at a rainy MSU

[UND-FB-FAN]

What were the weather conditions last weekend? Eden Prairie could put up 50 on EWU's pathetic defense.

Good effort by the team today. Eliminate several mistakes and this is an even closer game. Michigan, on the other hand...good grief. That offense is supposed to be Big 10?

Eastern Washington's defense is bad but let's not carried away here...

[darell1976]

MSU up 26-7 at halftime, did they take their foot off the break like SDSU did last year or did Bubba give the team one hell of a pep talk at halftime.

[The Sicatoka]

Take away the pick-six and instead UND gets a FG on that drive: ten point swing. If UND finishes that drive ... fourteen point swing.

What happened today is the first step from the offense. The defense is about eight to twelve weeks (spring ball, fall camp, season so far) ahead of the offense. This is the first glimmer of hope of the offense finally coming together. And for the "X Box" types, notice how when UND was able to run even a little the pass game opened up.

26-7 at half. 29-18 final. Let's see ... 11-3 for the visitors in the second half. Surely MSU quit trying at halftime is what the pundits will say. I think not. MSU was looking to put some frustration from last week on someone. The UND Defense said, "Not us."

I think a young team took a small but significant step toward maturation today: They realized they not only belong out there but if they play with the vision Bubba has for them they can be successful.

They need to clean some stuff up (center exchanges, maintaining possession, eliminating turnovers), but these guy won the second half of that game. How?

Bubba's vision: Aggressive defense and smart, balanced offense.

Last thought:

No moral victories. I hope the guys on the plane back from Boseman are pissed. Why? They were a controllable error or two from (let this soak a minute) ... winning.

[SWSiouxMN]

Take away the pick-six and instead UND gets a FG on that drive: ten point swing. If UND finishes that drive ... fourteen point swing.

What happened today is the first step from the offense. The defense is about eight to twelve weeks (spring ball, fall camp, season so far) ahead of the offense. This is the first glimmer of hope of the offense finally coming together. And for the "X Box" types, notice how when UND was able to run even a little the pass game opened up.

26-7 at half. 29-18 final. Let's see ... 11-3 for the visitors in the second half. Surely MSU quit trying at halftime is what the pundits will say. I think not. MSU was looking to put some frustration from last week on someone. The UND Defense said, "Not us."

I think a young team took a small but significant step toward maturation today: They realized they not only belong out there but if they play with the vision Bubba has for them they can be successful.

They need to clean some stuff up (center exchanges, maintaining possession, eliminating turnovers), but these guy won the second half of that game. How?

Bubba's vision: Aggressive defense and smart, balanced offense.

Last thought:

No moral victories. I hope the guys on the plane back from Boseman are pissed. Why? They were a controllable error or two from (let this soak a minute) ... winning.

 

So lets build on that and say... I don't know

 

Upset Montana?  I want payback from last year

[MafiaMan]

Eastern Washington's defense is bad but let's not carried away here...

Good point. I probably should have said Wayzata and not EP.

[darell1976]

Take away the pick-six and instead UND gets a FG on that drive: ten point swing. If UND finishes that drive ... fourteen point swing.

What happened today is the first step from the offense. The defense is about eight to twelve weeks (spring ball, fall camp, season so far) ahead of the offense. This is the first glimmer of hope of the offense finally coming together. And for the "X Box" types, notice how when UND was able to run even a little the pass game opened up.

26-7 at half. 29-18 final. Let's see ... 11-3 for the visitors in the second half. Surely MSU quit trying at halftime is what the pundits will say. I think not. MSU was looking to put some frustration from last week on someone. The UND Defense said, "Not us."

I think a young team took a small but significant step toward maturation today: They realized they not only belong out there but if they play with the vision Bubba has for them they can be successful.

They need to clean some stuff up (center exchanges, maintaining possession, eliminating turnovers), but these guy won the second half of that game. How?

Bubba's vision: Aggressive defense and smart, balanced offense.

Last thought:

No moral victories. I hope the guys on the plane back from Boseman are pissed. Why? They were a controllable error or two from (let this soak a minute) ... winning.

I can't wait to hear the comments from Bubba and what he told the team in the second half.

[The Sicatoka]

Stolen from the Twitter-verse:

MSU has 36 yards rushing on 32 carries. Cats rushed for almost 900 yards last three weeks.

Statistics from today's #UND game were fairly even, surprisingly enough. Total yards 329-293 for MSU. First downs 17-16 for UND.

QB Joe Mollberg had his best game of the season. 22-37 for 222 and a TD (and the unfortunate pick six).

The offense had a rhythm in the second half that we had not seen.

The key now is to keep progressing and not regress. Keep working; keep inproving.

Day by day.

[darell1976]

Stolen from the Twitter-verse:

MSU has 36 yards rushing on 32 carries. Cats rushed for almost 900 yards last three weeks.

We needed Bubba years ago. This defense is going to be one of the best in the next few years.

[UND92,96]

Stolen from the Twitter-verse:

MSU has 36 yards rushing on 32 carries. Cats rushed for almost 900 yards last three weeks.

 

That's 300 fewer than last year at the Al.

[Nodak78]

This defense can beat Montana if we control our errors. So looking forward to next week. Let's pack that place like 2 years ago and hear 3rd and long get on your feet all day.

[82SiouxGuy]

Stolen from the Twitter-verse:

MSU has 36 yards rushing on 32 carries. Cats rushed for almost 900 yards last three weeks.

Statistics from today's #UND game were fairly even, surprisingly enough. Total yards 329-293 for MSU. First downs 17-16 for UND.

QB Joe Mollberg had his best game of the season. 22-37 for 222 and a TD (and the unfortunate pick six).

The offense had a rhythm in the second half that we had not seen.

The key now is to keep progressing and not regress. Keep working; keep inproving.

Day by day.

The stat sheet linked to earlier on this thread says MSU had 62 net yards rushing on 36 carries.  UND had 71 net yards rushing on 32 carries.

[Irish]

Well, we definatelty came to play - There is a night and day difference in attitude and play this year. The defense played well.   The offense had periods of adaquacy.  We made some mistakes that are killers - poor special team and punt play - not fielding punts and letting them roll for example.  I still think Bartles should get a chance - otherwise coach might as well tell him that he's never getting in.  The only way anyone should have that many quarterback/center exchange problems in the 4th game is if all of your centers are hurt and you have to play a guy who hasn't played center since his sophomore year in high school.  Overall nice effort, but marred a little bit by how much we shot ourselves in the foot by preventable errors.  

[The Sicatoka]

This defense can beat Montana if we control our errors. So looking forward to next week. Let's pack that place like 2 years ago and hear 3rd and long get on your feet all day.

Allow me to correct you on one thing:

This TEAM can beat Montana if they control errors. The defense got a lot of help (rest) when it mattered because the offense started to come around.

The defense has to play like it has been ... and better. They did let a couple receivers get behind them today.

The offense must pick up right where they left off in Bozeman.

[The Sicatoka]

The stat sheet linked to earlier on this thread says MSU had 62 net yards rushing on 36 carries.  UND had 71 net yards rushing on 32 carries.

Saw that now too. Can't trust Bobcat tweets I guess.

[82SiouxGuy]

Saw that now too. Can't trust Bobcat tweets I guess.

That's probably a good lesson for all of us.

[BigGame]

You can take a lot of positives out of this game and I only got to watch the first half but I thought Mollberg was having or had a pretty good game with exception of the pick six.  

[UND-FB-FAN]

This defense can beat Montana if we control our errors. So looking forward to next week. Let's pack that place like 2 years ago and hear 3rd and long get on your feet all day.

Montana next week is more than winnable. Again comes down to turnovers. If crowd noise is a factor and Montana turns the ball over some, UND will have a solid chance.

[Nodak78]

Allow me to correct you on one thing:

This TEAM can beat Montana if they control errors. The defense got a lot of help (rest) when it mattered because the offense started to come around.

The defense has to play like it has been ... and better. They did let a couple receivers get behind them today.

The offense must pick up right where they left off in Bozeman.

 

Agree Offense will need to do their share.  OL needs to open some holes.  Mollberg will need to do some passing and no interceptions.  I noticed tonight he stood in the pocket longer and took some hits as he delivered some passes.  Specialty teams need to score or create some turnovers.  AND NOISE from us.

[CMSioux]

Read once that the worst way to predict the outcome of an upcoming game is the outcome of the previous game. Still thinking it's one game at a time and each one is gonna be a battle that we will be the underdog in - just wanting to see continued improvement. I'm going to enjoy all aspects of this season, the best is yet to come.

[MoSiouxFan]

Here's the box score. https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf9/2860512.pdf?ATCLID=209682804&SPSID=58640&SPID=6399&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=13500

 

Who would have predicted UND would actually have one more first down, and only 36 fewer yards than MSU?

Not to mention the fact that we won TOP by 7and a half minutes, which is a reflection of some nice improvement by our offense, and our defense held MSU to 329 yards after they had over 500 yards of total offense each of the last 3 games.  Our defense is starting to give me goosebumps and our offense is finally starting to come around.

[The Sicatoka]

The box score stat that really jumped out at me:

In the second half UND had the ball nearly 20 minutes compared to MSU's 10 minutes.

MSU didn't "come off the gas" in the second half; they just didn't have the ball.

[Siouxphan27]

was MSU aggressive in their play calling in the second half, or were they content to play conservative?  Last week, some people were lauding our offense for their straight up the gut three and outs, as we were well in command and Stony Brook was not going to score on our defense.....so going conservative was a good move even if we weren't killing more than a couple minutes of clock per possession. 

 

Perhaps MSU took a similar approach today.... at halftime being up 26-7, their coaching staff probably pointed out their defense was pitching a shutout, and they were ahead by 3tds against a team averaging less than 10 points/game.     Given the wind, rain, and score....  don't get cute on offense to risk giving up any more points to UND's defense, and victory is all but certain.

 

Our defense played a great game, considering the situations they were put in.   Offense showed improvement as well.   But I think it's important to keep in mind the circumstances that yielded said results.  This is why there are no moral victories.

[gfNDfan]

tired of the "moral victories" arguement - there is no victory unless you actually win.  What was encouraging was UND was playing hard right up until the end of the game and there was no point where the bobcats could relax.   They came up short but went down swinging when Mussmans primadonnas would have been pouting and whining about whatever.  This is a blue collar crew without all the tools they need but they're learning the right way - keep WORKING and good things will happen.  How great would that be to suprise Montana next week at the AL with that ethic.  SHOW UP FANS!  This team IS showing up to go to work...

[SiouxVolley]

ire keep WORKING and good things will happen.  How great would that be to suprise Montana next week at the AL with that ethic.  SHOW UP FANS!  This team IS showing up to go to work...

 

Agree with this totally.  Improvement is shown on a week by week basis.  After the SJSU and Mo St games, and based on last years Mont St game, without that work, this would have been a blowout.  Never thought we would see progress so quickly.

[BigGame]

was MSU aggressive in their play calling in the second half, or were they content to play conservative?  Last week, some people were lauding our offense for their straight up the gut three and outs, as we were well in command and Stony Brook was not going to score on our defense.....so going conservative was a good move even if we weren't killing more than a couple minutes of clock per possession. 

 

Perhaps MSU took a similar approach today.... at halftime being up 26-7, their coaching staff probably pointed out their defense was pitching a shutout, and they were ahead by 3tds against a team averaging less than 10 points/game.     Given the wind, rain, and score....  don't get cute on offense to risk giving up any more points to UND's defense, and victory is all but certain.

 

Our defense played a great game, considering the situations they were put in.   Offense showed improvement as well.   But I think it's important to keep in mind the circumstances that yielded said results.  This is why there are no moral victories.

I didn't see the second half but MSU is a run based/screen pass team for the most part.  They were also missing some starters at WR so they may have been conservative for that reason.  I doubt they pulled off the gas much as the game really wasn't in hand and part of the scoring came from a pick 6.  The offense wasn't lighting it up in the first half either.