Gameday: UND vs USD 4pm

[Nodak78]

2 minutes ago, UNDColorado said:

We have been frustrating at times this year for sure.

Crazy thought- Is there a chance Rudolph has intentionally called basic plays while keeping new wrinkles close to the vest prior to conference schedule?

Personally I don't know. 

[ericpnelson]

Thanks for everyone's comments on the play of the game! I wasn't able to watch the game, per usual, due to family happenings, but it was cool to catch up.

[UND-FB-FAN]

27 minutes ago, UND-1 said:

More frustrating than the first 4 games of the 2014 season when everyone wanted Rudolph gone for not being able to run the ball with inferior players and a brand new offense?  Or last year vs. Drake when the offense mentally shut it down up 21-0 looking forward to NDSU the next week?  

I have read many comments like that above about how "frustrated" people are.   Just trying to rank them.  

Well, in all honesty, I'm not overly impressed with UND's offensive staff and philosophy as a whole. The defense is ran at a championship caliber, or at least is on that trajectory. Wil be interested to see how the offense progresses throughout this season. Ultimately, the offense and defense need to better compliment each other. 

[Teeder11]

I attended the game Saturday and have re-watched most of it on TV. 

Here are my thoughts:

Wow!  What a crowd to kick off the year at the Alerus Center. My voice still is not back.

For the life of me, I couldn't imagine leaving early on this team, whether I am a student or nonstudent. It's extremely fickle. That said, we play a very boring style of ball, but so do others in the area. The difference: our track record for success is on the building end as opposed to the established side. Fans will stick around and watch a largely "boring" product, with sprinkles of sheer excitement, as long as their is a feeling that a positive outcome is likely. I mean, we do love hockey don't we? 

I just hope word spreads around campus and the community about what folks missed in the final quarter and a half last Saturday. 

Taubenheim's leg is a mystery to me. He's placing his kick offs farther than last year but still not consistently drawing touch backs.  It seemed like USD was always starting from the 30s, while our KRs would only make it to the 20s because they would start out deep in the end zone, if they didn't take a knee.

There is something about the the angle of the seats at the Alerus and the Field Goal posts.... I could have sworn that Taubs drilled the FG that he missed, and on the other side, I thought Bergner totally missed one, only to watch both official signal it was good. Drives me batty.

Dussold is a saving grace at punter. He's no Meindel in the leg department, and hopefully not in the character department, but he is more than holding his own when it comes to pinning the opposition back. 

Alex Reed is finally showing his value. Dussold to Reed might be one of the most valuable to connections on this team this year, second to Studsrud to Toivonnen or Studsrud to Santiago.  

Absent Clive, would really love to see Mercer get more touches. If Studs can get it to him he's pretty much money for catching it, and his stride after the catch is so smooth. Wondering, too, if with the speed that Reed has displayed on punt coverage might be able to spread the field a bit. 

Finally, even though he tends to be another possession guy, I can't wait to get Seibel back out on the field, as I love his smarts and the way he competes.

Toivonnen and Wanzek are gems. Wished we could have kept their RS intact, but, oh well.

Studsrud's inconsistencies are troubling to say the least. An early successful start next Saturday will do wonders for him to shake the mental shakiness and just perform. 

Can't agree more with some posters on what we had with Adler.... we need the TEs to get more involved and fill that role. Let the existing FBs concentrate on blocking and power runs.

Sucks for us and him to see Nevermann go down.

We didn't get the OL situation figured out until after the Montana game last year. Because we are basically overhauling the line, AGAIN, looks like it is on that same trajectory. Hope things don't get out of hand in conference play before they gel. 

On the bright side, were are putting the ball on the carpet far less on center QB snaps than we did the last couple of years. 

Reality check: Santiago, at this time last year after 3 games games, had only 179 rushing yards for an average of 59.6 yards per contest. This year, against a better FBS defense than WYO and another defense that is arguably one of the best in FCS and a MVC defense that wasn't too shabby either, Santiago has 310 total rushing yards for an average of 100.3 yards per game. He is currently the second leading rusher in the conference, second to Prothoe of option-heavy Cal Poly.

I've seen the replay on Santiago's initial plunge into the end zone in overtime and it looked to be a no-brainer that that TD was good, at game speed. I would assume that all OT TDs are reviewed (or am I wrong?).  Only a frame by frame analysis of that play could reveal anything remotely close to no TD.  My take is that even though a butt cheek may have landed on the turf short of the line to gain, the tip of the ball surely kissed the front edge of the plane of the white line before he was down.

DEFENSE:

The boys are getting tired and dinged up and I am getting worried. 

Depth at DL is taking a hit, but WOW, has Bennett been doing a good job in there. Looks very active and confident. We really need Cieslak back soon!

LBs have been steady eddies and holding their own.  Really like Rodgers, Bakker and O'Brien ... Disterhaupt has been a bit quiet for my tastes. 

I think our MLBs and Safeties have been exposed a bit on quick over the middle throws that have gone for big yardage. Our guys get sucked up to stop the run, leaving them susceptible to these easy dink and dunk passes over the middle. This will be something we will see more of in the pass-heavy (Cal Poly excluded) Big Sky. That said, Cal Poly might even go to this well on one of their few pass attempts when we play them in two weeks. Got to find a way to shore this up.

Can't say enough about the play of our CBs, especially. Deion has always had the tools, now he has the experience. Don't mean to be too hard on him but Tyus needs to bat that ball down in those 50/50 situations. The USD receiver used up all his luck for the month on that play, though.

Lastly, Reyes is the straw that stirs this team's defensive drink. He's tough but you can tell injuries are nagging him. Sure would love to have a bye week for guys like him.

--END--

 

 

 

 

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

5 hours ago, Siouxperman8 said:

There was always controversy over attendance figures for playoff games at Memorial during the good times.  The place would look very full but the numbers announced were a lot less than what people expected.  At that time it was blamed on the fact that everyone had on a lot of cold weather clothes and spread out because there weren't actual seats, only benches.

I went to a very COLD playoff game at Memorial Stadium one Thanksgiving weekend years ago and we sat on those frozen aluminum benches and our feet were on the cold cement. Bought back memories of the old Barn.  I sat in a seat that was actually a seat number over from my numbered seat, because most people were really bundled up with coveralls, parkas, air force parkas, snowmobile suits, orange hunting clothes, and/or etc. Fans on the ends of a row were forced to sit on the steps. Lots of smuggled in cold medicine, just like the Barn.

[sprig]

3 minutes ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

I went to a very COLD playoff game at Memorial Stadium one Thanksgiving weekend years ago and we sat on those frozen aluminum benches and our feet were on the cold cement. Bought back memories of the old Barn.  I sat in a seat that was actually a seat number over from my numbered seat, because most people were really bundled up with coveralls, parkas, air force parkas, snowmobile suits, orange hunting clothes, and/or etc. Fans on the ends of a row were forced to sit on the steps. Lots of smuggled in cold medicine, just like the Barn.

The playoff game against Alabama Birmingham (75 I think), was brutal. So was the result,  as the undefeated Sioux team lost. They played tough guys from the north,  no hand warmers,  no jackets,  no nothing on the sidelines,  while the Alabama guys were dressed for a ND winter, fires on the sidelines warming their hands,  etc. Sioux couldn't catch or tackle with their frozen hands,  and got stomped.  The schnapps didn't ease the pain of being there. 

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

Yes, that was the game, I was going to mention it as the Alabama Birmingham game but wasn't sure so I left that out.  I remember fans near us in the stands really complained how their feet we getting cold, if they didn't have warm boots on.

[geaux_sioux]

It's a must that Reed and Mercer get going in the offense. We need to get a mix of skill sets out there at WR. I love what our tall white boys have been doing but we need some separation on different types of routes. Seibel coming back at some point should help but in the mean time other guys need to step it up.

[Irish]

7 minutes ago, sprig said:

The playoff game against Alabama Birmingham (75 I think), was brutal. So was the result,  as the undefeated Sioux team lost. They played tough guys from the north,  no hand warmers,  no jackets,  no nothing on the sidelines,  while the Alabama guys were dressed for a ND winter, fires on the sidelines warming their hands,  etc. Sioux couldn't catch or tackle with their frozen hands,  and got stomped.  The schnapps didn't ease the pain of being there. 

I remember that game well - a bitter defeat in bitter weather - as memory serves me, we were much bigger than them and had a punishing ground game.  I really thought this was our year and they really stuck it to us.

[homer]

Nice post Teeder.  I made the same comment to my dad that USD saw something over the middle they could expose throwing the ball.  It's really when their offense started having success. 

[UND-1]

1 minute ago, homer said:

Nice post Teeder.  I made the same comment to my dad that USD saw something over the middle they could expose throwing the ball.  It's really when their offense started having success. 

Like our safeties blowing the coverage multiple times per game?  Yep, they saw it on tape and again on Saturday.  

[Nodak78]

Good post Tender.  I agree on Santiago's TD.  no way that should have been overturned.

[Teeder11]

10 minutes ago, homer said:

Nice post Teeder.  I made the same comment to my dad that USD saw something over the middle they could expose throwing the ball.  It's really when their offense started having success. 

Agreed. That was a big turning point.  That coupled with Torrey's taunting penalty and Tyus' "missed" INT.  Interestingly, this was the same officiating crew that rung up Oliviera last year after he made the "spoon feed/eat some" gesture to the crowd after a long run.  They got Torrey on Saturday. This crew does not like that kind of stuff!

[sprig]

18 minutes ago, Teeder11 said:

Agreed. That was a big turning point.  That coupled with Torrey's taunting penalty and Tyus' "missed" INT.  Interestingly, this was the same officiating crew that rung up Oliviera last year after he made the "spoon feed/eat some" gesture to the crowd after a long run.  They got Torrey on Saturday. This crew does not like that kind of stuff!

They are,  however,  ok with blatant holding.  Shouldn't let the obvious ones go,  especially when it leads to a td

[gundy1124]

6 minutes ago, sprig said:

They are,  however,  ok with blatant holding.  Shouldn't let the obvious ones go,  especially when it leads to a td

Labat is still looking for his shoulder pads as they were torn off on that play.  Total horse-crap missing that call as the ball floats over the middle for a TD.

[sprig]

18 minutes ago, gundy1124 said:

Labat is still looking for his shoulder pads as they were torn off on that play.  Total horse-crap missing that call as the ball floats over the middle for a TD.

Since it happened right after the taunting call,  thought the crew might have felt that SD deserved a TD, rather than just 15 and a 1st down. 

[Longtime fan]

56 minutes ago, UND-1 said:

Like our safeties blowing the coverage multiple times per game?  Yep, they saw it on tape and again on Saturday.  

Hate writing this as cole is an absolute stud and a talent but he needs to tighten up his pass covering skills a tad. Had a int for a td=awsome, but had quite a few blown coverages in the sd game. Believe two tds were on him.  Should be easily corrected in the film room.   

[UND-1]

1 minute ago, Longtime fan said:

Hate writing this as cole is an absolute stud and a talent but he needs to tighten up his pass covering skills a tad. Had a int for a td=awsome, but had quite a few blown coverages in the sd game. Believe two tds were on him.  Should be easily corrected in the film room.   

Arnell blew the OT touchdown, not sure what he was doing there.

That fullback wheel up the seam was unique, not sure who should have had him.  Could have been Cole.  Those two were the only TD's that blew coverage.  

If the UND safeties get it together and just play the call that is made UND will be A-OK rest of the year.  They are the one's that for some reason vacate their areas when there is no need to.

[Longtime fan]

I would have to watch it again but I thought cole should have had the fullback as o brien had to contain the middle as either Rodgers or Bakker was on a blitz?  I could be wrong.  Maybe it was o briens man.  Many beers by the point on Saturday. 

[geaux_sioux]

52 minutes ago, UND-1 said:

Arnell blew the OT touchdown, not sure what he was doing there.

That fullback wheel up the seam was unique, not sure who should have had him.  Could have been Cole.  Those two were the only TD's that blew coverage.  

If the UND safeties get it together and just play the call that is made UND will be A-OK rest of the year.  They are the one's that for some reason vacate their areas when there is no need to.

Their FB had two TD receptions of the uncovered variety. Not sure who's fault.  I remember it was a bit of an all out blitz.

[UND-1]

22 minutes ago, Longtime fan said:

I would have to watch it again but I thought cole should have had the fullback as o brien had to contain the middle as either Rodgers or Bakker was on a blitz?  I could be wrong.  Maybe it was o briens man.  Many beers by the point on Saturday. 

Think your right.

[The Sicatoka]

Has anyone answered the most important question after Saturday's game, namely, ...

How'd the visitor's locker room look after the game?  

[NoDakFan]

30 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Has anyone answered the most important question after Saturday's game, namely, ...

How'd the visitor's locker room look after the game?  

Is there any pictures from the 2011 debacle?

[siouxfb]

My biggest concern defensively from Saturday was our tackling. I'm guessing film and grades weren't high in that department. On one play our lb got run over and our safety pushed their qb in the side and he continued for another 15 yards. We have tackled great this year so I assume that will be better on Saturday. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

almost every team can say that one or two key players are dinged up but playing are or just out of action but losing cole, Austin and the other 2 d lineman was a big factor in usd gashing us...bubba still hasn't had enough time to build up some quality depth to where losing guys of these quality there is a large dropoff from those injured guys...hope all will be back in Bozeman!!!