Gameday: UND vs Cal Poly 1PM

[UNDBIZ]

Just now, geaux_sioux said:

Which threads on ags? I didn't find anything on the subject.

  Believe it was under the Top 25 how they fared thread.  It was actually limited to just a couple bison and jacks posters.  More so me being frustrated that Cal Poly is immediately viewed as overrated rather than UND being viewed as a decent team. When a top MVFC team loses to a MVFC bottom-feeder, it's because the MVFC is so solid top to bottom.  When a top MVFC team loses to a decent BSC team, it was a fluke game.  When a top BSC team loses to a lower BSC team, it's because that top BSC team isn't actually any good or they were missing their fullback who would have completely changed the game.  The mental gymnastics are annoying.

[UND-FB-FAN]

17 hours ago, sioux#1fan said:

The defense is #1 nationally in all of FCS right now every team will get their passes off so please tell me how we need to improve on the pass game?

That's based on solely interceptions; there's much more that goes into it. Pass yards given up and pass scores given up are just as tellling. Bubba does not want "every team to get their passes off". That's why the team goes to zero coverage and blitzes as much as they do. 

Way too many big plays through the air. Bubba agrees. UND gave up 3 TD scores against Cal Poly through the air; those deep passes need to be better contested. It's 1 on 1 defensive football and UND still loses too many of those battles. Against Montana State, that wild ending could've been avoided if Torrey Hunt would've made a tackle on a short 3rd down throw when UND was up 17-9 late in the 4th; however, the tackle was badly missed and the play went for over 50 yards.

You cant be a great defense (top defense) if you give up big pass plays. That is what this UND defense needs to keep working on and, hopefully, they will and improve. Make teams work the ball down the field methodically and force mistakes - don't give up big easy scores. UND is much improved in their pass defense relative to 2015; however, the pass defense still requires work. Corner opposite Deion Harris is a concern; Hunt and Holm need to grow up quickly. Both are athletic, though. 

 

[RD17]

What a great win for UND! I was out of pocket last weekend and couldn't see it live but finally got a chance to watch it last night. Some thoughts:

-UND was for the most part the better team and should have won this game by a couple of scores. That's actually really good news. 

-Tank Harris was great. He was the key to shutting down the Cal Poly dive play.

-Studsrud just doesn't make the big mistakes that hurt his team. That's very valuable to have at the QB position. Both USD and Cal Poly have some talent at the QB position but they also make really dumb mistakes.

-The long TD run by Oliveira was a brilliant play call. Stockwell and Coe both lined up on the right side in an unbalanced look and the safeties and linebackers bit hard on the jet sweep action. Great blocking by Rooney as he took out two guys on the play.

-Other than the bad snap, I thought Rooney played very well. Also noticed that Bell, Taylor and Aplin were basically splitting time at the guard positions. I'm not sure if this was a pure rotation or a case of the UND trying to match up the player with the offensive package they wanted to run that series.Still not great, but better play up front.

-Big Sky refs are flat out awful. They missed an OBVIOUS holding call on each of Cal Poly's first two touchdown drives. I showed replays of those two plays to a friend of mine who is a college official and he said the crew should be reprimanded if there is any sort of leadership in the league office. And how in the world does the nose tackle get called for defensive holding on a standard running play? Just ridiculous.

-Rudolph was really finding a rhythm with his play calling. Then the fourth quarter happened. He got a little too cute when UND should have been just been leaning on them with Oliveira. I did like the swing pass wrinkle that they were using out of the jet sweep action but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be a ball Studsrud throws very well.

-The fourth quarter in general was a disaster for UND. The long TD pass was a blown coverage gift and the interception in the end zone was a gift as well. Other than that, UND didn't do much right. You have an option team pinned at their own 2-yard line, 5:28 to go, down two touchdowns and you darn near allow them to tie it up? Those pitch plays to the perimeter were killing UND in the fourth quarter and I didn't see much adjustment to it?

-Has the coaching staff lost confidence in the kicking game? Interesting call to go for it on 4th and 4 in the first quarter when they could have kicked a 47-yard field goal.

-I would say the next game is a trap, but not after UND played a poor fourth quarter and Sac State came back to beat MSU. I'm thinking this next game will have everyone's full attention.