jimdahl Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 If the Sioux were to win by just 14 (or less), I'm going to be pretty concerned about the rest of the year. One thing I really like about this team so far is that with the exception of the Delta St. game, none of the home games have really been close. True, Mesa turned out to be far worse than anyone could have predicted, but still the overall home schedule has been pretty decent and the Sioux have taken care of business and haven't needed to mount any comebacks or last-second field goals for wins. If UND can play the way it's capable, I like for all three remaining home games to be Sioux wins by 20-plus points. The talent differential between UND and UMD, MSU and USD should be pretty substantial, and that talent differential should only be magnified by playing at home. My first guess was actually 38-10, but I edited it to take/give a TD from each to be conservative. The Sioux have never really run up the score, except against such overmatched teams as Crookston and poor Mesa St, so I would never predict much above 40 for UND. To run up those big scores also requires the offense to be clicking, which was kind of happening last week, but I still wonder if Belmore will make it two weeks in a row. As far as the Bulldog score, the UND defense has been inconsistent a few times this season and I was guessing at a bit of a letdown after the Sioux establish the lead. Just some wild guesses from a guy who hasn't even seen 1 game this year; I'd love nothing more than to be completely wrong and have 60 minutes added to the shutout streak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD17 Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 I'm always hesitant to pick scores (even though I have to do so for a few games each week in my column ), but I really think that this is a very, very bad matchup for Duluth. The Bulldogs do have a decent running game- but we all know that decent isn't good enough against the Sioux defense this year. Once the UND defense makes the UMD running game a non-factor, the Bulldogs will obviously be forced to pass, and they do that very poorly. Here's their passing stats on the year: PASSING GP Effic Att-Cmp-Int Pct Yds TD Lng Avg/G --------------------------------------------------------------- Opahle, K. 6 77.34 110-44-6 40.0 514 3 40 85.7 Pelzer,T. 3 56.93 56-20-6 35.7 245 1 37 81.7 Anderson, E. 3 155.00 2-1-0 50.0 25 0 20 8.3 Flury, V. 7 0.00 1-0-0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 Marks, C. 2 0.00 1-0-0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 Total.......... 7 70.62 170-65-12 38.2 784 4 40 112.0 Completing 38% of your passes and throwing four TD passes against 12 interceptions is awful and will not get it done against UND's defense. To top it off, UMD is banged up a bit on defense. The guy who is by far the Bulldogs' top defensive player, lineman Russ Rabe, is most likely out with an injury. Like I said, I don't like to pick scores, but I think the only thing that will prevent this game from getting really ugly is Dale Lennon not wanting to embarrass an old friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted October 16, 2004 Share Posted October 16, 2004 My first guess was actually 38-10, but I edited it to take/give a TD from each to be conservative. The Sioux have never really run up the score, except against such overmatched teams as Crookston and poor Mesa St, so I would never predict much above 40 for UND. To run up those big scores also requires the offense to be clicking, which was kind of happening last week, but I still wonder if Belmore will make it two weeks in a row. As far as the Bulldog score, the UND defense has been inconsistent a few times this season and I was guessing at a bit of a letdown after the Sioux establish the lead. Just some wild guesses from a guy who hasn't even seen 1 game this year; I'd love nothing more than to be completely wrong and have 60 minutes added to the shutout streak <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It looks like Wayne Nelson of the Herald more or less agrees with you, as he picked UND to win 35-14. I'm having a hard time seeing UMD scoring in double figures, unless it's via defensive or special teams scores. As RD17 pointed out, UMD's quarterback play has been poor, and to me that more or less seals an opposing offense's fate. I don't see any running back coming to the Alerus and having much success running the ball against this defense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethanm Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 I think they really overdid the siren today. It got old really fast when they started using it for every turnover and FG. Either get rid of it (which I'd prefer) or use it for TD's only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 I think they really overdid the siren today. It got old really fast when they started using it for every turnover and FG. Either get rid of it (which I'd prefer) or use it for TD's only. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Talk about overdoing things, how about playing that Limp Bizkit song ("Rollin'") after every single Roland carry? It was clever the first couple of times, but when it's played even after a 5-yard loss, that's really over-the-top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cratter Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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