Utah State Sept. 10 8 pm

[UND-FB-FAN]

Well, this proves this team isn’t ready to take the next step. Weak minded after they got punched in the mouth in the 3rd quarter. Reminds me of the NDSU and JMU games last season.

Defensively, the safety play and interior defensive line is still not good enough. 
 

Offensively, this line isn’t good enough to consistently make holes for Otis Weah. When running game isn’t working, Schuster does not have the arm strength nor the outside receiver talent to test the defense downfield. Makes for a bad combination. 
 

Going to be tough for this UND squad, as the roster is currently constructed, to beat top FCS teams. 
 

Maybe NDSU at home best case scenario? But not possible on road against SDSU. 

[tnt]

4 minutes ago, Sioux>Bison said:

We lost by 24 doesn’t represent how well we played in the first quarter. Fix that and we are a hard team to beat. It was a 3 point game at the beginning of the 4th…..

So you’re good playing well 25% of the game.  Usually the mantra is, we didn’t play a full 60 minutes.

[Sioux>Bison]

1 minute ago, Sioux94 said:

Hope Turner's injury isn't serious.  Will suck to lose two starting LB's in two weeks. 

This is my biggest concern, they rest is easily fixable before we start league play.

[ksixpack]

19 minutes ago, tnt said:

If UND beats the Bison, all is forgiven.  If they don’t, well, it will just be considered business as usual.

Correct…it’s time to put up or shut up…

[Sioux>Bison]

Just now, tnt said:

So you’re good playing well 25% of the game.  Usually the mantra is, we didn’t play a full 60 minutes.

No I’m pissed we didn’t figure it out when we were only down by 3 or even 10. We know we are better than this 3 qtr performance. Lost opportunity but excited for the rest of the season.

[Hans8891]

Bison are going to stack the box, key on Otis, and dare us to beat them deep.  So will everyone else that watches film on this game.  Not sure I agree that the O-line got worn down.  They didn’t spend a lot of time on the turf in the last half.  Lot of time to rest after 3 and outs.

[Sioux>Bison]

4 minutes ago, Irish said:

And it's not like this issue just popped up - Bubba makes adjustments at glacial speed - if at all.

We didn’t need to make adjustments, we just needed to execute better. Everyone harps on making adjustments but we are in the right positions and just need to execute.

[Sioux>Bison]

1 minute ago, Hans8891 said:

Bison are going to stack the box, key on Otis, and dare us to beat them deep.  So will everyone else that watches film on this game.  Not sure I agree that the O-line got worn down.  They didn’t spend a lot of time on the turf in the last half.  Lot of time to rest after 3 and outs.

We can’t beat them with short and intermediate passing? Seemed to be working in the first quarter 

[UNDMOORHEAD]

4 minutes ago, Sioux>Bison said:

We have no deep shot threats against FBS secondaries. We barely have a deep shot threat against FCS opponents . We started to have poor execution and couldn’t keep the pressure on. The best we could have done is execute what we do well. O lone got worn down.

Full disclosure, I'm drunk and disappointed. I feel as though they're in the same 8-16 ranking range they've been in and it just sucks. (mostly because of NDSU'S success} I know it's early, but I'm concerned we'll have to wait at least another year to topple the SDSU'S and NDSU'S of the world.

[Sioux>Bison]

Just now, UNDMOORHEAD said:

Full disclosure, I'm drunk and disappointed. I feel as though they're in the same 8-16 ranking range they've been in and it just sucks. (mostly because of NDSU'S success} I know it's early, but I'm concerned we'll have to wait at least another year to topple the SDSU'S and NDSU'S of the world.

Honestly it’s either we suck and never should have had a chance to win this game, or we are a good team and just failed to execute. We will find out in MVFC games…..

[Sioux94]

That damn muffed 3rd down where they ran into each other was the turning point.  If Otis busts that whole, we may go on to score and go up 28-10.  It likely would have still been a 4 quarter game and still may have lost, but damn that play HURT. 

[AJS]

15 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

We have to find a way to beat SU this year. 

0% chance

[UND-FB-FAN]

I hate the term “sucks” in sports. UND does not suck, they just aren’t good enough physically and mentally to beat a team of Utah State’s caliber. Unfortunately, I think that also extrapolates to UND not being good enough to beat the top MVFC teams, like NDSU, or SDSU on the road. 

[UNDMOORHEAD]

2 minutes ago, Sioux>Bison said:

Honestly it’s either we suck and never should have had a chance to win this game, or we are a good team and just failed to execute. We will find out in MVFC games…..

Not that I disagree with you, but my ability to reason suffers after 12-16 beers. Here's to hoping this game serves as a building block to the rest of the season.

[tnt]

I look forward to the day when we are confident enough in our offensive line that we don’t have to rely on trick plays to score. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have them in your back pocket, but would be nice to use them in game on the line situations.  Those same plays that worked tonight can lead to getting in second and long or third and long situations if they get blown up, and we see how we performed when we get behind the chains.  Obviously we needed them tonight to get the touchdowns we did get.

 

[Kab]

Utah state will finish bottom half of their league 

 

[Hans8891]

The good news is that we aren’t likely to see another offense like Utah State’s in FCS.  We aren’t well suited to defend a spread no-huddle offense with a lot of receiving weapons and a coach who is willing to trust his offense on 4th down virtually every time, no matter where its at.  We will need to tackle better as well, but the defense was gassed from spending the bulk of 3 quarters on the field with a team that wastes little time between plays and spreads the field very well.They are an impressive offensive team.  They are not as good defensively, but they made adjustments and we didn’t.  Plain and simple.  We had a great offensive first quarter, but most of those came on short yardage patterns with good yards after catch.  Move everyone up in the second quarter and dare us to go over the top  and those are no longer open - and there is no running room for Otis,.  To me, that was the story of the offense.  

[UND1983]

Everyone settle down. It's week 2 and you're all going to be singing their praises when they win a big one soon.  UND has never been ranked this high, enjoy it.  

[Siouxperfan7]

Remember. With 9:59 left in the game, it was 27-24 Utah St. as bas as we played in the last 3 quarters, and as good as they played, we were definitely still in this game at that time. 

[Wildfan]

20 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

That damn muffed 3rd down where they ran into each other was the turning point.  If Otis busts that whole, we may go on to score and go up 28-10.  It likely would have still been a 4 quarter game and still may have lost, but damn that play HURT. 

That hurt. Few big points in this game. Only 3pts off the interception. Getting thr ball to the 13 and either then only getting the FG or the int not sure which. Had the USU RB stuffed on 4th and 2 before the 2nd effort got him in. 

Also come back to the PI in the end zone on 4th down. Turn the head around and no call. The ball literally hit the UND defender in the back where WR had no chance. 

UND had drive going into the 4th down 3 and came away with nothing. Went back to predicited play calling. 

Hard part of the score is that USU kept playing when they seemingly had the game in the bag. Spreading score out futher. 

[geaux_sioux]

42 minutes ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

I hate the term “sucks” in sports. UND does not suck, they just aren’t good enough physically and mentally to beat a team of Utah State’s caliber. Unfortunately, I think that also extrapolates to UND not being good enough to beat the top MVFC teams, like NDSU, or SDSU on the road. 

I disagree. We were clearly capable of beating them. A wonky 3rd down self stuff that likely would’ve been a TD changed everything. Then we passed too much and our d got gassed. We had them in a position to put the lights out in the first half. 

[bincitysioux]

Both the offensive and defensive lines were overwhelmed.  As per usual, this game was won & lost in the trenches.  The Utah St. wide receivers blocked just as well as the O-Line and manhandled our secondary on the short throws.  I was just as disappointed by how poorly North Dakota tackled.

[UND-FB-FAN]

6 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

I disagree. We were clearly capable of beating them. A wonky 3rd down self stuff that likely would’ve been a TD changed everything. Then we passed too much and our d got gassed. We had them in a position to put the lights out in the first half. 

I’m glad you are able to make excuses to tell yourself that. There’s always a “chance”, but UND didn’t lose by a touchdown or two, they got beat by 24 points. I watched the game. UND couldn’t get running game going consistently, many no gain runs stuffed at line of scrimmage. Behind Otis Weah, not a ton of RB depth. Skokna is a good player but not a 20 carry per game kind of guy. UND scripted well to start the game with trickery, but Utah State has head and shoulders better talent and wore UND out in the second half. Also, the mental toughness of this team isn’t quite where it needs to be yet. Just wait and see how Utah State does this year; they’ll have an okay season.

it’s okay to admit that UND was the inferior team; heck, it’s FCS vs FBS. Just disappointing because it is Mountain West, not Big 10 or PAC-12, and would have liked to see UND play closer or win. 
 

It’s also okay @geaux_sioux to admit UND has weaknesses with this squad, namely defensive line, safety, wide receiver, and even, at times, quarterback play. Always can improve. UND definitely needs to because they are still only a fringe top 10 FCS program. The NDSUs, SDSUs, JMUs of the FCS World are still well above UND in terms of talent. 

[Fry Bread]

A one point lead at halftime over a FBS team is a decent morale victory. The best since 2015. 

Hopefully the team uses last night’s game as a learning situation for improvement. Usually your areas that need improvement must be pointed out to you. 
 
I think the team will be fine. 

[Kab]

The one announcer kept pointing out how out of position our defensive players were.

is that on the players or coaches?

offensive line was really getting pushed back

not worried about ndsu because we aren’t there yet, each year is the same old same old