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2021 Game Day - NDSU vs UND at Alerus Center


BarnWinterSportsEngelstad

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11 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

He's our best option right now. But we have better athletes in the pipeline that will take our offense to the next level. Patience is what's called for here.

Until the coaches find a way to bring in a receiver who can blow the top off, the offense isn't going to look any different with somebody else at QB. 

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On 10/3/2021 at 2:05 PM, iramurphy said:

If a QB doesn’t “have a very short memory” he will struggle. Schuster won’t win games for us but he hadn’t been losing games. The 4th down call was long past and we are moving the ball deep in their territory. Everything in the minds of players needs to be do their assignment and get the first down. No excuses. 

I think he meant that Tommy may not have felt the need to try to force a ball down field if we were still ahead. Not that he was still thinking about the punt and that caused the poor decision.

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8 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

So we all know NDSU has had a filthy defense basically every year since 2011. Every, single, season, since 2011 they’ve held opponent to an avg ppg under 20. Even last year. 2013 they avg 11.3 pot against…… that’s peak filth. For perspective, we haven’t done this a single time as a D1 program. NOT ONCE.

Our best defensive seasons have been 2011 - 20.4, 2016 - 22.0, and 2020(spring) 21.0. So far we are sitting at 19.5 after giving up 48 to Utah st. 10ppg vs FCS at this point. 
 

What I’m getting at is the fact that our defense has straight up sucked for the entirety of our d1 existence. The corner stone of this program needs to be defense. Wanna see a deep playoff run? The defense better start avg way < 20ppg. Win a title? Get that below 16ppg. NDSU never won a title without doing just that. We’ve got a lot of work to do defensively.

Part of the reason for that is because they've played in a crap conference for the entirety of their DI existence.......

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9 hours ago, Fry Bread said:

I would bet he was focusing on the play. 

To be honest with you, I was shocked they actually ran that play. I thought it was the turning point in the game and they failed. It was not a great effort at all and the NDSU d-line played tough all day long. If you're going for it on fourth down, use a high percentage play. I would've run a halfback dive with Smith. His first step is incredibly fast. I really like his game. I actually think he might have a better upside than Weah. 

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Here is my armchair Quarterback take on the lack of a successful deep passing attack.

25% - Due to Tommy's arm.  He doesn't have a cannon but we saw him hit a guy in stride last year with the ball traveling 46-47 yards in the air.  In the EWU game the other night their QB hit on a deep ball....I went back and watched it again and it traveled exactly 45 yards in the air.  I'm really not sure how often college completions actually travel more than 45-50 yards in the air?  I've been trying to pay more attention to when I see deep pass plays....how far in the air they actually travel.   I did see Tommy rifle a 10 yard pass in a super tight window on Saturday, it was a nice catch by Belquist I believe because it had some mustard on it.

50% - We don't have a burner who can get behind people

15% - I think Tommy doesn't want to throw a pick so if a guy only has 1-2 yards of separation he plays it safe and either throws it long or it's on the money, doesn't want to leave it short.  In the SU game on the one long pass the WR was open but two guys were converging and Tommy over threw it about 2 yards or so.  I think Tommy may lack the confidence that our WR's will go up and get the 50/50 deep ball so if coverage is tight he throws it long.

10% - Danny doesn't call the deep go route often.  

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5 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

Here is my armchair Quarterback take on the lack of a successful deep passing attack.

25% - Due to Tommy's arm.  He doesn't have a cannon but we saw him hit a guy in stride last year with the ball traveling 46-47 yards in the air.  In the EWU game the other night their QB hit on a deep ball....I went back and watched it again and it traveled exactly 45 yards in the air.  I'm really not sure how often college completions actually travel more than 45-50 yards in the air?  I've been trying to pay more attention to when I see deep pass plays....how far in the air they actually travel.   I did see Tommy rifle a 10 yard pass in a super tight window on Saturday, it was a nice catch by Belquist I believe because it had some mustard on it.

50% - We don't have a burner who can get behind people

15% - I think Tommy doesn't want to throw a pick so if a guy only has 1-2 yards of separation he plays it safe and either throws it long or it's on the money, doesn't want to leave it short.  In the SU game on the one long pass the WR was open but two guys were converging and Tommy over threw it about 2 yards or so.  I think Tommy may lack the confidence that our WR's will go up and get the 50/50 deep ball so if coverage is tight he throws it long.

10% - Danny doesn't call the deep go route often.  

You are right we don't have a burner.  This year we also don't have that Wanzek/Toivonen guy and that is really hurting. Maag should be that guy but seems to be battling injury.  

Given the changes at WR and OL, this offense is it different than last season.......

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5 hours ago, Irish said:

Just curious - what did you see from Bubba on Saturday that led you to believe he was smart?  I'll wait.

I'd look at the present state of the program given the hand he was dealt with the inherited roster, funding, facilities, and local competition.  He built a top ten team while recruiting guys to play out of a locker room in damn near the swimming pool!

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7 hours ago, bkbroiler said:

I think he meant that Tommy may not have felt the need to try to force a ball down field if we were still ahead. Not that he was still thinking about the punt and that caused the poor decision.

I think he was planning on running and his lane got clogged up sooner than he expected, and he panicked.  The coaches have been encouraging him to run - learning experience.

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8 hours ago, Shawn-O said:

The last 30 seconds of the first half still drives me nuts, I just watched it back.  At last attempt to get some points.  It’s so perplexing I had to go back to make sure I was remembering correctly.  

I agree.  That is a possession that teams like NDSU get a field goal and just change the energy if a game right before halftime.  They have done that for years.  It was another missed opportunity on Saturday during that game.  

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7 hours ago, Irish said:

Just curious - what did you see from Bubba on Saturday that led you to believe he was smart?  I'll wait.

 

3 hours ago, nodak651 said:

I'd look at the present state of the program given the hand he was dealt with the inherited roster, funding, facilities, and local competition.  He built a top ten team while recruiting guys to play out of a locker room in damn near the swimming pool!

I think your #nodak651 answer to #Irish ? is very good.
Bubba is continuing to improve this team/program. Just taking longer than most would like.
Bubba's insistence in playing the Bison in 2015 and 2019 and us joining MVFC was smart, which actually kind of led up to this game and the next.

The Bison played a conservative game and tried their best not to turn the ball over. Also, kind of like wait and see what happens attitude.
We were also conservative, but with a few high risk plays and a lot of stacking the box.

The defense showed they can keep us in every remaining game.
Now, some PURPLE.
Banking on a late season rematch, Bubba didn't give anything away offensively to the Bison.
If fact, unintentionally showed them that we make not so smart moves resulting in mistakes.
Relax, in kind of an opposing team mentality, don't worry about us in late fall?
We struggle against top teams in the FCS?

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34 minutes ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

 

I think your #nodak651 answer to #Irish ? is very good.
Bubba is continuing to improve this team/program. Just taking longer than most would like.
Bubba's insistence in playing the Bison in 2015 and 2019 and us joining MVFC was smart, which actually kind of led up to this game and the next.

The Bison played a conservative game and tried their best not to turn the ball over. Also, kind of like wait and see what happens attitude.
We were also conservative, but with a few high risk plays and a lot of stacking the box.

The defense showed they can keep us in every remaining game.
Now, some PURPLE.
Banking on a late season rematch, Bubba didn't give anything away offensively to the Bison.
If fact, unintentionally showed them that we make not so smart moves resulting in mistakes.
Relax, in kind of an opposing team mentality, don't worry about us in late fall?
We struggle against top teams in the FCS?

It has yet to be seen if our defense is elite.  I want to see them succeed against a team that is willing to pass the ball and has a good offensive line.   We knew UND was going to do everything they could to prevent the fiasco that went down in Fargo last year where they got pushed down the field.  NDSU didn't really even try to challenge us in the passing game, so who knows how it plays out against a team like South Dakota State.   The defense was great Saturday,  so hopefully they continue that against teams that are more balanced between run and pass.  

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9 hours ago, Goon said:

To be honest with you, I was shocked they actually ran that play. I thought it was the turning point in the game and they failed. It was not a great effort at all and the NDSU d-line played tough all day long. If you're going for it on fourth down, use a high percentage play. I would've run a halfback dive with Smith. His first step is incredibly fast. I really like his game. I actually think he might have a better upside than Weah. 

I am a Bubba supporter but if you go for it in that situation it better end well and if it doesn’t you better have a plan for a hasty exit out of town. 

Oh well. It’s easy coaching football from the kitchen while drinking coffee at the counter 

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1 hour ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

 

I think your #nodak651 answer to #Irish ? is very good.
Bubba is continuing to improve this team/program. Just taking longer than most would like.
Bubba's insistence in playing the Bison in 2015 and 2019 and us joining MVFC was smart, which actually kind of led up to this game and the next.

The Bison played a conservative game and tried their best not to turn the ball over. Also, kind of like wait and see what happens attitude.
We were also conservative, but with a few high risk plays and a lot of stacking the box.

The defense showed they can keep us in every remaining game.
Now, some PURPLE.
Banking on a late season rematch, Bubba didn't give anything away offensively to the Bison.
If fact, unintentionally showed them that we make not so smart moves resulting in mistakes.
Relax, in kind of an opposing team mentality, don't worry about us in late fall?
We struggle against top teams in the FCS?

Joining the MVFC completely, I don't think playing NDSU in 2015 and 2019 was smart at all. Considering the outcomes, it's tough to spin how that helped the program over not playing at all. I'm thinking more recruiting, regional prominence (not the word I'm looking for) angle. 

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13 hours ago, Sioux94 said:

To be fair, NDSU would have never averaged 11.3 points a game if they were in the Big Sky.  EWU put up 40 against them in the Dome that one year and should have won that game, and SU was pretty good that year if I recall.  Kupp was out the entire second half that game also.  

I agree though, their super stout Defense, and a superior OL has been the key to their success in my opinion.  Although they also had a run of crazy good QB's which will likely never happen again, which last year came to an end and they were still almost good enough to overcome it with crappy QB play.  

We are headed in the right direction on D.  I'd guess 16 points will likely be the lowest score they have the rest of the year and we spoon fed them 3 of those.  

Eh... whether they'd give up 11 points a game or 14 points a game, not sure it would matter.  

 

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