West Illinois VS UND Homecoming week

[shep]

1 minute ago, geaux_sioux said:

My bad, that was @Midwestern Hawk

I confuse you two sometimes because you’re both such rays of sunshine around here

Cue the "we don't like mediocrity like the rest of you do" in 5-4-3-2-1.

[Midwestern Hawk]

3 minutes ago, shep said:

Cue the "we don't like mediocrity like the rest of you do" in 5-4-3-2-1.

Don't mean to be "Debbie Downer", I just see a team which is very close to the next level, but likely won't get there.  QB is the most important position on the field.  Having QV hand it off on the sweep motion was a great wrinkle from Danny and really opened up the game on Saturday.  Ziebarth averaged over 7 yards a carry.

[UND1983]

8 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

Absolutely.  He ran for 110 yards and didn't throw any picks.  Tommy INT was one of the worst throws I have seen from any QB this season.  W/O the "trick play", Tommy was 17-29 for 146 yards(5 yards per attempt).

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[geaux_sioux]

8 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

Absolutely.  He ran for 110 yards and didn't throw any picks.  Tommy INT was one of the worst throws I have seen from any QB this season.  W/O the "trick play", Tommy was 17-29 for 146 yards(5 yards per attempt).

And there it is again. Thanks for the refresher.

[Mama Sue]

We won…there is always room for improvement. Let’s move on to MO State.

[siouxfan512]

13 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

Absolutely.  He ran for 110 yards and didn't throw any picks.  Tommy INT was one of the worst throws I have seen from any QB this season.  W/O the "trick play", Tommy was 17-29 for 146 yards(5 yards per attempt).

I'll give you the INT; that was awful.

[Oxbow6]

1 minute ago, Mama Sue said:

We won…there is always room for improvement. Let’s move on to MO State.

Can't.....just can't unless we get a better starting QB.

[Dustin]

22 minutes ago, UND08 said:

I think what many people are overlooking here

Something that I think gets overlooked is that the QB a lot of people like to rag on is a SOPHOMORE!  I can't imaging he's peaked and regressing.  He's still learning.  He'll get more comfortable with running for a few yards if he can't make a throw.  He's already knocked off Sam Houston St., Southern Illinois, Missouri St., South Dakota, and South Dakota St. (albeit, all at home, but still not a bad resume).  He's done a lot already, and will continue to do a lot.

[UNDColorado]

On to MO State. 

P.S. Trick plays count just the same as every other play.

[geaux_sioux]

9 minutes ago, UNDColorado said:

On to MO State. 

P.S. Trick plays count just the same as every other play.

Play action passes are trick plays too. Hell, the forward pass was once considered a cowardly gimmick.

[Nodak78]

I remember a skipped backwards lateral to a flanker that threw to a receiver for a TD.  everyone thought it was a genius play.

[TBR]

The hard count is a trick play as is the fake handoff.

[Sioux94]

Here is the thing.....I think most all of us realize Tommy does have some limitations.  Some people think his limitations are greater than others.  But what is Bubba supposed to do right now.....just cut Tommy and Quincy because they are never going to 'get us there' and start Feeney, because according to this board he is the second coming of Christ?  We all want our next QB to be even better than the one we currently have (which is probably normal).  But we've got what we've got for this year, maybe next year but Feeney will be in the mix then.  Just don't see why every week the 'Tommy will never get it done' drum has to be beat so loudly, we've all heard it for months already.  Just because we get tired of hearing that drum, doesn't mean the rest of us all love settling for mediocrity.

Hopefully we can get a big win on the road next week and keep the momentum going!  

[TBR]

2 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

 

Hopefully we can get a big win on the road next week and keep the momentum going!  

Last week I thought that every game but SDSU was winnable and that one more loss would probably keep us out of the playoffs.  After Saturday, beating SDSU appears doable.

[Sioux94]

1 hour ago, UND08 said:

I think what many people are overlooking here is that games are won and lost up front.  On Saturday, our offensive line got us 200+ yards rushing, limited penalties, and kept the QBs on their feet (albeit against a bottom tier MVFC team).  When that happens...this offense looks pretty dang good!  We still struggled in the red zone though...and that's because we couldn't generate enough push to knock WIU off the ball when everyone knew what was coming.  We often have to resort to "smoke and mirrors" to get it done inside the 20.  That is the single greatest limiting factor I see in our offense right now, and it's not totally unexpected with youth and inexperience moving into starting roles.  That should continue to improve as they season.

Tommy can fake a handoff and throw the ball 40 yards downfield...which is about all we ever ask of a QB in going deep.  He made a throw to Richter on Saturday that was right where it needed to be (and Richter made a great adjustment to it).  But with Maag not really being able to factor into the offense, our ability to stretch the field is SEVERELY limited right now.  We need to address that in a big way through recruiting/development if we want to take the next step.  The throw Tommy probably can't make is the 20 yard frozen rope into a window or a deep out route.  I'm not going to knock him too badly for it...outside of a couple of generational QB's at the farm school...there are a lot of FCS level QB's that can't make that throw.

This team will go as far as it's offensive line takes them in my opinion.  We looked damned good this spring when we were rushing for 275+ every game.  If we can get back to consistent 225+ yards per game on the ground, we will be just fine!

I was thinking this exact same thing.  The OL seemed to look good between the 20's....getting some nice chunks on the ground.  But when we get in the red zone are rushing the ball just gets squashed.  First and goal from the 5, Otis runs it three times for 1 yard. I think when it was 3rd and 5 Danny knew we were going to go for it on 4th and that's why he ran Otis again on 3rd down to catch them off guard, but still got absolutely nothing up the middle.  When you get inside the 20 and can't run up the middle, almost at all, that makes it tough to be efficient. 

[MoSiouxFan]

9 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

I was thinking this exact same thing.  The OL seemed to look good between the 20's....getting some nice chunks on the ground.  But when we get in the red zone are rushing the ball just gets squashed.  First and goal from the 5, Otis runs it three times for 1 yard. I think when it was 3rd and 5 Danny knew we were going to go for it on 4th and that's why he ran Otis again on 3rd down to catch them off guard, but still got absolutely nothing up the middle.  When you get inside the 20 and can't run up the middle, almost at all, that makes it tough to be efficient. 

It seems like we have good success, maybe better success running the ball to the outside.  For instance, Ziebarth was getting 5-15 yards to the outside on virtually every carry on Saturday.  I'm wondering why we don't do it more often.  Just depends on how the D is lined up?

[Sioux94]

9 minutes ago, MoSiouxFan said:

It seems like we have good success, maybe better success running the ball to the outside.  For instance, Ziebarth was getting 5-15 yards to the outside on virtually every carry on Saturday.  I'm wondering why we don't do it more often.  Just depends on how the D is lined up?

Maybe he has a little more speed that Otis so they ran outside more?  4 RB's have run for over 100 yard games this year.....that is pretty impressive when you are on your 5th string RB and he puts up 100 yards.  Nice to have such depth there.  Pretty sure Skokna was over 100 that one game. 

[MoSiouxFan]

2 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

Maybe he has a little more speed that Otis so they ran outside more?  4 RB's have run for over 100 yard games this year.....that is pretty impressive when you are on your 5th string RB and he puts up 100 yards.  Nice to have such depth there.  Pretty sure Skokna was over 100 that one game. 

Yes, we have an embarrassment of riches at running back when they're all healthy.  It seems like Skokna has had some nice gains to the outside, also.  Again, as you say, maybe he has more speed than Otis?

[TBR]

13 hours ago, SiouxBoys said:

Otis had a nice game yesterday, didn't he? Shame he's going down the path of Grady though...

Yes he looked good and I was rooting for him. 

[TBR]

I was wrong about Otis. For the record let it be noted that this incidence was the only time I've ever been wrong in my life.

[shep]

21 minutes ago, TBR said:

I was wrong about Otis. For the record let it be noted that this incidence was the only time I've ever been wrong in my life.

If you're married, we will need to confirm that with your spouse.

[TBR]

7 minutes ago, shep said:

If you're married, we will need to confirm that with your spouse.

Oh boy I'm back on the hot seat.

[wheelsup]

1 hour ago, Sioux94 said:

I was thinking this exact same thing.  The OL seemed to look good between the 20's....getting some nice chunks on the ground.  But when we get in the red zone are rushing the ball just gets squashed.  First and goal from the 5, Otis runs it three times for 1 yard. I think when it was 3rd and 5 Danny knew we were going to go for it on 4th and that's why he ran Otis again on 3rd down to catch them off guard, but still got absolutely nothing up the middle.  When you get inside the 20 and can't run up the middle, almost at all, that makes it tough to be efficient. 

Im also surprised by this.  It seems like we have a big left tackle, who is supposed to be going pro (who brought quite a contingent of fans on Saturday.. very nice family) and Otis.  It seems like we should be able to get a couple of yards when necessary running over the top of that big fella.

[UND08]

1 minute ago, wheelsup said:

Im also surprised by this.  It seems like we have a big left tackle, who is supposed to be going pro (who brought quite a contingent of fans on Saturday.. very nice family) and Otis.  It seems like we should be able to get a couple of yards when necessary running over the top of that big fella.

Not an esteemed football mind by any means...but I feel like if we think that...opposing D-Coordinators do to...then they overplay.  It's why the option call worked so well for us...we gave a look as if we were running an inside zone play, and countered back to the right on the option.  The right DE for WIU was sucked in and slipped...Tommy pitched early so he didn't have to take a hit (probably smart) and Weah trucked his way in.  The counter action fooled the defense and made them look kind of dumb.  We don't seem to run a whole lot of counter-type run plays...and maybe we need to do more of that in my woefully-uninformed opinion.

[homer]

2 minutes ago, UND08 said:

Not an esteemed football mind by any means...but I feel like if we think that...opposing D-Coordinators do to...then they overplay.  It's why the option call worked so well for us...we gave a look as if we were running an inside zone play, and countered back to the right on the option.  The right DE for WIU was sucked in and slipped...Tommy pitched early so he didn't have to take a hit (probably smart) and Weah trucked his way in.  The counter action fooled the defense and made them look kind of dumb.  We don't seem to run a whole lot of counter-type run plays...and maybe we need to do more of that in my woefully-uninformed opinion.

Same with the throwback to the QB.  They were crashing so hard on any short yardage play it was a very good adjustment by Danny.