It was yet another fun day in the Forks on Saturday. The town was in a festive mood with the annual Potato Bowl parade going on and weather being perfect.
The crowd inside the Alerus Center was in a joyful mood, as well, watching their beloved Hawks overwhelm the NAU Lumberjacks 37-22. The win upped UND’s record to 2-0. NAU dropped to 0-2.
UND now heads out west to take on the Mountain West conference front-runner Boise State Broncos. Boise dropped a heart-breaker 18-16 to Central Florida last week to fall to 0-2. The Hawks have a mad dog waiting for them.
It was a bit of a clunky game at times. UND scored 37 points but it felt like a struggle, at least early – which tells you how good this offense really is. The Hawks only scored 13 points in the first half but certainly could’ve had more. They then, once again, came out of the locker room and dominated the third quarter (17-6).
Was pleased by the play of the offensive line. The inside zone game was very strong, pretty much getting yards at will. UND rushed for 150 yards and only gave up one sack.
Guess what? Tommy Schuster played a really good game on Saturday. Again. I know I am a broken record at this point but he is just playing high-level consistent, trustworthy football on a weekly basis. Tommy went 21-30 for 259 yards and 1 TD.
UND had 3 penalties for 15 yards. NAU had 11 penalties for 74 yards.
Two of UND’s penalties were false starts by Kilty and Ventrelli (surprising but wouldn’t expect many more of them this year).
The crowd came up big in the 2nd quarter as NAU was inside the red zone. The Lumberjacks got two false starts in four plays to kill their drive and force a field goal. The second false start was on 4th and 1! The UND faithful were into all game and should be commended.
Bo Belquist was a star again with 8 catches for 123 yards, including a big 39 yard grab on 4th and 1 later in the game. I like that Danny Freund and Tommy Schuster aren’t overthinking this thing – get the ball to your best players the most often. After that whatever has to happen is great too.
Center Cade Borud is playing well. For a redshirt freshman to look this polished at such a tough position is impressive.
Great to see Luke Skokna back on the field. Kid is straight energy when he has the ball. He ended the day with 6 carries for 32 yards and a reception for 24 yards.
The Hawks are bringing in nose guard Jeffrey Griffin on short yardage situations to be the lead fullback. The 6’0″-310 Griffin moves quite well and proved to be effective in that role.
Defensively, the Hawks played just a solid game but not great. Alot to work on. Coverage downfield was an issue at times along with secondary rush contain from the linebackers/twisting DE. Contain was broke too many times for my liking.
With that being said UND only gave up three first half points and had a 37-9 lead in the middle of the fourth quarter. The Hawks defense bowed up nicely on multiple drives that looked promising for NAU.
The Lumberjacks had 445 yards of total offense but that is not too surprising. They always move the ball on people – the key was keeping them out of the end zone.
UND forced one turnover for a +1 turnover margin. Jake Saltonstall caught a fumble that popped up in the air after Millner was sacked by Josh Navratil.
I like what I am seeing out of UND’s outside linebackers early in the year. Navratil, Teddy Mullin, and Dylan Boecker have been noticeable and active. We asked for it and called it a potential issue to watch for but they are playing well thus far.
UND had three sacks (Pedigo, Navratil, Beach).
QB Kai Millner played a solid game for NAU – he kept them in the game with his scrambling & designed runs. Multiple times he broke contain and found a receiver late to move the chains and quiet the Alerus crowd. He ended the day 20-33 for 258 yards and 2 TD’s.
NAU’s receivers are similar to UND’s in that they’re very good getting open once the play breaks down. Nothing harder to cover than intelligent receivers that know how to flow with a scrambling QB.
UND punter Luke Silvernale has punted three times in two games. Silvernale had a beautiful checkup punt inside the 5 yard line right before half.
No issues with the kicking game in this one.
Kickoff coverage was much more lively this week. Jett Sutton, Malachi McNeal, Antonio Bluiett were all in on crowd-pleasing plays.
We wanted 2-0 after Drake and Northern Arizona. We got it.
Now UND enters a stretch of games that will be much tougher. Boise State is loaded once again and will be a handful this weekend out on the blue turf. But, this UND team has skill, talent and confidence. Will be a fun game to watch. Remember kickoff is at 11am CT so be up and ready to roll!
Photos courtesy of Russell Hons & UND Athletics