The UND Football team earned a huge comeback win on Saturday vs. Portland State, beating the Vikings 24-16 in what turned out to be a fantastic football game. The ending of the game, with all the chances PSU had to tie it, was second-to-none as far as drama goes. UND now heads into a much needed bye week with a record of 3-4. That sounds a heck of a lot better than 2-5, I know that much.
- QB controversy anybody? After Joe Mollberg exited the game late in the first quarter due to a concussion-related symptom, fellow sophomore Ryan Bartels came in and didn’t get much done, only completing two passes before halftime. However, Bartels must have settled in mentally over the halftime break because he came out in the second half and immediately led the UND offense down the field on a beautiful 13 play – 75 yard drive that ended in a Bartels 1 yard TD sneak. Bartels ended the game going 14-23 for 151 yards and 1 TD, with another TD rushing. UND has a full week to decided what they want to do but we are assuming that Mollberg will continue to start once he clears protocol.
- The UND defense continues to play inspired, high-quality defense. They gave up a TD on the first drive of the game, a drive that saw the Vikings move right down the field at will and easily score on a 50-yard TD pass from Kieran McDonagh to WR Stevie Coury. From that point on the Vikings never saw the end zone again. The coaching staff made adjustments to the little wheel/scissor route that PSU kept running and made it a non-factor, slowing down their offensive production.
- We are extremely happy that Alex Tillman transferred to UND from the University of Houston for his senior season. Tillman broke open the game for UND with a thrilling 95-yard punt return for a TD midway through the fourth quarter. Tillman was the one who essentially won the Stony Brook game with a 92-yard INT return for TD. He is a true leader on the field and a cornerstone of the UND defense and special teams.
- In a bit of a twist, UND turned to senior RB Jer Garman to carry the load as the game wore on and he didn’t disappoint. Garman ended the game with 17 carries for 56 yards but also caught a huge pass from Bartels that went for 30 yards.
- Redshirt freshman walk-on WR Josh Seibel from Bismarck High had an unpredictable break-out night for UND. Seibel ended the game with 9 receptions for 60 yards and four of those catches were for first downs. From everything we have heard, Seibel has never played WR before but is obviously showing tremendous athleticism.
- We tweeted about the offsides call on UND OLB Brian Labat at the end of the game. He wasn’t offsides, at all. So what happens? Well, the line judge on the OTHER side of the field calls him offsides, the same guy who threw three flags on that last drive. On tape, Labat clearly OK’s his alignment with the line judge on his side. BTW, Portland State had a bad snap on that play and lost 10 yards. They would have been back around the 17 yard line on fourth down. Instead, they were at the 4 yard line on third down. Here is a picture to illustrate the play (the ball was just snapped):
