Despite a less than ideal start on defense and special teams, the UND football team thoroughly dominated the Southern Utah Thunderbirds on homecoming by a score of 45-23 in front of a loud crowd of 10,506.
- First downs: UND 28 SUU 17.
- Time of possession: UND 39:36 SUU 20:24. Huge disparity.
- UND was 8-15 on 3rd down offensively. They are getting better in this department after struggling mightily early on in season.
- UND Offense: 537 yards on 81 plays. SUU Offense: 356 yards on 60 plays.
- Kyle Norberg was great on the fullback quick-hitting trap running plays. He led UND in rushing with 73 yards on 6 carries. That was a wrinkle that was added this week by OC Paul Rudolph.
- QB Keaton Studsrud was dy-no-mite on Saturday. “Jimmie Walker style” dy-no-mite. His timing with the youthful WR corps is getting better by the game and his command of the game is at it’s peak right now. UND checks at the line almost every play and sometimes you can see Studsrud check his wristband quick while still under center. Those checks are becoming more accurate as the season progresses. Studsrud ended the game 20-27 for 287 yards and 4 TD’s. Damn near flawless performance.
- You know how to gain the respect of your teammates as a QB? When it’s third and two and you’re hit for a 1/2 yard loss – you then drag the other teams best linebacker for 3 yards and get the first down. Exactly what Studsrud did on UND’s first drive to keep it alive, resulting in a TD.
- The UND offensive line played well again. A few pass protection issues early in the game but a good performance once again. They completely wore out the T-Birds defensive line by the end of the 3rd quarter. Early on SUU was able to clog up the inside running lanes but as the game wore on the holes got bigger and bigger.
- UND’s wide receivers are improving by leaps and bounds every week. Demun Mercer, Luke Stanley, Travis Toivonen and Noah Wanzek all caught TD’s. Three of them were highly contested balls that somehow, someway the UND guy came down with. Starting to get used to it. These young kids definitely get after the ball at it’s highest point and have strong hands (see our feature image for this post – SUU defender has Toivonen’s facemask in his hand and doesn’t even phase him).
- Regarding the kickoff return for TD by Southern Utah – chalk one up for the T-Birds. We were told they almost always return the kickoff to the field side, meaning they catch it on the left hash and head to the right. This time they headed straight up the left hash and caught the UND coverage team out of position. UND still had chances to tackle #85 Raysean Pringle but to his credit and made them miss and took it all the way.
- Kickoff coverage has been a bit of an issue, in general, this season. Not terrible but could be better.
- UND blocked another field goal this week, their second in as many weeks. Austin Cieslak got this one. Was a big stop for the defense to keep the game 28-23.
- On the long SUU perimeter screen for a TD in the 1st quarter, UND had it bottled up for a minimal gain if they just make the 1-on-1 tackle. However, the most concerning aspect of that play were the pursuit angles and effort from the backside. Too many assumptions were made. This defense prides itself on pursuit and that was a terrible display of “day 1” type pursuit drills. That cannot happen.
- On the flip side: Pertaining to the long running play by SUU up their own sideline in the first half that was called back because of a holding call, we noticed incredible pursuit and hustle. OLB Jake Disterhaupt, who was run by initially on the line of scrimmage after being engaged by an OL, dropped the hammer to rundown the RB on the sideline. Yes it was called back. But great effort and speed shown by #48. Always have to make them snap it again.
- Disterhaupt and freshman Jade Lawrence had noticeably solid games at the OLB spot. Both were very active and disruptive all game.
- A chess match broke out between the UND Defense and the SUU offense on Saturday. Lots of back and forth adjustments on both sides. Early on, the perimeter screen game (swing, tunnel, bubble) was hurting UND. In the second half, it was the quick-hitting stick and out routes. After a timeout by UND early in the 2nd half (greatest random timeout ever), UND made the adjustment to bump-out another guy on the bubble-screen motion. Defensive end Austin Cieslak was the first one to make that adjustment and play for a TFL. Pretty impressive for the big guy on that play.
- The UND defense played a ‘decent’ game. They only allowed 51 yards rushing but did allow 356 yards of total offense. They also notched two more INT’s to give them 13 on the year, which is #1 in all of FCS football. It was good to see them play that way without Cole Reyes, who we hope is back this week.
- Senior linebackers Brian Labat and Jake Hanson gathered in the interceptions. We feel great for Hanson (Grafton, ND), who was moved from QB to linebacker and stuck it out with the team for five years just to be a part of it all. He made the most of his opportunity Saturday with a nice pick along the sideline. Textbook “sacrifice for the betterment of the team” example.
- At the end of the game UND took a knee on the 9 yard line as a gesture to not run up the score. SUU then came out and ran two plays as fast as they could with the second one being a pass that resulted in LB Connor O’Brien getting earholed at the buzzer and laying on the turf. Not worth it. Try to score, kick the field goal, something. The Big Sky doesn’t play by those rules and that is fine. UND doesn’t need to, either. Punch it in. We were very surprised by the way SUU chose to handle those last two plays.
Feature Image Courtesy of Russell Hons. http://www.undsports.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=211231008&SPSID=58640&SPID=6399&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=13500&PALBID=1990358
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