Immediately after last week’s loss I tweeted to the UND faithful. The message was simple: don’t worry, this team will look completely different next week at home, burn the tape, back off the ledge and get ready to have some fun at Homecoming.
On cue, the Hawks came out and showed the 10K in attendance that last week was an exception, not the rule.
The end result was a 48-31 domination of the #7 team in the country and a rejuvenated team & fan base.
UND (3-2) now heads out on the road, once again, to take on the Youngstown State Penguins (2-2). Game time is set for 5:00pm CT.
The energy in the Alerus Center was excellent. Great game to be at and the fans were engaged on every series. The team fed off of it and you could see the confidence build.
Stop me if you heard this before: Tommy Schuster played well in this game. That is five games in a row where Tommy played well and ran the offense flawlessly. No false starts, confusion, etc.
Schuster went 22-29 for 267 yards and 2 TD’s. His lone INT was a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage. On the season Schuster is 107-154 (70%) for 1,133 yards and 7 TD vs 2 INT.
Time of possession: UND 36 MSU 24. This was a key I pointed to in the 360 Pregame Podcast. Keep Jason Shelley off the field and let their offense get stale, all while letting your own defense regroup and talk through things that just happened.
The UND offensive line played arguably their best game of the year. Very consistent run blocking, protection was there for the most part, as well. Seth Anderson played over half the game at right tackle for Sam Hagen. Peyton Lotysz came in for Danny Carroll, also. I am not reading into this at all. Three of those guys are freshman and the other, Anderson, has never started a game before this season. They need to find the combo that works that day. I wasn’t thrilled about the two illegal man downfield penalties that negated big plays but in the RPO offense it happens.
Tyler Hoosman was a man again this week. That kid runs hard and is powerful, yes, but man does he have vision. How many times does he alter his route via jump cut to the hole next to him? That takes vision and active feet. He ended the day with 147 yards on 16 carries and 1 TD (a big 55 yarder).
WR’s Garett Maag and Bo Belquist are becoming a force in the MVFC. They both rank in the Top 10 in receiving yards in the conference. They both beat All-American corner Montrae Braswell for scoring plays.
The UND defense took awhile to get their footing vs the high-powered Bears offense. The issue in the first half was UND allowed MSU to get into 2nd and short or 3rd and short. Those situations take a defense out of their game plan. So UND ends up calling stuff they don’t want to. In the second half UND was able to stay ahead of the chains and thus call the coverages they wanted.
UND changed up coverages nicely on Shelley in the second half. This allowed the pressure to get home as the star QB had to hold the ball longer to diagnose the defense. Ben McNaboe (1 sack, 1 TFL) and friends played well up front, along with ILB Devon Krzanowski (1 sack, 1 TFL) who played his best game of the season.
C.J. Siegel had a nice day defensively vs the talented Bears WR’s, like Ty Scott. Siegel broke up a couple passes and really seemed to control his side of the field. A nice surprise opposite Siegel was the play of CB Edmund Ocansey. The freshman had a nice end zone break up vs Scott, as well. Ocansey played with a lot of confidence and swagger out there.
Kicker Brady Stevens was named the MVFC Special Teams Player of the Week. He hit both his field goal attempts (42, 35), all four XP’s and averaged 61 yards per kickoff.
To be 3-2 after the first five games is about what we thought. I predicted all five games correctly thus far in my Predict The 2022 Season post. I do have UND losing this week to YSU in that post, but let’s wait til the Podcast on Wednesday to see if I change my mind.
Cover photo courtesy of Russ Hons & UND Athletics