UND played solid football in all 3 phases of the game on Saturday en route to a 31-6 victory over an athletic and talented Lamar team at the Alerus Center.  Here are our thoughts from the game:

Rumors
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  • This game could have been a lot worse on the scoreboard.  Mitch Sutton fumbled the ball inside the 10 after a 1st down reception in the 3rd quarter.  Brent Goska also fumbled at the goalline in the 4th quarter.
  • Goska played well in his first start of his career.  He didn’t really do anything flashy besides do exactly what the offense needed him to do – manage the offensive game plan.  Goska finished 18-24 for 229 yds passing and a TD.  He was also led the team in rushing with 95 yds.  Not sure we can remember the last time a UND QB led the team in rushing.  It should be noted that Goska also missed two open receivers on deep balls that would have been TDs.  Overall a pretty good performance for a kid who started his first game.  A good game to build on.
  • The UND O-line played exceptionally well and the offense almost had identical numbers rushing and passing – 223 yards rushing and 229 passing for 452 total yards of offense.  Great balance.  They also did not give up a sack.
  • With Goska at QB now, the offense has implemented the zone read triple option into the gameplan, which will maximize Goska’s athleticism in the run game.  They ran it pretty well considering this is new to the offensive gameplan.  It will be huge if they can execute it like they did against Lamar for the rest of the year.  Defenses will probably start forcing Goska to get rid of the ball, so he will need to work on carrying it out all the way and make a pitch to the running backs.  He is, however, very good at faking the handoff to the RB and then keeping it off-tackle.  Had us fooled a few times.
  • Speaking of running backs – Mitch Sutton had 16 carries for 76 yards and Josh Murray only carried it 3 times for 17 yards.  Murray also returned punts.  Smart decision by the coaching staff to limit Murray because of the hamstring injury.  Jake Miller came in and ran hard in the 2nd half as well.  He finished with 35 yards on 5 carries.
  • Senior Jarrel Davis followed up his Sioux Booster Luncheon speaking performance with a big play on Saturday.  Davis caught a pass, broke a tackle and then headed up the sidelines for a 57 yard TD in the 2nd quarter to give UND a 14-6 lead and the momentum heading into halftime.  That is the problem with playing too much man coverage, no help.
  • In what was by far the best overall game played by this defensive unit, UND held Lamar to 265 yards of offense and 6 points.  The secondary stepped up to make some plays on the ball, and Chris Hall returned his 1st career interception 20 yards for a TD in the 3rd quarter.  Joel Schwenzfeier added two more interceptions to give him 4 for the year.
  • The defensive front seven only had one sack in the game, but did a good job pressuring the Lamar QB to make him uncomfortable when throwing the ball.  We think the secondary would agree.
  • A ridiculous stat – UND has fumbled 8 times this year and lost them all.  Their opponents have fumbled 6 times this year and only lost 1.
  • Speed and youth – the freshman on the defensive side of the ball are getting more comfortable with each week that goes by and with that breeds confidence and speed.  Everyone plays faster when they know where they are supposed to be.  Dominique Bennett showed great sideline-to-sideline speed on more than one occasion to run down some plays.  Chris Hall and Chavon Mackey, both freshman corners, played a lot of football together at the same time and opposite of Dominique Hawkins.  You can tell they are starting to believe in themselves.
  • On special teams, sophomore punter Bret Cameron did a fantastic job pinning Lamar inside their own 10 yard line.  He did it 3 times.  Freshman kicker Zeb Miller attempted a 58 yard field goal that was just wide left and had 5 more yards to give.  The punt and kickoff coverage were excellent as well.
  • Overall, a good solid win over a mediocre, first year team.  Now they need to do it all over again vs a better, established team in UC-Davis.  Davis has beaten UND the last two years out in Davis and it’s time to pay them back.  It’s the first time that Davis has been back to Grand Forks since the 2001 semifinal playoff game.
  • Stay tuned to SFI for continuing Big Sky Conference updates.  We will also be tweeting at times.  Press Conference at 3pm today to lay out the road map for the future of Fighting Sioux athletics.