The UND Football team went on the road Saturday and lost to Missouri State 38-0. The Bears are a good football team and will win some games this year but to get shutout by them certainly raises our level of concern. We knew there would be growing pains after the coaching change but early on it appears their growth has been stunted.
There were a few glaring issues that either popped up or re-surfaced in this game that need to be addressed:
- UND had two special teams penalties in the game. Both of them were kick return interference on an MSU punt return. That should not happen more than once a year, if that, let alone twice in one game. This can be fixed.
- Senior Baylee Carr appeared to have blown the coverage on the long TD pass to WR Willis Chambers. Chambers ran down the sideline untouched and the safety never came overtop of him. On the other long TD, the WR just ran by corner Alex Tillman. Tillman was looking into the backfield way too long and lost track of the receiver.
- Tillman cannot keep pinning his own offense inside the two yard line by making bad decisions on punt returns. At SJSU, he decided not to field a punt at the 15 and it rolled to the 1 yard line. On Saturday, he caught a punt on the 3 yard line and was tackled at the 2. With the way the UND offense is playing, these kind of decisions absolutely cannot happen.
- We are wondering what the next move is for the UND offensive staff. QB Joe Mollberg is not getting it done early on in the season. OC Paul Rudolph pulled Mollberg in the fourth quarter on Saturday in favor of fellow sophomore Ryan Bartels. Both played last season and nobody wants to see that happen again this year. If neither of them can get anything done, what does Rudolph do? Tough spot to be in.
- The defense needs to continue to shore up their point of attack fundamentals. The OLB’s are continually getting kicked out on the ends, creating a huge hole off the offensive tackle’s outside hip (C gap). The interior defensive line is doing a nice job, actually. The opponent’s running games are shifting to outside run’s vs. UND because of their inability to hold the line on the outside edges. The outside zone running play is killing UND right now.
I have seen a comparison to UND’s situation that seem to make sense. South Dakota went 1-10 in Joe Glenn’s first season at USD. Glenn instituted his defense, his offense and his way of running a team. There were growing pains and blowout losses but he stuck with it because he knew his way of coaching works.
This is what we are witnessing at UND. They are going to run their offense the way it is meant to be run. Will they throw in a few wrinkles, like 4 wide receivers? Yes. Everyone does that but the base package will stay with a fullback, tight end, and two wide receivers.
What we want to see is improvement. We have not seen it yet but there is also nine games left in the season. Eliminating the mistakes we bulleted above will go along way to showing improvement on the field. This offense is not going to score 30 pts/game in 2014. But they can continue to run the ball and hope their RB’s improve to the point they can get through those holes quicker, along with seeing the hole when it opens. It’s not always the playside that opens up.
We would welcome any comments on what you have seen thus far or what you want to see in the future. Obviously, we did not cover everything that is going on.
I think persistence on the offensive side of the ball is best, for now. What the offense has right now in terms of personnel is all that will be there for 2014. Hopefully, those players continue to improve; thus, the entire offense improves as the season progresses. Obviously, some new players with new abilities will be playing for the offense in years 2 and 3 of Bubba’s regime.
I think the defense is certainly ahead of the offense and they have a chance to keep UND in quite a few games this season, particularly at home in the Alerus Center.
I expect/hope to see the offense and special teams improve this Saturday vs. Stony Brook in the Alerus Center. With crowd support and complimentary play by the offense, I think the defense can get UND their second win of the season on September 2oth.
Go UND!
Heart anything as to when Stockwell will be back to maybe give some help to the o-line?
No we haven’t. If the initial timeline of a month is true, than he should be close.
This might sound nuts but I am not as concerned with the offensive line as most. Do they have issues? YES. But, the pass protection has not been all that bad. Mollberg bails out of the pocket too quickly at times and then it ruins the timing of the play. There was a pass play in the MSU game where the WR ran a double move and was WIDE OPEN but Mollberg bailed to quick and then had to throw off his back foot so it was underthrown and then knocked down. That was a TD.
I agree that the pass protection hasn’t been that bad. I was at the game and I believe I know the play you’re referring to, as I was standing behind the end zone (had to buy an SRO ticket) and the play was coming toward me; the ball was underthrown by 4-5 yards, otherwise the receiver catches it in stride for a TD.
With Norberg becoming a runningback now, what ever happened to Patrick Sharp?
Yes apparently he is. He was a little stiff at ILB and didn’t seem to be progressing so we applaud the move by the coaching staff. He was a very good fullback in high school and maybe his running style will lend better to the RB position. They just need to get the best players on the field, wherever that may be.
Sharp is around but has not been able to pickup the entire package of being a RB, from what we have heard. Pass blocking, pass catching, etc. are all things that are a must in this offense.
Any word on how banged up Shaugabay is? Hoping Garman isn’t the only healthy back this weekend.
Obviously our offense is not very good. That is primarily because we have receivers who can not get open and when they do get open our quarterback is inaccurate. Every team that we have played so far, their corners have been better than our receivers. This has allowed them to play a lot of man coverage and stack the box against the run. Quite frankly, our offensive line has played pretty well under those circumstances. They have given the quarterback time to throw and have created what running room they can against a stacked box.
I like our defense overall. Too much pressure is being put on them by a lack of the offense moving the ball. football is a game of field position and we are losing that battle every game. We have a very capable D line, a really talented group of linebackers and corners that can cover. however I am NOT impressed with the starting safeties. after watching him play Saturday number 13 should be starting at free safety and number 8 should be starting at strong safety when he gets healthy.
this team has enough talent to win now and I think our fan base allows for too many excuses for not winning. Having a really good program starts with the fans expectations. no we are not a championship team and Missouri State was flat out better than us but not 38 points better. I think we also got out coached. the on field coaching needs to be better as does talent evaluation and who should be on the field. examples are #2 starting at RB and 38 and 40 starting at Safety. there are better players available.
That is a pretty damn good synopsis of the season to this point, nice job.
Regarding the safeties, Reyes is their best safety hands down. He has been hurt. The backups are a true freshman (Montague), a juco who just became eligible last week (Blackmon) and four four walk-ons (James, Coyle, Carr, and Olson). They were down to three walk-ons vs. RMU and just got Blackmon back last week but he has never played. Not much the coaches can do, IMO. Yes, the safety play has been down but that is because of an extreme lack of experience and injuries. It will get better once Reyes is back, which is this week.
Just keep running the ball and playing defense. Eventually, the offense will hit some big plays, whether it be a big run or a long PA pass. In all reality, Rudolph has called some plays to try and stretch the field (double-moves, reverse passes, flea flickers, etc.), but they just haven’t worked out yet. Part of that is the YPC average; if UND can run the ball a little better on first and second down, then I think Mollberg will be better in the PA game. Only been 3 games running this style of offense, so I’d like to think the offense can still come around and improve.
my problem with joe is that if he can’t hit the easy passes how the hell is he gonna hit the harder passes (and some of these harder passes are pretty easy if you think about it) like the double more by the true freshman in the rmu game…should’ve been a td standing up yet we had a blocked fg so no points?
Agree with both ‘New UD’ and ‘oskie’ by their statements; “coaching needs to be done better as does talent evaluation and who should be on the field”, along with “good synopsis of the season to this point”. Thought this year would be different, scores are outragous and same as last year, while some of the best players watch from the sidelines. Player to watch (if they finally decide to play him right): check out #24, Maverick Edmunds. This player is one of a kind, who not only plays special teams first string, but can also read a field on both offense and defense with the best players in the game. Because of his versitility, endurance, and ability to play excellent ball in a handful of key positions, it appears hes being used as a backup or stepping stone in case single position players get hurt or kicked off the team for violations or quit. Natural players like him are rare. He like a number of players with a solid string of State Titles and recognitions deserve to play with the best. UND what did you do to get such a fine player only to put him on the sideline? Last year was bad enough, appears he stuck it out because of his dedication to the sport and team. If you’ve watched Costners recent movie ‘the draft’, hes aligned with the two kids Costner sought for his team. Lots of people are asking about him now because there are so many player injuries from bad plays or talent on the field. Others like Edmunds, we need to hear about. Players like him put people in the stands.