On the Tailgate Show with Shannon Schweigert we laid out our breakdown of the game along with our predictions, like we typically do. Kelly thought it would be a tight three point game for UND. Craig felt the Hawks would win by about 12. The Schweigert Brothers and Charlie Bridgeford predicted comfortable victories, as well.
None of us were even close. The Hawks came out from the opening kickoff and dominated the Northern Colorado Bears to the tune of 38-13. It wasn’t even as close as it sounds, either. All this despite more questionable officiating by yet another Big Sky crew.
This was by far the best all-around effort from the 2018 UND Football team. Special teams were even nearly flawless.
So after reading that you must think we found nothing to complain about. Not so fast, compadres. We ALWAYS can find something to complain about and this week it’s penalties – and there were lots of them. Bottom line: 11 penalties for 125 yards is way too many. The box score said 8-95 yards but UND got two personal fouls on the last touchdown by UNC (where they sadly left their starters in with two mins left of a 38-7 game).
The personal foul penalties to Nate Ketteringham and Mason Bennett were legit. Both hits were after the play and uncalled for. Those are the types of penalties that will cost UND a game down the stretch.
One excusable personal foul was when Austin Gordon got his helmet knocked off during the kickoff but continued to go after the returner. It was a penalty, yes, but its hard for kid to stop when he is so close to the ball. Gotta love Gordon’s reckless abandon to keep going after returner.
Hawks opened the game with an astounding 15 play – 71 yard drive that ate up 8:18 off the clock. It resulted in a 37 yard Brady Leach field goal. Sure they would have liked a touchdown but that methodical, dominating drive set the tempo for the rest of the game.
UND had 474 yards of total offense with 351 of it coming via the ground game. The UND offense also finished 7-14 on 3rd down. Beautiful.
The Brady Oliveira touchdown run that made it 17-7 was a thing of beauty for the UND offense. Man-on-man blocking with FB Graham Devore and WR Izzy Adeoti both contributing nice open field seal blocks.
The third quarter struggles continued for the offense. Coming out of the half they went punt, punt, INT. Not what we wanted to see but the defense was playing well so it wasn’t as big of a deal.
Good to see freshman WR Mikey Greibel get in the game returning kickoffs. Greibel, the Colorado native, returned 1 kickoff for 15 yards in place of the injured John Santiago (who did not play at all).
Time of possession: UND 39 UNC 21.
The Nate Ketteringham QB run play inside the 10 yard line is becoming quite effective. He ran in two more TD’s yesterday out of that same designed play.
Congratulations to true freshman running back Otis Weah on his first career TD in the fourth quarter! He actually had a heavy workload in the 4th quarter, running the ball five times for 28 yards and the one TD.
Running backs James Johannesson (22-141) and Brady Oliveira (21-123-2 TD) were bruising forces all game. This was the kind of game UND needed to play and get their confidence back – forcing the opponent to wilt by the 4th quarter. Without their slasher, John Santiago, it was good to see the offensive line adapt to the needed running style of the day.
Not to be outdone by their teammates on the other side of the ball, the UND defense was outstanding most of the game. UNC came in to the game averaging 391 yards/game vs. a very formidable schedule. The Hawks held them to 201 total yards on only 51 plays. Oh, and 60 of those yards came on that last drive with two mins left when it was 38-7. Pretty good game plan.
Speaking of game plans, we said on the Tailgate Show that UNC tends to tip their hand when they want to take shots deep, etc on offense. We also stated it would be telling if you saw UND timing up pressures correctly and such. Well, they did, which meant the game plan of when to bring pressure and when not to worked.
UND held all-everything speedster Alex Wesley to two catches for 50 yards. One was a bubble screen at the end of the game for 18 yards. Another was a fly sweep where the QB Regan flipped it forward to him in motion. So essentially Wesley caught zero passes past the line of scrimmage.
UNC was 1-10 on third down conversions.
QB Keaton Mott, who came into the game averaging 286 yards per game was held to 17 yards on 2-11 passing before leaving the game at halftime with an injury.
The front seven for UND were relentless all day and controlled things well. UND had five sacks and nine TFL’s on the day with DE Mason Bennett adding his sixth sack of the season. Bennett is playing at an All-Conference level each and every week right now. If he keeps up this pace, we could be talking All-American type level by the end of the season.
Punter Cade Peterson is starting to warm up. The true freshman averaged 40 yards/punt with a long of 50, which was a booming drive that pinned UNC back to their 8 yard line after a Hawk 3-and-out. Peterson put four punts inside the 20 on Saturday. Don’t discount how big of an effect that has on the other teams offense and how much it helps UND’s defense.
UND now has two weeks to heal up and prepare for the Top-Ten nationally ranked Montana Grizzlies at The Alerus Center on October 13th. Montana hosts Portland State this week for their homecoming. This bye week is coming at the perfect time for the UND offense, who is beat up along the OL.
