Well, it happened again.
Idaho State came into the Alerus Center on Saturday and beat UND on Homecoming.
Honestly, we don’t even care about the specific X’s and O’s of the game. First half was a wash, second half was pretty much a wash except the Bengals made one more play than UND did. We’re going to spare you the highlights.
What we do care about was the biggest play of the game when UND QB Nate Ketteringham fumbled the hand-off attempt to Brady Oliveira on the goal line. It appeared that Ketteringham went the wrong way and reverse pivoted after the snap, which forced him to extend his arm out as far as possible to reach Brady in time, hitting him in the chest area with the ball. Brady reached up to try and grab it and basically batted into the end zone where ISU recovered.
If they are able to execute that simple handoff the game is now 21-6 for the good guys as Oliveira would’ve walked in rather easily for the TD. Instead, the building deflates and ISU goes down the field in three plays to make it 14-13. Maddening.
This football team’s margin for error is relatively small. They need to play well in all three phases to win a tough game. Or at least play ‘well’ for the majority of the game. That didn’t happen and they lose by 4 points.
The running game was there again in the first half. John Santiago (114 yards, 1 TD) and Brady Oliveira (87 yards) bring it every week – their consistency is to be commended.
This recent trend of the UND offense coming out hot and running all over teams only to be completely shut down in the second half is concerning. It tells us that defensive coordinators are figuring it out at halftime but there is no ensuing cat/mouse game. The UND offense isn’t adjusting with a new look or plan. 21 points in the first half. 0 in the second half.
Want to know why ISU ran all over UND in the first half? One reason is alignment. UND walked their weakside ILB (Noah Larson) up over the center vs 10/20 personnel and widened strongside ILB Donnell Rodgers over #3 to the strong side. Essentially leaving nobody in the box to read/react. If the walked-up ILB didn’t make the play or was blocked there was nobody left. All QB Tanner Gueller did in those situations was count the box, then hand the ball off. The Hawk’s ILB’s played poorly in the first half.
However, the ILB’s played much better in the second half making numerous one-on-one tackles in the hole. DC Eric Schmidt moved them back to a typical two linebacker look and they were able to take care of the zone running game of the Bengals.
Giving up 566 yards of offense to Idaho State is obviously unacceptable. Not sure how that even happens at home in front of a raucous crowd.
If there was a bright spot it was the continued high-level play of free safety Jordan Canady. The sophomore playmaker was all over the field notching an interception and a nice pass breakup on a deep ball when he was initially beat. Canady is a future star in this Hawk defense if he can continue to improve at this pace.
We will see how UND reacts this week to getting punched in the mouth as they head out to Nottingham Field to take on the UNC Bears.
UNC is playing better ball this year even though the record (0-4) doesn’t show it. We watched them vs. Weber State last week and they were giving the Wildcats everything they wanted for most the game and making big plays of their own. This will be a tough one.
Photo courtesy of Eric Burton
