The UND Football team squeaked out a 16-13 Potato Bowl victory on Saturday over Robert Morris. It wasn’t the prettiest of games but what was encouraging is that UND found ways to make big plays and win game.
Good
- The defense came up with multiple stops in the third and fourth quarters to allow UND to win the game. It was SIX stops in a row, to be exact, after RMU scored their touchdown to open the second half. With UND up by 3 for the entire fourth quarter, the defense was able to keep coming out and getting stops.
- ILB Will Ratelle. He had 13 more tackles on Saturday and has become a rock on the inside of the 3-4 defense. His form tackling and aggressive play is fun to watch.
- Three blocked kicks. The UND defense blocked two field goals and an extra point. Awesome effort by the interior of that defensive line, especially the two who broke through – Spencer Cummings (2) and Jordan Hinojosa.
- Corner Alex Tillman had a nice game in coverage, returning punts, and laying bone-shattering hits like the one on the Robert Morris receiver. He also intercepted a pass but was called for a questionable holding call before the pass was thrown.
- WR RJ McGill stepped up when UND needed somebody in the third quarter. McGill took the short crossing route and turned on the speed to split the Colonials defense on his way to a 32 yard TD.
- QB Joe Mollberg showed nice touch on the deep seam pass to TE Kyle Ruhe, floating it in between three defenders. Ruhe is proving to a bonafide deep threat from the tight end position.
- UND was +2 on the day in turnover ratio.
- True freshman kicker Reid Taubenheim had another good day. He went 3-4 on field goals, connecting from 20, 45, and 35.
- Thompson, ND native #15 Garrett Reinecke played no doubt his best game of his career at OLB. His relentless pursuit and effort lent itself to making some big plays, including a sack late in the game. You can tell it means something to him to be on the field wearing the UND uniform by the way he plays.
Not So Good
- Time of Possession was 35 to 25 in favor of the Colonials. That is not ball control offense.
- The UND offense was 3 for 15 on third down.
- 8-22 passing will simply not get it done. Even considering the few drops, that’s still only 50%.
- UND: 268 yards total offense.
- Lets call it like it is, the UND offense was abysmal on Saturday. Besides the fact they only had 268 total yards, the entire flow of the offense was off. If it wasn’t bad QB/Center exchanges, it was poor blocking in both the running and passing game, or overthrows/underthrows to the receiver, or flat out drops. Nothing really clicked on Saturday, except for the one drive where QB Joe Mollberg hit WR RJ McGill for the 32 yard TD. Even that could be chalked up to blown coverage based on the fact the pass was only about 6-7 yards and McGill was able to run 25 yards into the end zone. On UND’s biggest play from scrimmage, Mollberg badly underthrew WR Brandon Walker, who had his man beat by at least 3 yards. If he hits him in stride, it’s a TD. Instead, UND came away with no points after the Taubenheim missed FG.
- We’ve been saying this for a while now, but it’s officially time for QB Joe Mollberg to take over this team. Be the leader, be the voice. If your running back turns the wrong way on a handoff, straighten him out. The center exchanges need to be figured out now, not later. Also, on the UND lost fumble, Mollberg appeared to accidentally hand it off to the wrong player, fullback Dustin Iverson, who was supposed to be the blocker on the lead draw play. Obviously, Iverson was not ready for it and the ball fell to the turf. “Jet” motions need to be timed up better and more consistently, as well. These are all just honest, objective observations and constructive criticisms. This all needs to be better.
- The play of the OLB’s on the zone running plays was poor. The outside zone runs were the big one’s that RMU running back Rameses Owens killed UND on. That kid is going to be a special player, by the way. Anyway, on those plays the OLB’s need to fold into the area and make the play or at least pinch it down and make the RB cut back. It was way too easy and credit the RMU staff for noticing that.
- UND needs to find a running back who wants to hit the hole hard and accelerate at the point of contact with the defender (is this groundhog’s day?). Same problems as Week 1 vs. SJSU. The RB’s need to get going faster and worry less about cutting and juking and avoiding contact. These running plays are not slow developing, for the most part.
The question I heard numerous times during and after the game was why Shaugabay didn’t get at least a few more carries?
We need to give Shaugabay the damn ball. Poor kid busts his ass and has great runs more than not when he gets the ball. He runs too damn hard to just stand and watch the other RBs shy away from contact.
Couldn’t agree more. Shaugabay needs more touches. The RB’s need to hit the line with more purpose. The defense was fun to watch, and I was impressed with the intensity the whole team showed. Much improved from a year ago.
I agree with Shaugabay comments. He had two large rushes but limited playing time…why? Garman is not big enough. Simmons needs to quit dancing and hit the holes faster. Simmons also seems tentative to get hit. Good RB’s will make a hit and keep their legs in motion. Not sold on the Simmons hype yet.
This game was a win. RMU is nowhere near the team that visited Fargo a few years back in the playoffs. They were a good match up for us though. A good team would have rolled. We only won by a hair.
I must admit that my hope for a three win season went out the window after this game. Here is my reasoning:
1) Our defense is too small, and too slow. We gave up huge yards and time of possession to a mediocre team.
2) We still can’t run the ball. Agree that Shaugabay should be the man.
3) The receivers have trouble with press coverage and there are still drops. I thought these freshmen were going to be something special but I haven’t seen it yet.
4) We barely beat a bad team.
Games against Montana, Montana State, Eastern Washington are going to be ugly.
It amazes me how surprised people are that UND is struggling right now. Did hiring a new staff make the old players better overnight? The team won 3 games last year and lost their two best players (Hardin and Golladay).
To respond to your comments:
(1) – The defense tried to bring in some jucos/transfers to help and Tillman has but the others have not to this point. The defense was “small and slow” last season too so I don’t know what you wanted to see differently in one season.
(2) – The offensive line is struggling and needs time and more depth to become an effective run blocking bunch. Once again, they couldn’t run last year so I don’t know why people thing they would immediately be able to this year. It takes time to implement their system.
(3) – The freshman receivers are better than the older receivers in practice and in games so they are going to play. McGill is the best WR on the team but after that it is Walker and then maybe Ferguson.
The team won, awesome! On to the next win!! Good luck guys! I have confidence in the coaches and the team.
Good points Oskie. We’re a long way from being a good team. Hopefully, UND will support Bubba for the time it takes to get things rolling. As far as Shags, it embarrasses me as a 60 year old, life long Sioux fan to see fellow zealots know more than the coaching staff about who should play and when. Shags will get more chances, but our O line is what it is. He was lucky enough last week to be on the field when there was actually some good execution up front on TWO plays. Garman was met in the backfield or at the line on most of his carries, not much any back can do on that type of line execution. The coaching staff is in trenches, day after day, and they desparately want to win. It baffles me that some fans think they understand things that coaches simply can’t comprehend. Its the fans right, but its still utterly baffling. It’s not favoritism, it’s not imcompetence. It’s the coaches situationally playing personnel that they feel gives them the best chance on that play.