The Game Vitals
Game Time – 3:05 CT
Opponent – Montana State Bobcats (Bobcats Stadium – Bozeman, MT)
Game Notes – UND
TV – None
Online Streaming – Big Sky TV
Spread – Montana State -19
Montana State Breakdown (2-2 record)
— Offense = Spread, no-huddle, hurry up
— Defense = 4-3
— Last Meeting: 2013 – Montana State won 63-20 in Grand Forks
Montana State is coming off a devastating 52-51 loss at home to Eastern Washington last week. They were leading much of the game but lost on a Mario Brown TD run with 27 seconds left. Very entertaining game between two of the best offenses in the country.
Offensively, Montana State is as good as they have ever been. They run a hurry-up, no huddle spread straight from the Chip Kelly school of offense. Very similar to what is being run at Oregon still to this day. The Cats will spread you out with 3-4 wide receivers and try to gash you with runs/sweeps/jet handoffs.
The offense is led by first year QB Dakota Prukop. He has seamlessly filled the shoes of former Cat QB Denarius McGhee, who is one of the best to ever play in the Big Sky. On the year Prukop had led the Cat offense to a 41 pt/game average and an impressive 485 yards/game. Prukop himself is 64-95 for 881 yards and 7 TD’s. Oh, did we mention he is also the leading rusher for the Cats? Yep, he has already ran for 412 yards in the first four games, tacking on another 6 TD’s rushing.
Defensively, Montana State appears to use a pretty standard 4-3 defense. They will shade over/under along the defensive line. They are not an overly crazy pressure team, seeming to pick and choose their spots to blitz. The Bobcat defense is giving up 33 points per game thus far in 2014, albeit they have played some pretty good offenses in Eastern Washington and Arkansas State.
North Dakota (2-2) Keys to the Game
- Remember last week when we said UND had to “play their best defensive game of the year”? They did. But now we really mean it. Stony Brook’s offense was offensive, as it turned out. Montana State’s offense is one of the best in the country. Whole ‘nother animal this week.
- Take away Prukop and let RB’s Shawn Johnson and Anthony Knight beat you. UND’s OLB’s need to go to the QB this week in the zone-read game, very similar to how they played Kierra Harris a few weeks ago. Make the running backs beat you, not the QB.
- The Bobcat offense will put the ball on the turf, fumbling 5 times already this year. This offense is similar to a triple-option offense in that way, they like to ball fake handoffs and at time there can be snafu’s. Get on them.
- Run the ball. The Cats defensive line is not nearly as good as Stony Brook’s D-line. They are a solid unit but don’t have the dude’s UND saw last week. Get a push and let newly found RB/former LB Kyle Norberg chew up yards.
- Have a day, Conor Bolduc. UND is going to need Bolduc to have his best day yet punting the ball. Gotta help the UND defense out by making the dynamic Cat offense go full fields.
We were completely wrong last week in our prediction. UND came out and took it to Stony Brook defensively and found a way to win the game. This week the UND defense faces an entirely different production in the MSU Bobcats offense. UND will not “stop” the Cats but need to tackle well in space to try and slow them down. There is going to a be ton of 1 on 1 matchups in space that UND needs to win to even have a shot. That being said, it’s going to be tough to accomplish on the road in a hostile environment.
The Prediction
Montana State 39
North Dakota 13
