The Game Vitals
Game Time – 1:30 CT
Opponent – Portland State at Alerus Center, Grand Forks, ND
Game Notes – UND
TV – Midco Sports Network (No Fox College Sports, once again, because of the Big Sky’s “deal” with Root Sports)
Online Streaming – Big Sky TV Spread – Portland State -1
Portland State Breakdown (2-3 record)
— Offense = Pistol, Spread, Zone-Read.
— Defense = 4-3
— Last Meeting: 2013 – Portland State won 14-7 at Portland.
The Vikings are coming off a solid 23-14 home victory over the Aggies of UC-Davis in Big Sky conference play. Their two wins this season are Western Oregon (D2) and the aforementioned Davis, while two of their three losses are to FBS teams (Oregon State 29-14, and Washington State 59-21). Tough to make out exactly how good/bad they are at this point.
Offensively, the Vikings are a fairly simple zone-read, spread type of team. They like to run the zone-read handoff alot or have the QB keep it when running the ball. The Vikings are averaging 23pt/game and 363 yds/game of total offense thus far in 2014. They are a very balanced offense with 189 yds/game rushing and 174 yds/game passing.
The offense is led by QB Kieran McDonagh, a 6’2″-230 pound junior who is in his third year of running the Vikings offense. He is a dual-threat type of QB and is a load to bring down when running the ball. He has good arm strength but his accuracy is fairly average. McDonagh is 79-155 for 770 yds and 4 TD’s on the year to go with 5 INT’s. When watching him on tape, McDonagh appears to get a case of happy feet when pressured and will move out of the pocket fairly quickly to evade any potential pressure, which is inevitable on Saturday.
WR #89 Kasey Closs is the bigtime playmaker for the Vikings. He had a huge year in 2013 for the Vikings with 1,167 yards and 8 TD’s and is off to another good start in 2014. Kloss has 23 receptions for 274 yards and 2 TD’s. He is a big target at 6’3″ and has great hands to go with it. Closs is a guy that UND will need to be aware of on Saturday as he is adept at slipping behind offense’s once the Vikings running game gets churning.
Defensively, Portland State employs a 4-3 defense. They are not crazy with blitz pressure but when they do they will bring a bunch of guys (6 or 7). Most of the time they appear to bring their four defensive lineman and try to let them create the pressure on the opposing QB. The Vikings appear to play a lot of man-to-man coverage on the outside with safety help over the top. This could be an issue for UND’s young wide receiver corps, who have had some trouble getting free from defensive backs this year.
North Dakota (2-3) Keys to the Game
- Shut down the Viking running game, just like they did to the Griz and Bobcats ground attacks. Portland State is not a passing team, they are a 50/50 type of offense. Take away one part and they become dramatically less effective.
- Get Kyle Norberg and the inside running game going. If PSU is going to operate out of a base 4-3 as they have shown, UND needs to be able to pound it up in there for 4-5 yards a pop.
- We have heard UND may be dinged up at wide receiver but have not seen anything concrete. McGill, Ferguson and Walker all have missed a day or two each this week. UND needs all hands on deck, every week, if they want to get this going. Who is able to play will be something to watch for on Saturday.
I am going to come out and say it: UND needs to win this game. Homecoming Week, a mid-level Big Sky team, a bye next week. UND came close last week vs. Montana but couldn’t pull it out. They have shown improvement each and every week and if that trend continues that should be able to scratch and claw their way to a third victory in 2014.
The Prediction
North Dakota 17
Portland State 13
