That was about as gutty and gritty a win you’ll see Saturday at the Fargodome, NDSU had not rallied in the 4th quarter to win a game in over two years, if you think about the last 3 seasons, NDSU has either held leads or blown teams out. The games that come to mind where NDSU had a chance to rally and win are short; at Youngstown State in 2010(NDSU won that game w/:20 left); Youngstown State in Fargo last year; when the Penguins hung on to win and Indiana State this year when Brock Jensen was picked off in the 4th quarter. This type of win NDSU hasn’t had in the last two seasons and I’m curious to see how the team goes forward with it. Anyway, the Bison earned this and are set up to still make a run at a conference championship. Postgame show has comments from a couple of the players as well!
This conference is so strong. I think MVC could send six teams in the post and all would represent really well. Could possibly come out of the first round 5-1. I see that Eastern Washington and Cal Poly went down this weekend. Does Georgia Southern get the #1 ranking or will SU get the nod?
Good win for NDSU, it was nice to see that we can come from behind.
How about our O-line! Everyone up front played well giving Brock all kinds of time to throw. Colville looked tough and determined.
The hard thing to understand is why this team isn’t blowing these teams out. When the defense gives up next to nothing to the opposing offense the games shouldn’t be this close. Brock needs to make sure he holds on to the ball when he does get hit or sacked. With the defense NDSU has sometimes a punt isn’t a bad thing.
That being said SIU was on the gift end of quite a few calls. They lost a fumble on the opening drive, they tackled Ryan Smith and didn’t get called for pass interference or holding at the very least. They got to run two 4th down plays when the officials gave them a gift of a call on that one.
The Bison obviously need to be a bit more aggressive with their offense at the start of games so they can get the lead at the beginning. They seem to be starting games milking the clock and working on time of possession. They need to score some points and get a lead before working on time of possession.
I’m a bit concerned with the placekicker. He is having a tough time with his kicks with his hamstring injury. The blocking has also been suspect on field goals and extra points.
“”"The hard thing to understand is why this team isn’t blowing these teams out.”"”
Whats so hard to understand? The other teams have good players and good coaches just like we do. The come to play football just like we do.
By my review, through 8 games in the 2012 season, opponents of NDSU have scored 76 points, 21 of those have come from returned interceptions or fumble recoveries, leaving 55 points that the defense has given up. The 7 points given up against Prairie View A&M was not the 1st string defense, and a big return given up by the special teams unit led to a field goal for Indiana State (drive only gained 9 yards), take those two scores away and through 8 games the 1st string defense is really accountable for giving up 45 points, that’s 5.62 points per game! Outstanding
It seemed as though the defense was giving up their points right at the beginning of the game so I looked at the box scores thus far, and that checked out to be true with the exception of UNI.
Below is an summary of Total Points Scored by Opponent, Points Given up on the 1st Drive, Points Given up on the 2nd Drive, Points Given up After the 2nd Drive by the Defense and Points Given up by the Offense.
Team Total 1st 2nd After 2nd Total Defense Offense
Robert Morris 0 0 0 0 0 0
Colorado St. 7 7 0 0 7 0
Prairie View 7 0 0 7 7 0
Northern Iowa 21 0 0 21 21 0
Youngstown 7 0 7 0 7 0
Indiana St. 17 0 3 0 3 14
South Dakota 0 0 0 0 0 0
Southern Illinois 17 7 0 3 10 7
Total 76 14 10 31 55 21
Incredible what the Defensive unit has been able to accomplish thus far. Hopefully they can continue their dominance through the season. Here’s hoping the Offense can pick up their productivity and limit turnovers.
Go Bison!
Was that the shakiest set of officials we have seen in a long time? They got run over as shown in your video, they run into each other, missed a delay of game, 2 offsides on SIU on kickoffs, gave some very very generous spots to each team, couldn’t figure out where to spot the punt the Bison has down to the 5 or maybe 10 or maybe a touchback, etc etc etc Were they replacement referees?