3 Good / 3 Bad (North Dakota game)

Bigred2467 said:

I would add one more bad: the punter.

Click to expand...

Scoop123 said:

Good:

1. OOC schedule is done: Nice to have some warm-up games. But we all know it didn't prove much. The season starts next week. NU took care of business as they should have and will get little credit for it. But I am happy they won big as they should have and played clean football tonight.

2. Donovan Jones: Love this kid. He continues to shine. Marshal is the guy we don't see a lot on screen which tells us he's doing exactly what your #1 guy should be doing. Did get beat on the TD, but otherwise good game.

3. Confidence: I see you boys. RVP, Q. Clark, Barney, Conn, Merritt, Rule, Nelson, Luke and others: Running with swagger and it's been a steady confidence boost from games 1-3 this season.

Honorable mention: Dana. 500 yards / 7 yards per play / 0 turnovers. I have been disappointed in Dana in his first 1.5 seasons with us. Going into this season I hoped DR was stunting Dana's offense with DR's demands and audibles. Might actually be the case.

Honorable Mention II: Defensive pressure. Aurich showed us he can bring it.


The bad

1. OL: There was a stretch where our OL couldn't open daylight. I'm nit-picking perhaps, but it was a bad stretch. As always, our season will hinge on the OL/DL. (DL showed life tonight)

2. The late hit: I've been harping about our penalties and tonight the number improved - Only 4 penalties tonight. But the late hit was bad. Cost us a shutout for the defense.

3. Lack of a defensive star: Our leading tackler had 2 tackles tonight. Sort of weird. I know it was an out-matched opponent and we got some good reps spread around. I personally think Merritt has star written all over him, but he's still second string (SMH - get him on the field). I liked the defense tonight and their energy. Had a bad drive or two in the second half - next week we find out a lot more.

Overall: Exactly what we expected. We didn't learn a lot against a weaker opponent, but there is a lot we can hang our hat on. We had 5 sacks and gave up 0 sacks (love it). We didn't turn the ball over. Colandrea and the RB's are protecting the ball. Too often in the last several years we have beat lesser opponents and looked sloppy doing it.


I think most fans aren't too high or too low right now - we are ready for the real deal. Won't take long now to see if the improvements we hope we are seeing are legit or not. I am cautiously optimistic that this should be Rhule's best team at NU and we have a QB who is better than DR and certainly more fun to watch. The team seems to like him and follow him, which is a great sign.

Bring on the Big 10.
GBR

Click to expand...

TDLaww2020 said:

We need to stop entrusting Cunanan on those long field goals. We have John Hohl, right?

I think we tried to run it up the middle a few too many times. We did what we were supposed to do and the defense absolutely stepped up (minus that ONE drive).

Cautious optimism going into MSU and the rest of the season, I'm hoping we continue to gel together on all sides.

Click to expand...

Scoop123 said:

Good:

1. OOC schedule is done: Nice to have some warm-up games. But we all know it didn't prove much. The season starts next week. NU took care of business as they should have and will get little credit for it. But I am happy they won big as they should have and played clean football tonight.

2. Donovan Jones: Love this kid. He continues to shine. Marshal is the guy we don't see a lot on screen which tells us he's doing exactly what your #1 guy should be doing. Did get beat on the TD, but otherwise good game.

3. Confidence: I see you boys. RVP, Q. Clark, Barney, Conn, Merritt, Rule, Nelson, Luke and others: Running with swagger and it's been a steady confidence boost from games 1-3 this season.

Honorable mention: Dana. 500 yards / 7 yards per play / 0 turnovers. I have been disappointed in Dana in his first 1.5 seasons with us. Going into this season I hoped DR was stunting Dana's offense with DR's demands and audibles. Might actually be the case.

Honorable Mention II: Defensive pressure. Aurich showed us he can bring it.


The bad

1. OL: There was a stretch where our OL couldn't open daylight. I'm nit-picking perhaps, but it was a bad stretch. As always, our season will hinge on the OL/DL. (DL showed life tonight)

2. The late hit: I've been harping about our penalties and tonight the number improved - Only 4 penalties tonight. But the late hit was bad. Cost us a shutout for the defense.

3. Lack of a defensive star: Our leading tackler had 2 tackles tonight. Sort of weird. I know it was an out-matched opponent and we got some good reps spread around. I personally think Merritt has star written all over him, but he's still second string (SMH - get him on the field). I liked the defense tonight and their energy. Had a bad drive or two in the second half - next week we find out a lot more.

Overall: Exactly what we expected. We didn't learn a lot against a weaker opponent, but there is a lot we can hang our hat on. We had 5 sacks and gave up 0 sacks (love it). We didn't turn the ball over. Colandrea and the RB's are protecting the ball. Too often in the last several years we have beat lesser opponents and looked sloppy doing it.


I think most fans aren't too high or too low right now - we are ready for the real deal. Won't take long now to see if the improvements we hope we are seeing are legit or not. I am cautiously optimistic that this should be Rhule's best team at NU and we have a QB who is better than DR and certainly more fun to watch. The team seems to like him and follow him, which is a great sign.

Bring on the Big 10.
GBR

Click to expand...

USNHusker said:

Check that stat sheet again brother. There's no way in hell a team that won 34-7 would have their leading tackler with only 2 tackles, that just sounds silly.

Our Oline played really well today, I thought. To start the game we imposed our will on them, to the point where UND was selling out on 1st and 2nd down just to stop it. Would have loved to see more playaction on first down when that starts happening. But not gonna argue about 500 yards of total offense.

The Dline still scares the hell out of me. I'm also not big on out secondary as mist i think. They haven't rwally been challenge and have given up some big plays against inferior teams. We'll see how they hold up come conference play.

Overall. This was as close to a complete game we have played in some time. Ready for some B1G games to start! GBR!

Click to expand...

Big bo fan said:

He kicked 3 times for a 39 average including a short punt that was fair caught at the 10. Zero return yds on any punts . Very few of Archie’s punts get returned. You can live with a 40 yds average in those situations.

Click to expand...

RikeMiley said:

View attachment 1446468

McDougle seems to be a McDingleberry at times

Click to expand...

RikeMiley said:

He's 82nd in the country in net punting, he seems to never give you less or more you're just going to get about 39 yards every punt. Doesn't seem like he'll ever flip the field with a 65-yard punt. Last year he was 130th so I guess this is a slight improvement.

Click to expand...

USNHusker said:

The secondary scares the hell out of me. I'm not sold on that unit as a whole. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Click to expand...

RikeMiley said:

View attachment 1446468

McDougle seems to be a McDingleberry at times

Click to expand...

USNHusker said:

Check that stat sheet again brother. There's no way in hell a team that won 34-7 would have their leading tackler with only 2 tackles, that just sounds silly.

Our Oline played really well today, I thought. To start the game we imposed our will on them, to the point where UND was selling out on 1st and 2nd down just to stop it. Would have loved to see more playaction on first down when that starts happening. But not gonna argue about 500 yards of total offense.

The Dline still scares the hell out of me. I'm also not big on out secondary as mist i think. They haven't rwally been challenge and have given up some big plays against inferior teams. We'll see how they hold up come conference play.

Overall. This was as close to a complete game we have played in some time. Ready for some B1G games to start! GBR!

Click to expand...

poundth3rock said:

Yeah, I am feeling much much better about chance of having a solid year and may post something but keeping this reply on topic

If I were going to break it into three positives and three negatives for this strand.

The good

1. First two drives on offense and defense (scripted to attack ND weakness) were the best football we have seen in last 10 years. This is a good FCS team capable of competing and beating 6 to 8 win P4 teams as evidence by game against KSU last year and ISU year before where they were within two scores of an 11 win team into 4th quarter. In both of those games, they were statiscally competitive. We just pounded a very type similar team with complete domination in the 1st quarter.

2. Williams Z. getting his first start at end and not dissappointing. We need a coaching staff that can get elite athletes to play like it if we want to have any sort of special season. This is number 1 guy on my list that Aurich needs to get Tarzon and not Jane.

3. Normally I don't put to much into opposing coaches comments but these two comments were not typical

- Nebraska Played big boy football
- Nebraska is establishing and Identity

Comment were basically like those dudes punched us in mouth and this could have gotten out of hand. ND staff did make some adjustmnets (there good), and played harder and we were very vanilla calling a number of basic running plays to close out game.

The Bad

1. Key Coaching Decision - Rule finally has competent coordinators and position coaches they he can delegate most of the X/O stuff too focusing more on how we want to game plan. His primary Job is to manage the program and on game day to make good decisions on critical situations.

The decision to kick the long field goal on 4th and 4 from 36 was simply wrong. Any analytics model would show that going for it at that point is worth between 1-2 more points on average when you factor in likelyhood for us ot make it and likelyhood of picking it up and any subsequent plays. Go for it there everytime unless you have a kicker that makes more than 90% or its end of game and extra plays don't matter.

2. Special Team Punt Return - One of most critical aspects of being good is managing field position. Overall I have seen solid enough special teams execution (don't count missed 50 yard FG as bad special teams at college level but do question the decision to kick them) To me the area that is bothersome schematically how we are blocking on punt return. There are simply to many seemingly unblocked players against these poorer teams and we have also seen Barney not catch a ball he should of fair caught costing more yardage. Punt return execution at this level can cost a game when you play teams at level of illinois or better which is 5 of our remaining 9 games. This area has to improve and should be better with players we have if this staff wants to get most out of this team.

3. I am stretching on this one given how ND competed agaisnt solid to good P4 teams the last two years but I will through it. Inability to empose will when ND made some adjustments and defense got more aggresive against the run. If your eventual goal is a playoff there should have been some slight adjustment and bit better execution that could have resulting in extra TD drive while still sticking with run game.

We will see a physical welll coached team next week that was able to hold Notre Dame under 4 yard per run and under 400 total yards. We will need to stick with run game but avoid being to predictable. Hopefully we execute well early and build a bit of lead in this one. If that plays out I like our chances. Either way, great to finally get to conference play and see how how we do when the other guy punches back. Feel a lot better about this team if we can win that road game, particularly if we can to it by more than a single score. On other hand, if we lose the game, probably looking at 5 to 7 win team at best.

Click to expand...

dinglefritz said:

#1 positive. We have a #1 RB.

Click to expand...