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And I bet you all missed it. JCPanthers was wide open and a perfectly thrown pass was headed right for him. But he failed to go up and get the ball and at the last second a defender got a hand in there and knocked it away. True story, section R row 3 or thereabouts.
Other random thoughts:
1. Pretty sure I've never seen, and wonder if it has ever happened before, that the team kicking off to start the game, without a turnover on the kick, has scored a touchdown within 12 seconds.
2. I hate to say anything about the defense, but they seem to have some sort of breakdown issue following turnovers. ISU scored 3 touchdowns in 4 plays following 3 UNI offensive turnovers. And their 4th touchdown was after stopping ISU on fourth down, but the officials sort of causing a turnover and giving the ball back to ISU. It's almost like the defense says "screw this, if the offense is going to give them the ball, we'll just let them score and make the offense try again". I'm sure they aren't doing that consciously, but they seem to do it subconsciously. Something to look into for the coaching staff, as if they didn't have about 20 more basic and important things to fix first.
3. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but if we can somehow manage to pull a win out next week, I think we have a chance at making the playoffs even if we split the last two games and end up 7-5. I think we jump up to about 17th in the polls this week and if we win next week jump to 10th. We'd be 7-5 with two close FBS losses and two wins over top 5 FCS teams. We would have to be all alone in 4th place which will require InSU to lose 2 more games, a possible if not probable scenario. Split the last two and we end up around 15th in the rankings. Of course if we can win next week why not win out? Well because that is how we roll, that's why not.
4. Regarding next week, it seems crazy to imagine we could win, but as easy as it is to dismiss our chances due to not having any offense to speak of, that was a pretty good team we beat tonight, and it shouldn't really have been near as close as it was. I can't get out of my head how we pretty much dominated NDSU in Fargo last year for 3 quarters or before several key injuries, however you want to look at it. The last quarter of that game was the start of a free fall in last years season, which has at least in terms of our offense carried over to this year. Time for some payback.
5. David Johnson is the man. I know that's not news to anyone, but wow, he took the team on his back tonight and would not allow a loss. Without him we maybe win two games this year. For the love of god come up with some blocking schemes that give him the slightest crack in the line to burst thru, or around the outside, or throw it to him, or hike it to him, anything to get the damn ball in his hands.
6. I thought BC was our running qb, so why don't we ever run him? 10-30 passing with 2 intercepts, how can we win like that, we can't next week. I kept begging them to fake a hand off to DJ and have BC keep it and run outside. They finally did it and he got 10 yards, but only once that I remember. Has he ever got less than 10 yards on a play like that? You know defenses key about 8 guys on DJ, figuring he is our only weapon. Did they lose the playbook with all the plays when we had TR and ran him half the carries? BC is not TR when it comes to running, but I'd like to see it about once per possession.
7. The crowd was up and cheering for the last 5-8 minutes of the game for the second consecutive home game. It's a start, should be a pretty full house next week I hope. Let's shoot for cheering the whole 4th quarter.
Other random thoughts:
1. Pretty sure I've never seen, and wonder if it has ever happened before, that the team kicking off to start the game, without a turnover on the kick, has scored a touchdown within 12 seconds.
2. I hate to say anything about the defense, but they seem to have some sort of breakdown issue following turnovers. ISU scored 3 touchdowns in 4 plays following 3 UNI offensive turnovers. And their 4th touchdown was after stopping ISU on fourth down, but the officials sort of causing a turnover and giving the ball back to ISU. It's almost like the defense says "screw this, if the offense is going to give them the ball, we'll just let them score and make the offense try again". I'm sure they aren't doing that consciously, but they seem to do it subconsciously. Something to look into for the coaching staff, as if they didn't have about 20 more basic and important things to fix first.
3. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but if we can somehow manage to pull a win out next week, I think we have a chance at making the playoffs even if we split the last two games and end up 7-5. I think we jump up to about 17th in the polls this week and if we win next week jump to 10th. We'd be 7-5 with two close FBS losses and two wins over top 5 FCS teams. We would have to be all alone in 4th place which will require InSU to lose 2 more games, a possible if not probable scenario. Split the last two and we end up around 15th in the rankings. Of course if we can win next week why not win out? Well because that is how we roll, that's why not.
4. Regarding next week, it seems crazy to imagine we could win, but as easy as it is to dismiss our chances due to not having any offense to speak of, that was a pretty good team we beat tonight, and it shouldn't really have been near as close as it was. I can't get out of my head how we pretty much dominated NDSU in Fargo last year for 3 quarters or before several key injuries, however you want to look at it. The last quarter of that game was the start of a free fall in last years season, which has at least in terms of our offense carried over to this year. Time for some payback.
5. David Johnson is the man. I know that's not news to anyone, but wow, he took the team on his back tonight and would not allow a loss. Without him we maybe win two games this year. For the love of god come up with some blocking schemes that give him the slightest crack in the line to burst thru, or around the outside, or throw it to him, or hike it to him, anything to get the damn ball in his hands.
6. I thought BC was our running qb, so why don't we ever run him? 10-30 passing with 2 intercepts, how can we win like that, we can't next week. I kept begging them to fake a hand off to DJ and have BC keep it and run outside. They finally did it and he got 10 yards, but only once that I remember. Has he ever got less than 10 yards on a play like that? You know defenses key about 8 guys on DJ, figuring he is our only weapon. Did they lose the playbook with all the plays when we had TR and ran him half the carries? BC is not TR when it comes to running, but I'd like to see it about once per possession.
7. The crowd was up and cheering for the last 5-8 minutes of the game for the second consecutive home game. It's a start, should be a pretty full house next week I hope. Let's shoot for cheering the whole 4th quarter.
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