Official Gameday Thread: NDSU vs WIU 3pm kickoff

[Bison101]

There go our playoff hopes. :smh: :smh:

We are going to go down in the polls, thus losing our chance for a championship. It will be dificult to beat UNI at home, so my hopes for this year are down the drain.

Things are not good in Bisonville, folks.

[Bison101]

this seems like the place that mertens throws a pick and ends the game...here's to hoping that I'm wrong.

Thanks for jinxing us.

[MinotBison]

The TV announcers couldn't quite understand why they would run that play.

[Bison101]

The TV announcers couldn't quite understand why they would run that play.

Mertens is not Walker. That's why.

[56BISON73]

You cant keep making the same mistakes week to week and expect to win against teams at this level. . That also includes play calling. Geeez. PL

[4mcruenomore]

Am I gonna get bashed for saying, just short of we suck, but we just aren't very good this year??????

[Bison101]

You cant keep making the same mistakes week to week and expect to win against teams at this level. . That also includes play calling. Geeez. PL

I couldn't agree more. We need to prove ourselves.

[4mcruenomore]

we were never in this game, never.

[56BISON73]

They let us off the hook how many times and we still couldnt capitalize. Plus we change our game plan when we get in the red zone. USE WHAT GOT YOU THERE!!!! PL

[Bison101]

Am I gonna get bashed for saying, just short of we suck, but we just aren't very good this year??????

I won't bash you, but there is still hope.

8-3 will probably stil get us into the playoffs.

UNI IS CRITICAL. Loss- end of hopes for a long time. Roehl, Richardson, a ton of stars gone in the future.
Win- Sparks a late-season dark horse run.

[4mcruenomore]

We won't win in UNI without any hunger, we had none today. Not even by the coaches.

[Bisonips]

Thanks for jinxing us.

The several times that we have opened up the playbook (early in the season) and had an aggressive passing attack, Mertens seemed to find the other team. I was hoping that by mentioning it that I would have the opposite effect...superstition did not work this time. Was really hoping that the last drive would be something that might allow him to have somewhat of a legacy and maybe get rid of all of the naysayers. I have a feeling there will be many bisonvillers going after players...it's really too bad.

[Bison101]

We won't win in UNI without any hunger, we had none today. Not even by the coaches.

I agree. It was like the Southern Utah game last year. Apathy after the Minnesota game, apathy after the SIU game.

The fans weren't into it, the players grew weary and careless, and the Fargodome had kind of a weird sensation in it.

[56BISON73]

When they stick to there west coast offense they do well IF they stay with it. Merten cant consistantly hit the receivers going LONG all the time. WHY havent the coaches figured that out???? Throwing up long air balls doesnt move the chains. When teams start doing that it shows panic as they get away from there strong points. PL

[Chosen1s]

It really shows you how important a couple players can be, Mays, Walker.... They were a HUGE part of our hunger last year. Not to mention our O-line last year!

[Bison101]

It really shows you how important a couple players can be, Mays, Walker.... They were a HUGE part of our hunger last year. Not to mention our O-line last year!

Believe it or not, I think that the fans caused the lack of hunger.



STUDENTS! WHERE WERE YOU!? ALL I COULD PRACTICALLY SEE WAS BLUE!

[56BISON73]

Believe it or not, I think that the fans caused the lack of hunger.



STUDENTS! WHERE WERE YOU!? ALL I COULD PRACTICALLY SEE WAS BLUE!

The fans had nothing to do with this loss. PL

[Chosen1s]

Look at it this way.... we will have Bohl back again next year :nod: :nod: :nod:

[HoopsBison]

really gonna blame it on the students huh?

Regraudless of the poor student showing, we flat out just didnt want it enough.

[Bison101]

Please, friends. Optimism is the course.

A blowout at UNI by the Bison straightens the ship. That's all we need. End of story.

[Chosen1s]

Believe it or not, I think that the fans caused the lack of hunger.



STUDENTS! WHERE WERE YOU!? ALL I COULD PRACTICALLY SEE WAS BLUE!

Yeah, no way.... The fans don't lose games, the players and coaches do!

[ndsubison1]

Believe it or not, I think that the fans caused the lack of hunger.



STUDENTS! WHERE WERE YOU!? ALL I COULD PRACTICALLY SEE WAS BLUE!

i agree, student section wasn't full... it seemed like the fans, students included weren't as loud or into it like normal... i don't know what happened... There were plenty of instances where Lardinois or some player had to get most of us jacked up and it was sad.

I don;t agree with that we lost the game, but our team was pretty terrible tonite.

[Bison101]

To quote Craig Bohl, "The truth is, fans help win games."

[56BISON73]

To quote Craig Bohl, "The truth is, fans help win games."

Whats he supposed to say--they dont mean squat???? LOL Understand sound bites and what it means to keep fans hyped up. Think money . Think ticket sales, think what pays the bills etc. PL

[HoopsBison]

To quote Craig Bohl, "The truth is, fans help win games."


The team didnt have it today, they only made a statement after WIU did. They could just deliver that punch before getting hit.

[IzzyFlexion]

I won't argue on either side of the "fans influence on games", but it is amazing to me that with upwards of 200,000 people in a metro area and 13,000 students that there are that many empty seats.

[semobison]

The coaching staff has lost all confidence in our QB. Hence the game plan. We cant win in this league with a one dimensional offense. Nothing to lose now, I hope we open up the playbook. Its our only chance!

[Bison101]

I won't argue on either side of the "fans influence on games", but it is amazing to me that with upwards of 200,000 people in a metro area and 13,000 students that there are that many empty seats.

I'm sure lots of people that weren't students would have gladly shown up. The non-student seats were "sold-out", but I'm guessing because of hunting starting and the casual Teamakers not showing up probably hurt attendance too.

[rabidrabbit]

I won't bash you, but there is still hope.

8-3 will probably stil get us into the playoffs.

UNI IS CRITICAL. Loss- end of hopes for a long time. Roehl, Richardson, a ton of stars gone in the future.
Win- Sparks a late-season dark horse run.

Yeppers, Bison are now in worse shape than Jacks. No losses from here on out. Jacks showed how to beat Leathernecks. Unfortunately, Bison didn't learn.

WIU pulls the first road win among the top 6, and adding to Bison woes, YSU loses to MSU, a required win to get the conference title.

THIS JACKS BACKER will be joining other NDSU fans in ATL area to cheer for a Bison win in Cedar Falls.

Izzy, THANK YOU FOR THE FREE AUDIO Feed. Made the window caulking project much better!

[NDSUFREAK]

The dropped catch that was a FOR SURE TD in the beginning of the 1st quarter should be a play to look at...get that TD right away, spark momentum and who knows how the result would be now.

Students...dont complain about "lack of tickets" anymore.

[Bison101]

The dropped catch that was a FOR SURE TD in the beginning of the 1st quarter should be a play to look at...get that TD right away, spark momentum and who knows how the result would be now.

Students...dont complain about "lack of tickets" anymore.

Please don't blame Alex Belquist. That kid played his heart out on punt returns.

[ndsubison1]

The dropped catch that was a FOR SURE TD in the beginning of the 1st quarter should be a play to look at...get that TD right away, spark momentum and who knows how the result would be now.

Students...dont complain about "lack of tickets" anymore.

That blocked punt was a huge turning point too... all in all our offense was pretty terrible... we couldnt get our running game going cuz they had no respect for mertens arm.

[Jay]

The dropped catch that was a FOR SURE TD in the beginning of the 1st quarter should be a play to look at...get that TD right away, spark momentum and who knows how the result would be now.

Students...dont complain about "lack of tickets" anymore.

Between that, the overthrow on the Heckendorf play where he had to dive for it, the missed extra point, and blocked punt. We have shot our feet completely off.

[Bison101]

Between that, the overthrow on the Heckendorf play where he had to dive for it, the missed extra point, and blocked punt. We have shot our feet completely off.

.... and we are now ready to lower the pistol towards our mangled stubs.

[Da_Bizon]

I don't know if this has been said, but I'm too upset and lazy to go read through everything that's been said. I'm convinced that this was the fault of our offensive coordinator. He keeps handing it off and expecting a homerun. I'm not sure if he noticed or not, but when he actually changed up the play-calling, we moved the ball. He needs to reexamine what he is doing. You can't expect Mertens or anyone to lead a come back every week because we never have a lead. Its like he's not even giving us a chance.

[NDSUFREAK]

Please don't blame Alex Belquist. That kid played his heart out on punt returns.
im not blaming him for the loss because other mistakes were made in the game, and later in the game that meant more. Im just pointing it out that is was a huge miss and it was. He did however make up for that mistake with the returns.

but i dont know whats been going on. is the oline not blocking well enough? qb? running game? defense? more of the defense, i thought they were supposed to be better with all the returning players

[Jay]

im not blaming him for the loss because other mistakes were made in the game, and later in the game that meant more. Im just pointing it out that is was a huge miss and it was. He did however make up for that mistake with the returns.

but i dont know whats been going on. is the oline not blocking well enough? qb? running game? defense? more of the defense, i thought they were supposed to be better with all the returning players


The thing that is going wrong is we are flat out not a top 10 team and we need to re-examine our goals. +.500 is my new goal. Please see Jim Mora about the playoffs.

[56BISON73]

Hey just a thought----may be alittle EXTRA tackling practice wouldnt hurt. I mean just for starters. PL

[ndsubison1]

I don't know if this has been said, but I'm too upset and lazy to go read through everything that's been said. I'm convinced that this was the fault of our offensive coordinator. He keeps handing it off and expecting a homerun. I'm not sure if he noticed or not, but when he actually changed up the play-calling, we moved the ball. He needs to reexamine what he is doing. You can't expect Mertens or anyone to lead a come back every week because we never have a lead. Its like he's not even giving us a chance.

seemed like we got away from our west coast offense again this game, didn't see many of those short passes

[Bison101]

im not blaming him for the loss because other mistakes were made in the game, and later in the game that meant more. Im just pointing it out that is was a huge miss and it was. He did however make up for that mistake with the returns.

but i dont know whats been going on. is the oline not blocking well enough? qb? running game? defense? more of the defense, i thought they were supposed to be better with all the returning players

It's going to be interesting to watch the Craig Cohl football show tomorrow. I wonder if Bohl will be promoting us just as much.

Anyways, here's how I see it.

The rest of the season:
@UNI-Bohl shapes up the team so much, that it makes us plow over the Panthers
@Ill St.- we take the momentum from UNI to win this game, narrowly
vs. Ind. St.- we wil rest some starters(maybe the'yre injured) and we still win
@Miss St.- resting our starters 2 weeks before, and having an off-week alows us to get better and eek one out in Springfield
vs. SDSU- Big game. This could possibly decide who goes to the playoffs and who goes home.

[Jay]

[QUOTE=Anyways, here's how I see it.

The rest of the season:
@UNI-Bohl shapes up the team so much, that it makes us plow over the Panthers
@Ill St.- we take the momentum from UNI to win this game, narrowly
vs. Ind. St.- we wil rest some starters(maybe the'yre injured) and we still win
@Miss St.- resting our starters 2 weeks before, and having an off-week alows us to get better and eek one out in Springfield
vs. SDSU- Big game. This could possibly decide who goes to the playoffs and who goes home.[/QUOTE]


Thanks for the laugh.

[TheBisonator]

It's going to be interesting to watch the Craig Cohl football show tomorrow. I wonder if Bohl will be promoting us just as much.

Anyways, here's how I see it.

The rest of the season:
@UNI-Bohl shapes up the team so much, that it makes us plow over the Panthers
@Ill St.- we take the momentum from UNI to win this game, narrowly
vs. Ind. St.- we wil rest some starters(maybe the'yre injured) and we still win
@Miss St.- resting our starters 2 weeks before, and having an off-week alows us to get better and eek one out in Springfield
vs. SDSU- Big game. This could possibly decide who goes to the playoffs and who goes home.

At this point, with the way they're playing, I don't even see a winning season.

[NDSUFREAK]

Season relies on UNI...win that game and this is a whole new team. Lose...well aim to get the Marker back since we wont be going to the playoffs

[Bisonips]

I don't know if this has been said, but I'm too upset and lazy to go read through everything that's been said. I'm convinced that this was the fault of our offensive coordinator. He keeps handing it off and expecting a homerun. I'm not sure if he noticed or not, but when he actually changed up the play-calling, we moved the ball. He needs to reexamine what he is doing. You can't expect Mertens or anyone to lead a come back every week because we never have a lead. Its like he's not even giving us a chance.

From the beginning games of the season, it seems that the game plan has changed to a more conservative approach with hopes of less ints. and more reliance upon our run game. We have had less turnovers, but other miscues by the offense has deemed this strategy as ineffective. I can't agree with you that this is the OCs fault. Execution of his calls has certainly not been as good as it needs to be. Having to deal with a comeback every week has just as much to do with the defense as it does the offense.

[Jay]

At this point, with the way they're playing, I don't even see a winning season.


6-5... maybe

[fan]

I will repost what I posted a few weeks ago.

"Everybody is assuming that the Bison are underachieving. I would submit that it is only partially true but more so the expectations were too high and there is a huge lack of respect for the competition. Few are giving credit to the other team/s. They work just as hard and have, I believe, just as many scholarships. What makes SU so special compared to the other teams in the conference?"

[SirHinn]

I think Rick Pitno said it best, All the negativity in this town sucks!

[TheBisonator]

I will repost what I posted a few weeks ago.

"Everybody is assuming that the Bison are underachieving. I would submit that it is only partially true but more so the expectations were too high and there is a huge lack of respect for the competition. Few are giving credit to the other team/s. They work just as hard and have, I believe, just as many scholarships. What makes SU so special compared to the other teams in the conference?"

That is so very true. All the other teams (except maybe Indiana State) are pouring as much, if not more resources into their football programs than NDSU. I mean, did we all expect that the Valley was gonna be a conference of cupcakes?? We probably got too used to kicking around tomato cans all year. Sioux fans suffer from that superiority complex as well, and it will bite them in the ass too, just like it is for us. The issue is though, I always thought we were going to play very good teams. But I just don't think we're playing very good right now.

[A1pigskin]

If we don't get our shit together we will lose to UNI. We can't kick a field goal, our offensive line blocked like a bunch of sissies, and the list goes on.

[IzzyFlexion]

Went to Panther Nation to see if they were tracking our game and their Ill State game thread was only one page long??

[56BISON73]

That is so very true. All the other teams (except maybe Indiana State) are pouring as much, if not more resources into their football programs than NDSU. I mean, did we all expect that the Valley was gonna be a conference of cupcakes?? We probably got too used to kicking around tomato cans all year. Sioux fans suffer from that superiority complex as well, and it will bite them in the ass too, just like it is for us. The issue is though, I always thought we were going to play very good teams. But I just don't think we're playing very good right now.

We cannot keep making the same mistakes as of last year and expect to win when playing tougher competition. We got extremely luck last year.
We dont have the play makers we did last year. PL

[A1pigskin]

Mistakes, turnovers will lose a game. The blocked punt proved that today.

[GFBison]

About the blocked punt. What was the rush. It looked like they tired to get the punt off before the other team was ready. If so, I hate when teams do that. It normally ends up being a procedure penalty on the punting team. This was worse.

[NDSUFREAK]

Went to Panther Nation to see if they were tracking our game and their Ill State game thread was only one page long??
i dont think that is very active ever as much as BISONville is

[A1pigskin]

It seemed our players held there heads down a lot the 2nd half. No confidence in themselves.

[HoopsBison]

Screw what are record is right now, We need to look at it one game at a time and every game is a must win.

IMO were 0-0 and need to get work.

[4mcruenomore]

0-0, I say right now we have the Marker in sight.

[NDSUstudent]

Can we not come into the game with the same old lets just run the ball offense just once? Mertens can make plays but the coaching staff never lets him get going. Let the guy get into a little rhythm and see what happens.

Also what happened to the shotgun formation? Just asking, can Mertens not run it or do the coaches just don't want to run it?

Finally, I just want to see a well played game next week. Good special teams play and few penalties. That is all I ask, the bar is that low.

[4mcruenomore]

I am questioning coaching, you are right. What happened to the shotgun.

[NDSUFREAK]

Screw what are record is right now, We need to look at it one game at a time and every game is a must win.

IMO were 0-0 and need to get work.
...we started taking one game at a time speech a couple weeks ago. hasn't made a difference

[sambini]

How about one play at a time....

[stevdock]

I thought our defense played a very very good game today, minus the one huge play that from what I heard was mainly a mis-alignment by one of the safeties. Unfortunately that team was just as good as ours and they made the big plays that a team needs to win an evenly matched game.

We do need to figure out how to block a 3-4 defense. We haven't had much if any success against the 3-4. Same defense UND ran that we had no success against. Even last week we didn't start to move the ball until we wore them down a bit. This WIU team had a very good defense and was very committed to shuting down the run and did a good job of doing it.

The tough thing is to get our boys back up for next week. This one was tough all the way around. Not only did we lose, but it was a physically demanding game that we are probably going to have a rough time healing up from. Of course the schedule doesn't get any easier as we have another big one next week.

[56BISON73]

I thought our defense played a very very good game today, minus the one huge play that from what I heard was mainly a mis-alignment by one of the safeties. Unfortunately that team was just as good as ours and they made the big plays that a team needs to win an evenly matched game.

We do need to figure out how to block a 3-4 defense. We haven't had much if any success against the 3-4. Same defense UND ran that we had no success against. Even last week we didn't start to move the ball until we wore them down a bit. This WIU team had a very good defense and was very committed to shuting down the run and did a good job of doing it.

The tough thing is to get our boys back up for next week. This one was tough all the way around. Not only did we lose, but it was a physically demanding game that we are probably going to have a rough time healing up from. Of course the schedule doesn't get any easier as we have another big one next week.

From what I could see the D-line was getting pushed around and we couldnt tackle there running backs. To me thats not good play. PL

[99Bison]

The defense gave up 14 points right away due to 2 big plays and was very good after that.

The offense had the ball in opponent territory twice at the beginning of the game and didn't capitalize.

[BraxtonT]

i agree, student section wasn't full... it seemed like the fans, students included weren't as loud or into it like normal... i don't know what happened... There were plenty of instances where Lardinois or some player had to get most of us jacked up and it was sad.

I don;t agree with that we lost the game, but our team was pretty terrible tonite.

I believe the players need to focus on the game on the field and quit worrying about getting the fans off their butts. I don't ever remember the championship team's players throwing up their arms to the fans to get them involved. FOCUS ON THE GAME!!

[56BISON73]

I believe the players need to focus on the game on the field and quit worrying about getting the fans off their butts. I don't ever remember the championship team's players throwing up their arms to the fans to get them involved. FOCUS ON THE GAME!!

VERY WELL said. PL

[BisonFB]

I believe the players need to focus on the game on the field and quit worrying about getting the fans off their butts. I don't ever remember the championship team's players throwing up their arms to the fans to get them involved. FOCUS ON THE GAME!!

Devil's advocate...Maybe their fans were involved without the requests from the players...

[BraxtonT]

Devil's advocate...Maybe their fans were involved without the requests from the players...

That maybe true, but the players still need to focus on the game, rather than try to influence things that really don't matter that much. Once the ball is snapped, the crowd's yelling and screaming has no effect on the results of the play. If they need the fans to get them jacked up, then there is a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

[56BISON73]

That maybe true, but the players still need to focus on the game, rather than tyr to influence things that really don't matter that much. Once the ball is snapped, the crowd's yelling and screaming has no effect on the results of the play. If they need the fans to get them jacked up, then there is a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

You know Ive posted those exact words a couple of times here but for some reason many dont believe it. PL