Relying on the D?

[Rynomite]

I feel like the one good thing we have going for us is our defense.. They have won most of the games this season. Williams is the MVP of our team right now, and can be depended on to rally the team with amazingness. But how long are we going to be able to make mistakes, miss passes, be predictable in the first half, and depend on the defense to save our ass. ISU clearly gave up quickly in the second half today. But honestly.. The defense has their injuries too and can't take us to Frisco alone. We need some fixes on offense. There will be some major targets in the playoffs.. Taz, Brock, and Smith. Vraa needs to adjust his fear/attitude and play like he means it. Just sayin...

[HerdBot]

The short drives to start the game and the quick strike kick return didn't give our defense a chance rest or make adjustments. Once we figured it out we dominated. But the offense won the game today. I think we're set for the playoffs. IMO, all the best defenses we will see are in the Valley. Were built for playoff success. Power run game wears out inferior defenses late in the year. I would be more concerned about a 2nd round game vs SDSU. They pose the biggest threat.

[Bison53]

They should use Williams on offense every once in awhile.

[Rynomite]

The short drives to start the game and the quick strike kick return didn't give our defense a chance rest or make adjustments. Once we figured it out we dominated. But the offense won the game today. I think we're set for the playoffs. IMO, all the best defenses we will see are in the Valley. Were built for playoff success. Power run game wears out inferior defenses late in the year. I would be more concerned about a 2nd round game vs SDSU. They pose the biggest threat.

Agreed about SDSU. But you have to admit that ISU gave up after our first possession in the second half.It was a "minimize injuries" kind of second half for the Red Birds.. MWill missed a huge possible interception and we did dominate after a couple good passes. But this team is not playing we well as last year. This will make playoffs and Frisco pretty tuff.

[344Johnson]

Our defense is great. I really think Emmanuel and Olson are the MVP's of our D so far.

[Rynomite]

Our defense is great. I really think Emmanuel and Olson are the MVP's of our D so far.

Over Williams.. I think not. He is seeding himself for the 2nd round of the NFL draft.

[steelbison]

Agreed about SDSU. But you have to admit that ISU gave up after our first possession in the second half.It was a "minimize injuries" kind of second half for the Red Birds.. MWill missed a huge possible interception and we did dominate after a couple good passes. But this team is not playing we well as last year. This will make playoffs and Frisco pretty tuff.

WTF are you talking about? ISU gave up? They were playing for the conference championship. What happened was they wore down and we dominated them in the fourth. Guessing you either never played football or watched much of it. This isn't the first time this has ever happened.

I personally think this is a better all around team than last year. Does thst mean we will repeat? No but I like our chances of making it To Texas.

[NDSUBowler]

I feel like the one good thing we have going for us is our defense.. They have won most of the games this season. Williams is the MVP of our team right now, and can be depended on to rally the team with amazingness. But how long are we going to be able to make mistakes, miss passes, be predictable in the first half, and depend on the defense to save our ass. ISU clearly gave up quickly in the second half today. But honestly.. The defense has their injuries too and can't take us to Frisco alone. We need some fixes on offense. There will be some major targets in the playoffs.. Taz, Brock, and Smith. Vraa needs to adjust his fear/attitude and play like he means it. Just sayin...
lol

Agreed about SDSU. But you have to admit that ISU gave up after our first possession in the second half.It was a "minimize injuries" kind of second half for the Red Birds.. MWill missed a huge possible interception and we did dominate after a couple good passes. But this team is not playing we well as last year. This will make playoffs and Frisco pretty tuff.
lol


Seriously...as mentioned ISU was still playing for 1. a potential seed/bye from 1st rd 2. the conference title There was NO way they just decided to give up 4 possessions into the second half to 'minimize injuries' since they had a LOT to play for still and the game was definitely not out of reach.

Actually I should have just said: OH LOOK ANOTHER BACKHAND THREAD AGAINST NDSU'S OFFENSE....WHAT A SURPRISE.

But nope, you baited me.

Give it a rest!

[Civil06]

I feel like the one good thing we have going for us is our defense..

Yes, our 10-1 conference champion team ranked #1 has only 1 good thing going for it.

:facepalm:

[BisoninNWMN]

I don't think SDSU will play the Bison in the 2nd round....probably at Montana State....my 2$.

Valley teams know us year in and year out. I like our chances against any other team coming into the FD. Teams are not use to our style of play and the noise.

2 weeks of rest is huge for this team right now.

3 potential home games......I like our chances.

[Gully]

Yes, our 10-1 conference champion team ranked #1 has only 1 good thing going for it.

:facepalm:

Exactly. We could win the next ten championships and some people still will only see the problems. This isn't Xbox, you can't win every game going away. There isn't one FCS program that has more "good things" going for it. People keep saying the same crap every week....and we keep winning. Isn't that why you play the game? :)

[BisonNation11]

Agreed about SDSU. But you have to admit that ISU gave up after our first possession in the second half.It was a "minimize injuries" kind of second half for the Red Birds.. MWill missed a huge possible interception and we did dominate after a couple good passes. But this team is not playing we well as last year. This will make playoffs and Frisco pretty tuff.

Pretty sure the receiver got his hand in on MWill's dropped interception. No team at this level, with this much on the line, at this time of year just gives up. The conditioning the Bison do during the offseason shows itself this time of year and late in games. The Herd simply dominated them and demoralized the angry birds. And considering the injuries this team has endured, I'd say this team is poised to be one of the best we have ever seen with some very key individuals missing. We had a great defense last year, but they didn't play at this level all season. Any team that comes to Fargo beware! If the D steps it up like it did last year, we could see some pretty amazing football!

[TateMosersneighbor]

Matt Brown, a possible All American was still in the game at the end when it was a 3 score game. Illy State didn't give up, we beat them. One can say they beat us in the 1st half...but we dominated the 2nd half. Illy State should make the playoffs...and probabaly will be playing the 1st round...so they could've pulled their stub QB early and didn't. Brown even twisted his ankle a little and didn't come out...dumb to say they quit.

[#1BISONFAN ASHLEY]

Olsen should be over Williams, period. He's been the center and leader of this defense and i think has lead the team in tackles almost every game this year.

[silkamilkamonico]

Olsen should be over Williams, period. He's been the center and leader of this defense and i think has lead the team in tackles almost every game this year.

Yep. MWill will be drafted. Maybe pretty high. But there is no way he's been more valuable than Grant Olsen, whos making plays every single drive throughout the game.

Lmao at ISU " giving up". Thats just football 101 stupidity.

Lmaocopter at this team having only 1 good thing going for itself. This is fcs competition. If you want to dominate every game go back to division 2.

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[#1BISONFAN ASHLEY]

Yep. MWill will be drafted. Maybe pretty high. But there is no way he's been more valuable than Grant Olsen, whos making plays every single drive throughout the game.

Lmao at ISU " giving up". Thats just football 101 stupidity.

Lmaocopter at this team having only 1 good thing going for itself. This is fcs competition. If you want to dominate every game go back to division 2.


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Easy there, just giving Olsen credit, I know MWill is a bigtime player. Just giving the other leaders credit. Sorry if I was making it seem like MWill didnt seem like no one. Both are big time players.

[BisoninNWMN]

MW is a superstar at the FCS level but Grant Olsen is our MVP on defense....period!

[X-Factor]

No question it's Olson. I'm also not buying what ryno is spewin'

Our run game will open up in the playoffs, particularly if we have big fluffy teams head our way. SDSU and caa (less ODU and UNH) is what we worry about

[HerdBot]

Agreed about SDSU. But you have to admit that ISU gave up after our first possession in the second half.It was a "minimize injuries" kind of second half for the Red Birds.. MWill missed a huge possible interception and we did dominate after a couple good passes. But this team is not playing we well as last year. This will make playoffs and Frisco pretty tuff.

Its the style of football we play my man. Not always pretty but the slow start and strong finish are by design . isu didnt give up. They were spent and after throwing a bag of tricks at us we dominated. Our physicality won the game.

[stevdock]

MW is a superstar at the FCS level but Grant Olsen is our MVP on defense....period!

Agreed I would even go so far as saying we could lose more players on defense and still have a very good crew out there, BUT if one of those was Olsen we would be in A LOT OF TROUBLE.

Give ISU-R credit for finding a whole in our defense that they could exploit and they did a very nice job of it the first half. Putting their HB in motion so that our CB's would have to defend him was genius. Too bad for them they didn't get more points on the board before the coaches made the adjustments.

This is a team game and the Bison won yesterday, but if the defense won the first 9 games (like some people have said) then our offense won yesterday. Big props to our offensive line for getting the job done yesterday, especially Haeg who had a great bounce back game.

[CAS4127]

Brown was both physically and mentally beaten by early 4th quarter. Those runs he had through 3 quarters were good for the birds, but the punishment he took from the very hard hits took there toll on him. It was obvious. He was beaten.


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[silkamilkamonico]

Easy there, just giving Olsen credit, I know MWill is a bigtime player. Just giving the other leaders credit. Sorry if I was making it seem like MWill didnt seem like no one. Both are big time players.

Pretty sure MWill is arguably the most explosive dynamic defender in all of FCS and has made game changing plays all year, but Grant Olsen is surely the MVP of our defense, holding down the defense throughout the flow of the entire game.

[BisonNation11]

For the record, it is OlsOn with an O. O O O. Olson is the leader on D. He directs everyone and we couldn't be any luckier to have him on this team. So yeah, Olson would be the MVP of this team with MWill being the most dynamic and game changing. We basically play 11 vs 10 when we are on D because MWill single-handedly takes out their top receiver all while getting in on run stops and covering his side of the field. Emmanuel is a beast!

[BisonNeil]

For the record, it is OlsOn with an O. O O O. Olson is the leader on D. He directs everyone and we couldn't be any luckier to have him on this team. So yeah, Olson would be the MVP of this team with MWill being the most dynamic and game changing. We basically play 11 vs 10 when we are on D because MWill single-handedly takes out their top receiver all while getting in on run stops and covering his side of the field. Emmanuel is a beast!

Thank you for doing that. I find it exceedlingly irritating that so many BVers are so lazy they can't spell a players name right, especially when they want to heap praise on them. Olson!

This defense is very, very good, particularly stingy in giving up yards. One statistic they are not as good at is creating TOs. They are averaging less than 2 per game, last year they averaged 2.6 per game. That may not sound like much of a difference but I do think it has created difficulty for the offense. NDSUs offense is not really built to make long drives consistently. They are so used to having the defense give them a short field, and having nearly one less TO per game means one less opportunity for a score. I also think it has meant that the Bison O has had to press more, leading to more INTs this season compared to last. Just my opinion.

So, my wish list for a successful post-season would be that the Bison D go back to creating more TOs.

[MNLonghorn10]

olsen is defensive mvp imho

[westnodak93bison]

For the record, it is OlsOn with an O. O O O. Olson is the leader on D. He directs everyone and we couldn't be any luckier to have him on this team. So yeah, Olson would be the MVP of this team with MWill being the most dynamic and game changing. We basically play 11 vs 10 when we are on D because MWill single-handedly takes out their top receiver all while getting in on run stops and covering his side of the field. Emmanuel is a beast!

Jirik is no slouch either! I know it is fun talking about who is the best player, MVP etc. but the unit is solid all the way around even after losing Heagle, Shepherd, Perry and Juckem playing on bad wheels.

[IzzyFlexion]

olsen is defensive mvp imho

One of the best that Bowl has signed in recent years.

[SDbison]

I still believe Bison offense has much room for improvement. And I still see the biggest overall problem is the lack of an appropriate game plan to take advantage of other teams weaknesses or introduce something that gives opposing D fits. This wear the other defense down stuff will not always work. Same goes for wait for the defense to make a score or always stop the other team. Yesterday was a perfect example. Yes, the offense finally showed up in the second half, but they have been in a 3 plus game funk.
The MVFC has some good defenses, but so will the playoff teams from other conferences.
Just think if NDSU comes out and has some plays so that the offense can impose its will like ISU did to NDSU? We had the #1 D in the country by far and they made the Bison defense look weak and miserable in the first half. It would be game over early if NDSU's offense ever came out and executed like that. In general, I think the Bison offense struggles so much because they are so predictable even an average defense can look great. At least yesterday in the second half NDSU's offense finally grew a pair against ISU. Not sure what the exact problems are, but I don't think the majority of the problem is the players because we some of the best individual and team players in the FCS.
In summary, the Bison offense needs to do much more during the playoffs
compared to their overall play against the better FCS teams this past
season........if not, there will be no appearance in Frisco. This homer stuff
that Bison defense is so great that the offense has to do little or nothing is total bullshit. First half yesterday should have ended that crap. And yes, right now the Bison are the number one team in the FCS and deserve it.
To win the national championship again they will need to shore up and improve their offensive performance. I am sure the players and coaches know this so its time to open up the playbook and execute better.

[SDbison]

Thank you for doing that. I find it exceedlingly irritating that so many BVers are so lazy they can't spell a players name right, especially when they want to heap praise on them. Olson!

This defense is very, very good, particularly stingy in giving up yards. One statistic they are not as good at is creating TOs. They are averaging less than 2 per game, last year they averaged 2.6 per game. That may not sound like much of a difference but I do think it has created difficulty for the offense. NDSUs offense is not really built to make long drives consistently. They are so used to having the defense give them a short field, and having nearly one less TO per game means one less opportunity for a score. I also think it has meant that the Bison O has had to press more, leading to more INTs this season compared to last. Just my opinion.

So, my wish list for a successful post-season would be that the Bison D go back to creating more TOs.

Really? If you are wishing for something in the post season that is more in NDSU's control it is an offense that scores more against the better teams. Turnovers have much more to do with other teams making mistakes.
So NDSU please play better offense in the post season. Turnovers will come when the other team gets behind and takes risks!