The positive from the Montana game

[Buffalo.Rider]

We are a young team and made a bunch of mistakes, but if not for the holding call/fumble in the 4th we probably win by 10-14 points. Also I don't think we will face a better offense the rest of the regular season. Nobody has better receivers and maybe QB than Montana. I still belive we run the table and get a top seed especially with the early bye weeks to improve and get healthy.

I felt NDSU's secondary was terrible. Defensive backs were consistently out of position, were not watching for the ball, seldom if ever got bat-downs. Several times Montana receivers were in double-coverage and caught the ball not because the MT quarterback was great or the receivers were great, but b/c the NDSU secondary was out of position. The MT quarterback missed open receivers a lot. Receivers dropped balls a lot. If not for this the Griz's stats would have looked far better. NDSU's secondary made the MT pass offense look good, IMHO.

I assume NDSU's players and coaches saw this and will take steps to fix it. If they don't, or can't, I predict NDSU will lose 2-3 more games this year. A really good passing team (I do not agree that MT was a really good passing team) will then shred NDSU's defense, score a lot of points, and put themselves in a position to win.

I know this is supposed to be a positive thread ... my apologies for being negative.

[SamsRams]

yes to all above nice post #7 king have not been impressed to date- really nice game #8 #20 true freshman - cool, solid will be true asset.

Upon rewatching the tape- at 6 minutes left ahead by 7 with ball - if CW is healthy good chance no fumble and we score up by 14
- run the ball its over. hats off to the griz!

Darius Shepherd is not a true freshman he is a redshirt freshman

[OrygunBison]

I felt NDSU's secondary was terrible. Defensive backs were consistently out of position, were not watching for the ball, seldom if ever got bat-downs. Several times Montana receivers were in double-coverage and caught the ball not because the MT quarterback was great or the receivers were great, but b/c the NDSU secondary was out of position. The MT quarterback missed open receivers a lot. Receivers dropped balls a lot. If not for this the Griz's stats would have looked far better. NDSU's secondary made the MT pass offense look good, IMHO.

I agree that our secondary was out of position but to say that Montana's receivers were less than pretty good is BS in my opinion. As rough as Champ had of a game, there were a few balls that he was in very good position for and the receiver made a hell of a play. Two of those were on the sidelines and one in the end zone. Perhaps there were more. FWIW, my perspective changed from what I saw live in the stadium to when I could watch the replay and rewind it and look again at a few plays.

I have no doubts that the secondary will get much better. Of course, that is the position group that needs the most improvement by far.

[Bisonwinagn]

I felt NDSU's secondary was terrible. Defensive backs were consistently out of position, were not watching for the ball, seldom if ever got bat-downs. Several times Montana receivers were in double-coverage and caught the ball not because the MT quarterback was great or the receivers were great, but b/c the NDSU secondary was out of position. The MT quarterback missed open receivers a lot. Receivers dropped balls a lot. If not for this the Griz's stats would have looked far better. NDSU's secondary made the MT pass offense look good, IMHO.

I assume NDSU's players and coaches saw this and will take steps to fix it. If they don't, or can't, I predict NDSU will lose 2-3 more games this year. A really good passing team (I do not agree that MT was a really good passing team) will then shred NDSU's defense, score a lot of points, and put themselves in a position to win.

I know this is supposed to be a positive thread ... my apologies for being negative.

Please name the teams on the schedule you think are better passing teams than Montana?

[Mr Meaty]

I agree that our secondary was out of position but to say that Montana's receivers were less than pretty good is BS in my opinion. As rough as Champ had of a game, there were a few balls that he was in very good position for and the receiver made a hell of a play. Two of those were on the sidelines and one in the end zone. Perhaps there were more. FWIW, my perspective changed from what I saw live in the stadium to when I could watch the replay and rewind it and look again at a few plays.

I have no doubts that the secondary will get much better. Of course, that is the position group that needs the most improvement by far.

I think we were in good position most of the time as well. Their big WR just made great plays on the ball and the ball was thrown in a great spot. Will they have that type of connection all year long, who knows. They did in our game and we lost. If we play them again in Fargo or a neutral field, I will take NDSU. Go Bison.

[bandit218]

Their WR's are really good. I haven't looked but I heard they ran 90+ plays. I'm curious as to how many were run after penalties gave them the first down. They ran 16 plays that last drive. Up to that point in the game we were about even in play numbers but had the ball for 12 more minutes. I think.

[yopaulie]

I thought their WRs were fantastic, minus some bad drops. Their QB had a good game as well. So I think our Defense will improve, and may not see WRs as good in our MVFC schedule.

[missingnumber7]

I thought we played well, it was just one of those games where the mistakes were magnified. Youth improves as the season goes along. But all in all this is a solid base to start with and easy to build upon the issues discovered.

[CaBisonFan]

The Montana crowd was a great 12th man. Great atmosphere for their team...and for TV. We won't run into that kind of crowd again. SDSU will be the closest...unless we're on the road for a playoff game.

Get this young team into a more friendly environment and things might change quite a bit.

Remember...we weren't able to make many changes on defense, in great part because of the noise.

[OrygunBison]

Remember...we weren't able to make many changes on defense, in great part because of the noise.

Are you saying it was loud when we were on defense?!? That makes no sense.

Also, and for what it is worth, I thought our guys handled the noise superbly. I can't think of one thing that went wrong because of the volume.