Return of NDSU Defense

[El_Chapo]

NDSU defense gave up 24/24 scoring opportunities in red zone last year & 18 TDS.

tackling was atrocious & takeaways were non existent


Jeff Culhane is running thru these stats on 1660 now.


RETURN of the NDSU Defense will be KEY this year

[HerdBot]

Can't argue with those stats but having an offense that kept them on the field all the time didn't help either. 3 and outs do not give the defense enough time to adjust.

[El_Chapo]

Can't argue with those stats but having an offense that kept them on the field all the time didn't help either. 3 and outs do not give the defense enough time to adjust.

very true.
I just didn't like the lack of tackling/takeaways

[MankatoBison]

Its actually astonishing to look at the offensive and defensive stats of last year and then realize that we were 1 ok play away from beating SH in the quarterfinals.

It says two things VERY loudly:
1. How good our program is overall.
2. How f*cking bad the FCS is at football, overall. It took SDSU having their best team ever and NDSU's worst team in a decade, combined with apocalyptic covid situations, and unheard of NFL draft situation etc for SOMONE to finally embarrass us. SIU too.

Even with that, we were one average play away from beating the eventual champion. yikes. reflects really well on us, and really bad on the FCS

[EC8CH]

Its actually astonishing to look at the offensive and defensive stats of last year and then realize that we were 1 ok play away from beating SH in the quarterfinals.

It says two things VERY loudly:
1. How good our program is overall.
2. How f*cking bad the FCS is at football, overall. It took SDSU having their best team ever and NDSU's worst team in a decade, combined with apocalyptic covid situations, and unheard of NFL draft situation etc for SOMONE to finally embarrass us. SIU too.

Even with that, we were one average play away from beating the eventual champion. yikes. reflects really well on us, and really bad on the FCS

Lots of games last season that could have easily tipped the wrong way too. Remarkable like you say with stats that bad they were close to still taking it the distance, but stats realistically show the lack of dominance compared to prior years.

[BisonHorns]

I watched a couple old games on youtube. Jeez some of those old defenses played angry, hungry, and FAST. Play after play just exploding into tackles. Lots of time the opponent offenses were just struggling to get plays started. It would be awesome to bring that back.

[Twincitybizon]

For a couple years we were plagued by wr's that couldn't beat one on one. Now we're plagued by db's who can't win one on one. Sometimes one on two. Have up toooo many 3 rd down conversions. Tackled poorly. I agree it's sad last year's INCREDIBLY flawed team had a real shot. Everyone else sucks

[HerdBot]

I watched a couple old games on youtube. Jeez some of those old defenses played angry, hungry, and FAST. Play after play just exploding into tackles. Lots of time the opponent offenses were just struggling to get plays started. It would be awesome to bring that back.

Like Travis Beck jumping over the line of scrimmage to tackle the K State QB and then re-dislocating his shoulder and trying to tackle the qb with 1 arm. And then a few plays later he is back in there after popping it back into socket.

[Professor Chaos]

The overall defensive numbers have been trending down since 2017. The difference is that in 2018 and 2019 the Bison offense was otherworldly efficient... better than any of the previous championship seasons (even 2013). This spring the Bison offense regressed to the kind of efficiency (or lack thereof) it had circa 2012 but that 2012 defense was superb... this spring's defense not so much. I don't care if it's the offense going back to 2018/2019 form or the defense going back to 2012/2013 form but hopefully we see one of those things happen this fall.

[scottietohottie]

The overall defensive numbers have been trending down since 2017. The difference is that in 2018 and 2019 the Bison offense was otherworldly efficient... better than any of the previous championship seasons (even 2013). This spring the Bison offense regressed to the kind of efficiency (or lack thereof) it had circa 2012 but that 2012 defense was superb... this spring's defense not so much. I don't care if it's the offense going back to 2018/2019 form or the defense going back to 2012/2013 form but hopefully we see one of those things happen this fall.

Yeah it doesn't help when the offense can't convert a third down. 3 and out, 3 and out. Wears your defense out.