Montana 2nd Round Playoff Preview

[Professor Chaos]

Well, this opponent should at least get the fans juiced up a little bit. Add that to the fact that it's the playoffs and I get the feeling there's going to be plenty of maroon and silver spread around the Fargodome should make it a fun one. Here's how they match up statistically:





I think the Bison match up fairly well with Montana on both sides. Montana's defense prior to that Montana St game had been stellar against the run but the Bobcats exposed them to tune of 439 rush yards at 6.8 yards per carry (and 39:39 of TOP for Montana St). Montana has a very aggressive defense so if the protection holds I think Cam can find some plays downfield as well. Offensively the Griz seem like more of a pass happy team - they went completely one-dimensional against SEMO last night but that probably had a lot to do with the lack of pass defense - which plays into the strength of the Bison defense.

The main concern I have is special teams... you can see from the numbers above that NDSU has not been good covering kickoffs this year and Malik Flowers is one of the best kick returners in the country. Hopefully Steindorf is able to boom a few (or all of them) into the endzone because I hate the little pop up kicks that give teams field position at the 35-40 yard line each time.

[Kevin]

Prediction: Pain.

[NDSU92]

I feel like we should run the ball

[Hammerhead]

I don’t think SEMO ever changed the snap count and the Montana defense was getting a good jump every snap.

[ndsubison1]

Hate to say it, but gonna take a lot more to get fans into it.

[BisonHorns]

I don’t think SEMO ever changed the snap count and the Montana defense was getting a good jump every snap.

I definitely saw that.

[NDSU92]

I don’t think SEMO ever changed the snap count and the Montana defense was getting a good jump every snap.

SEMO looked like it was their first game of the year

I guess in some ways it kinda was…

[Professor Chaos]

Hate to say it, but gonna take a lot more to get fans into it.

Those of us who are there will be into it. That's the nice thing about the playoffs at least. A 12-14k playoff crowd has about the same impact as an 17-18k regular season crowd. Based on recent attendance trends I'd say they'd top out at about 13-14k tickets sold to Bison fans. We'll see how many of the Griz faithful make the trek since there will be plenty of tickets for them.

[MankatoBison]

They could literally pull a fan from the stands and run HB dives to that fan for the entire game, and that fan may rack up 100yds. The fan would probably fumble alot and break bones, but wont get touched for 6 yds on every carry.

IDK what the score will be but if the bison dont get 300+ yds on the ground I will be astonished.

[El_Chapo]

Hate to say it, but gonna take a lot more to get fans into it.

alot of NDSU fans have become way too educated on fcs football now. they know a dud when they see it.
Montana, then samford at the dome will produce 14,000 fans
however, the NDSU marketing team should be hitting bismarck/minot areas this week with the Montana Vibe (Hey you guys out west complain you can never get tickets during the season, well, here's your chance! expose more new people to NDSU , we need them.)