Polasek's Coaching Staff Discussion

[BISONBRI53]

Have you seen our inept offense that last couple of years. No imagination, no adjustments ever, and have you seen the lack of production from RBs lately? We need a specialized QB in order to run the ball.
If most of us fan can tell you the play that is coming, you would think D coordinators know them. Only thing that has saved him is that that we have a great O line compared to most teams D Line. If we were FBS, we would not average 10 pts a game.

Someone said something about excellent athletes covering up... This has not been a good offense since TR took over. The Tre year covered up BIG TIME for him and you could see the drop off as the years went on... Now that there aren't any NFL players covering it shows. BLAH BLAH the stats.... Blowouts cover a lot of that and skew them...

[Professor Chaos]

Someone said something about excellent athletes covering up... This has not been a good offense since TR took over. The Tre year covered up BIG TIME for him and you could see the drop off as the years went on... Now that there aren't any NFL players covering it shows. BLAH BLAH the stats.... Blowouts cover a lot of that and skew them...

Pretty clear reading through the last few pages of this thread that this is the first year blowouts inflated the stats for the Bison offense...

[TransAmBison]

The RB stats were far from pathetic there just wasn't enough volume. Williams averaged 6.2 per carry, Kpeenu averaged 5.2, and even Marshall averaged 4.9 (which surprised me given how much I thought he struggled this year). Go back and compare those to RBs like McNorton, Ojuri, and Crockett and you'll be surprised how well they compare - the difference is those guys got a lot more volume.

I think criticism of Roehl's dependence on the QB run is warranted - it goes all the way back to his first year in 2019. When the chips were down in tough games against SDSU and JMU he ran Trey Lance into the ground. I also would also love to see them get back to 1 or 2 "feature" backs. Polasek said on his interview on 1660 yesterday that he doesn't care how they get their rush yards but that they need to be effective in the run game so I don't think the QB run is going to disappear but I hope his influence can help them be less reliant on it.

I was thinking more along the lines of volume...carries per game, and stats for the year. The utilization of running backs has made me wonder why any running back would choose NDSU anymore. I'm hopeful that will change.

[heffray]

The RB stats were far from pathetic there just wasn't enough volume. Williams averaged 6.2 per carry, Kpeenu averaged 5.2, and even Marshall averaged 4.9 (which surprised me given how much I thought he struggled this year). Go back and compare those to RBs like McNorton, Ojuri, and Crockett and you'll be surprised how well they compare - the difference is those guys got a lot more volume.

I think criticism of Roehl's dependence on the QB run is warranted - it goes all the way back to his first year in 2019. When the chips were down in tough games against SDSU and JMU he ran Trey Lance into the ground. I also would also love to see them get back to 1 or 2 "feature" backs. Polasek said on his interview on 1660 yesterday that he doesn't care how they get their rush yards but that they need to be effective in the run game so I don't think the QB run is going to disappear but I hope his influence can help them be less reliant on it.

You could argue that that is worse than pathetic, in that it wasn’t just we were running QBs because our RBs couldn’t get yards (your stats prove otherwise), we were running the QBs because… reasons…?

I don’t think there are many people here who would disagree that the Defense is the problem. I might agree that we have Championship level Offensive roster, but you pair that with the play-calling and you get a team that scored 19 against USD (13 if you don’t count the garbage TD with 36 seconds left), 24 against UND (17 if you don’t count another garbage TD), 16 against SDSU, and 16 against Montana (not counting OT points)…

Your stats are nice, but the tell a different story against 26.66% of our competition, 2 of which weren’t even contenders. Not Championship level, and the proof was on the field.

[BigLakeBison]

In the 4 losses the TOP dipped from 32:56 to 31:29 and their 3rd down conversion rate dipped from 49.8% to 36.7%.

I'm not claiming the offense were national champions - I'm saying they were championship caliber. I'd go further and say they were better than offenses on some previous teams that won championships (such as 2011, 2012, and 2014). To be honest I think your comments about the offense not complimenting the defense is just an excuse for the subpar defense compared to previous years.

Complimentary football means that when one unit isn't bringing their "A" game the other does. This year they didn't win a single game when they scored less than 30 points - every year going back to 2011 they had won at least 3 games when they scored less than 30 points some years as many as 7 games. You're right that we didn't see complimentary football this year but your reasoning is faulty as to why.

I guess we'll agree to disagree somewhat. I agree with 99% of what you are saying. I just don't believe that the offense should get a pass. They contributed to the outcome of the season. I think the defense is the biggest problem, special teams was second. The offense can and I believe needs to improve and I'm not just talking about statistically.

This year's team felt a bit like the Vikings teams with Daunte Culpepper. The offense was definitely superior to the defense yet they seemed to stumble in execution or decision making at the most inopportune times. The fact that the defense gave up 31 points to the opposition was the biggest reason for the loss but they often still had a chance to pull out a win but didn't execute in key moments. Wasn't fair to the offense in any way. Their margin for error was super thin. Doesn't matter. The team lost and the offense could have done more. That's the mentality that each and every player should have. Maybe I'm just more offended by the fact that it seems like you're making excuses for the offense when I don't think that provides anything positive. Just own the outcome as a team and get better, all aspects. That's complimentary football.

[Professor Chaos]

You could argue that that is worse than pathetic, in that it wasn’t just because we were running QBs because our RBs couldn’t get yards (your stats prove otherwise), we were running the QBs because… reasons…?

I don’t think there are many people here would disagree that the Defense is the problem here. I might agree that we have Championship level Offensive roster, but you pair that with the play-calling and you get a team that scored 19 against USD (13 if you don’t count the garbage TD with 36 seconds left), 24 against UND (17 if you don’t count another garbage TD), 16 against SDSU, and 16 against Montana (not counting OT points)…

Your stats are nice, but the tell a different story against 26.66% of our competition, 2 of which weren’t even contenders. Not Championship level, and the proof was on the field.

You're right that the offense failed to carry the team in those games - hence the reason why they lost. That's the story of the 2023 season in my mind - when the offense couldn't carry the team they lost because the defense wasn't going to do it. Montana St was about the only exception but you could argue the entire team got bailed out by Montana St's placekicker in that one.

[GreenfieldBison]

I agree #1 is fixing the defense...no questions there. But #2 has to be to fix our run game. Our running back stats are pathetic...and that translates to a lot of 3rd and longs...which we were fortunate to convert a fair share of...but that comes back to bite a team against good competition.

Agree with #1 but #2 has to be fix the damn special teams. If they had done their job everybody here would be planning their Frisco trip.

[MAKBison]

Been watching who from current staff are actively retweeting or commenting on socisl media about new signed players......very intresting!

[ndsubison1]

QB run isnt going away if Cole or Cam are the QBs.

[BigLakeBison]

You're right that the offense failed to carry the team in those games - hence the reason why they lost. That's the story of the 2023 season in my mind - when the offense couldn't carry the team they lost because the defense wasn't going to do it. Montana St was about the only exception but you could argue the entire team got bailed out by Montana St's placekicker in that one.

I think that's my take away too. I just tend to believe that in some of the championship years the defense and special teams completely overcame the offensive deficiencies. The first championship in Frisco in 2011, the Illinois State playoff game in 2019 are a couple that come to mind. This season had multiple opportunities where the offense could return the favor so to speak and they couldn't do it. Should one side of the ball have to do that? Nope. Was it the reality? Yep and in the four losses they couldn't do it.