Battle for North Dakota

All or Nothing

Pass or Fail

Right or Wrong

Good or Bad

Pass or Punt

Get it?

👍

First quarter Zeb was a problem for the third game in a row. That is a pattern and the second turnover lead directly to the Otis Weah 74-yard touchdown run. I don't think the second INT was too difficult of a throw for Watson to reel in, but Noland could have done an even better job placing the throw.

But he and the rest of the team followed it up with three quarters of strong play

Hunter Luepke was worth waiting for. His 95 high school touchdowns make complete sense after seeing what he did to the defense for the number 2* team in the country! With 28 carries in his first game it's pretty safe to say that the sky is the limit for him!!

The bat man to Luepke was Dominic Gonnella with a very respectable 12 carries for 84 yards. With Kobe Johnson & Jalen Bussey of minimal impact, the duo showed that the smash brothers can more than get the job done!

Watson more than made up for the foibled catch with the 63 yard gem just before halftime. I wondered if more time together on the field together would help Noland to Watson. There's still the room for improvement but the signs of cohesion are there and seem to be increasing.

It's a slippery slope to play that I don't endorse going down often or even occasionally but there are rare times when subtracting a play can more properly tell the story. In this case, if you subtract Weah's one touchdown run UND only managed 230 total yards including 55 by the all-conference hopeful. Even at it's worst the offense is more than capable of outpacing 57.5 yards/quarter!

To put it another way, the defense was on 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.

I think they way they did is as impressive as it gets - no sacks, no fumbles, only the one interception by Dom Jones & three TFLs. Not glamorous but super effective! More will come (and will be needed) but they showed that they can basically shut their opponent down with a whole lot of plays that just register as tackles!

As the first part of the main half of their schedule it was an all-around showing that indicates to me that the team will be ready for the Bunnies in two weeks!