Friday night brought the last stop before the plans to migrate to the Metroplex could begin to be finalized. It did not disappoint!
No, it surely did not disappoint but that doesn't mean it wasn't without quirks.
A concern on this end for several weeks has been the passing game and last night was a very clear proof why it was valid. Winning a game on any level of the sport with only one completion by the starting quarterback that uses passing is about a 1% probability. Going against a championship-caliber offense drops it even lower than that.
A non-offensive touchdown could have made up for some of that but NDSU didn't get one of those. Nor did they run the ball 80 times for 500+ yards. They finished with 48 for 357.
Good numbers, especially the production, but not obscene. So it was a statistical anomaly.
And just to be clear, the ineffectiveness of the passing doesn't all fall on Cam Miller. He was off on some passes that should have been completed but there were some questionable no-calls by the officials and other chances which were inexplicably not brought-in by his targets. All-in-all it was a hot mess.
Some of the yards he wasn't able to accumulate through the air were made up for through keepers as he out-rushed Kobe Johnson by 11 yards & had the game-tying touchdown. But without our Deuce Vaughn the whole thing would have fallen apart. KJ's touchdown runs of 4, 49 & 31 yards were a Christmas present to all 12,000 people in the building!
And when those two needed a beat TK Marshall came through at better than six yards/carry. Obviously credit for all those yards - and the fact that Miller was only sacked once - is shared by the Rams. In classic fashion they imposed the mentality on Incarnate more and more as the game went on.
That's equally as true for the defense. Following the 16-point hole in the first half of the first quarter that was all that they gave up the rest of the way. After NDSU opened the second half with their third touchdown it seemed like the sand could be running out on the Cardinals season. As true contenders they also rebounded but were not able to overcome their four turnovers. Dawson Weber's game-sealing pick might be the one defensive highlight that lives on but it was the last of his three on the day, with the other being a fumble recovery by Loshiaka Roques. Starting safety has had a lot of great players over the decade but everything he did makes last night all the more unique.
And as with the offense, none of that may have happened had the defensive line not managed to string-out, contain & maintain pressure on Lindsey Scott. He still got his and will hopefully be rewarded for the season he had with an invite to Indianapolis but the defensive line did a fine job against him, with the benefit going the way of those behind the line. Both of the sacks they generated fittingly came from another future pro as Spencer Waege was able to bring him down.
And now, for the completion of the instant-classic, they get a well-deserved few weeks to rest & recover while they prepare for whichever of the other teams comes out on top this afternoon!
A couple noteworthy nuggets that came across the wire are that this was just the second time all season that the team trailed by double-digits. In line with that, not since JMU in 2016 had they faced that big of a deficit in the postseason. On the other side, Incarnate Word had never trailed this year when leading by at least 16 points! It would be little comfort to them even now but they did better than any other sub-division foe this season against Code Green.
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