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Great Second Half by D

P

PlayerRep

Well-known member
First, congrats to Stitt, the offense, Brady, the receivers, the o-line, and the running backs.

After a first half with some good and bad play, multiple missed tackles, and some less than great pass defense--in which NDSU scored 28 points and gained almost 300 yards (some of which was the result of having been put under tremendous pressure by the offense and play calls), the defense came alive and basically kicked ass in the second half.

NDSU scored only 7 points and had one drive over 23 yards (7-79). 129 yards in 7 drives. Great 3 and out stop after UM's last FG, to get the ball back to the offense with 1:39 left. Some key takeaways, including at key times.

Wentz had almost no yards rushing in the second half, and was actually negative (-5) counting the sack. Supposedly he wasn't at full speed in the second half, but so what.

Congrats to Gregorak and the D.

Random stats. 3 hr. 50 minute game. 93 plays for UM. Last UM drive for 80 yards and winning TD was done 1:37 with 16 plays. Wow. Counts had 10 carries for 14 yards. Sullivan was 3-3 in FG's.
 
Still amazed after giving up the 28 points that they held them to 7 in the 2nd half. Hats off to the D!
 
putter said:
Still amazed after giving up the 28 points that they held them to 7 in the 2nd half. Hats off to the D!
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Despite giving up those points in the first half, and missing alot of tackles, and have several weak plays on pass defense, the D did some very good things in the first half. The 3 and out stop early after the O failed to convert on 4th down from their own 45. I think 2 takeaways, both of which were nice plays. There were multiple well-defended passes in both halves, despite there also being several that were no so good. I couldn't tell what went wrong on the first, or an early, NDSU passing TD, when Harris was well short of his or a man, who caught the easy TD pass. He acted a bit like he expected safety help. The safety was on an inside guy. Don't know what coverage they were in.
 
Only allowing 1 score in the 2nd half against a powerful offensive line (2 All-Americans 4 Seniors in total) and a quarterback projected to go in the 3rd round is simply amazing. I thought they would run all over the Griz in the 4th quarter but the kids showed a ton of heart. D-line is very, very under rated this year Holmes is a great player. The secondary and linebackers are rock solid.
 
While the D obviously improved just from the live playing time, it's seems like some of the difference has to be credited to halftime adjustments. That's something we all (mostly) bitched about last year -- the lack of good halftime adjustments. So it's very encouraging that Stitt & Co. seem to be better at it.
 
I heard some people saying that they thought UM wore down NDSU more than NDSU wore down UM. I can see that but I wasn't looking for who was most gassed. More looking at and enjoying the game, and drinking beer. Any views on who was more gassed?
 
At halftime someone asked me about how good Gregorak is with adjustments. While it's tough to say if it was a true adjustment on not I did notice in the 2nd he used a 4-4-3 package with a single safety and Lebsock as a 4th linebacker. That formation made outside running plays for ndsu very difficult
 
BWahlberg said:
At halftime someone asked me about how good Gregorak is with adjustments. While it's tough to say if it was a true adjustment on not I did notice in the 2nd he used a 4-4-3 package with a single safety and Lebsock as a 4th linebacker. That formation made outside running plays for ndsu very difficult
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I thought Lebsock had a couple of key open field tackles too. :ugeek:
 
The defense looked pretty stout yesterday. I think the cornerbacks right now are some of the best we've had in the last 4 years, and the linebackers were obviously as advertised.

Tyrone Holmes was a beast at d-end. Wag's sack record might be in jeopardy if Holmes stays healthy, because he was going up against probably the best tackles he's going to see this year. On the same note, however, he was gassed in the 4th quarter, we need to find a way to get him some more rest without too big of a dropoff.
 
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