Post Game: Improvements and concerns

[Grizzly Oredigger]

That was NOT a horse collar---on of the most egregious official's calls I have ever seen.

Uh, we are talking about Big Sky Conference officiating. I think you only remember short term. :lol: :thumb:

I think that was evened out by the late hit on SD early on in the game...Ol' Joe wasn't too happy

One thing - that wasn't a late hit penalty it was an unsportsmanlike conduct for taunting after the play. Happened right in front of me. #33 clearly said something because Jones is laying on the ground and he turns toward him and shouts something - the ref has his back to #33 - turns to look at him as he's pulling the flag. Whatever he said - that's what got the flag, not the late hit.

Good...it would've been a bad call if it was indeed a late hit...thanks for the clarification

 

[BWahlberg]

You bet - I went and pulled the official play by play and I see it was officially listed as an unsportsmanlike too.

 

[garizzalies]

I have been a big critic of this staff (and will continue to be) but I came away from the SD game surprisingly (somewhat) pleased and optimistic. First of all, we led the entire game; that was not the case in the prior 2 SD games. It also seems like we finally found where we butter our bread--power running. I realize they have been trying to do this for a couple years now but they finally looked like they were at least all on the same page. I'm not a huge fan of this scheme (as it likely won't work against a more powerful team like NDSU) but at least it seems we may have found our identity--something we can fall back on when all else fails.

 

[GottaluvGriz]

I thought the Griz played fairly well. The defense was especially good. Wags continues to be beast.

Besides the generally good defensive play, I liked the improvement of the o-line--not necessarily because they were so good but because it was a preseason concern and they seem to be improving. Reese seemed to play fairly well for a frosh in his first start, as others have mentioned.

The team missed Canada in the first quarter--and half. He hit the holes harder and faster, and was finding the seems, in the second half when he hit his stride. Maybe he had some extra incentive. Wonder if he would have helped the offense finish drives early in the game.

The d-line is truly superb. The backers are improving and can really run to the ball. Tackling is improving.

The D gave up too many 3d and longs later in the game, all or mainly on pass plays. One in front of the Griz sideline was nice catch and throw, and Gamboa was in pretty good position. This is going to happen from time to time, but it happened too many times. Don't know the problem or problems. Our coverage on longer passes seemed good, and the SD qb couldn't throw long accurately.

I generally liked the play-calling and mix, but like some of you, wondered why they threw long on the last 2 (non) drives of the first half, both on first down I think. Why not just chip away and get the drives going. JJ is good in these situations.

JJ got flushed out of the pocket a few times, but I didn't think this was a huge problem. He made some nice throws and missed some. The catch by Jones on the TD was a tremendous catch and big play.

Not a huge number of penalties, but several were costly and unfortunate. Of course, SD had some very costly penalties. By the way, was that really a horse collar on the Griz on the SD sideline? My impression was that the defender grabbed the qb's jersey before the collar, but I couldn't tell for sure. That one hurt us.

Kicking. Shaw needs to be faster. I too thought he seemed about a step too close to the 3 blockers. FG's. Just can't miss 3 makeable FG's. It's disheartening, hurts momentum, and allows teams to stay in the game. The 46 yarder was a pretty good kick and close. The next 2 were very bad.

Don't want to jinx us, but no turnovers this year. Surely we are leading the nation in turnover margin/ratio.

Nice crowd and loud. Great NEZ performance, I thought. The players obviously love the crowd and NEZ.

I hope the Griz can step up and play with NDSU.

I also thought the crowd was terrific. As for the horse collar call, when I could see how the referees called it. However was not 100% sure of it. I saw the replay and was a little upset at the call. I watched the game on dvr late last night. It was not a horse collar. The officials must of had bad vision angles. Had one official had a good angle, that should have been discussed and not flagged.

The thing that ticks me off on the horse collar is that the player needs to be brought down to the ground by collaring him and pulling him down. It would not be a penalty to just get your hands in the collar area. In this particular play, Tonga did not even get his hands on the collar of the player, much less bring him to the ground with it. Just a really bad call all around. It led to a South Dakota score also since this call was made on a 3rd and long play outside of FG position.
Go Griz!