MID YEAR THOUGHTS

[Affirm]

We wait and wait and then the season goes by soooo fast. Already more than half-over. Here are a few of my thoughts:
Game by game:
North Greenville-some thought NG would be tough. They weren’t. It was over by the second quarter. Offense looked like it was really going to be fun to watch. Defense was dominant.
Clempson-Results were about as good as could be hoped for but it could have been a little better if we could have cashed in a couple more scoring oppotunitues. Going into the game did anyone think FU would outgain CU? Again the offense looked realky good and the defense held it’s own. Optimism was gaining speed.
ETSU- Good conference win, offense kinda took a step back and the defense played well again but gave up another huge play. Optimism still high.
CSU- Struggle is an understatement against a not so good team. Offense just coukdn’t get it together but did enough at the end to eek out the win. Defense played very well but proved once again it was vulnerable to the big play regardless the opponent. Optimism took a hit in this one.
Samford-A golden opportunity missed in this one. A very beatable ranked team we let get off the hook. Yes the call but good teams suck it up and we didn’t. For some unexplainable reason the defense went AWOL for the middle 2 quarters. Long enough to cost us the game. Offense played well enough to win but D did not. When it is all said and done the “Call” and subsequent disappearance of the D may cost a playoff bid.
Citadel-Always good to beat the dogs and its tough to do at their place. Offense struggled again putting points on the board but the defense was lights out except for giving up more big plays.
Mid-season grades:
Offense: C The reason is we’re just not scoring enough. Averaging just under 25 points again against FCS teams. Leaving a lot of points on the field. Still have not scored 30 points in a D1 game this year. The lack of big play capability is another negative as are the turnovers.
Defense-B this could have been a B+ or even A- except for the middle 2 quaters of the Samford game and the tendency to give up the big play. Defense has been solid against the run, even CU struggled to run the ball.
Overall-C+ the grade has dropped the last 3 games or at least 2 of the last 3. The CSU game should not have been such a struggle and I feel like we just blew the Samford game. I really believe Furman wins if they played again. Just wasn’t that impressed with SU.
Summary-So far the best word I can thnk of is potential. I believe like CCH said this team has not played it’s best football so far. Offense needs to put more points on the board and the defense needs to quit giving up big plays. Who knows if this team can reach it’s potential? A good place to start would be this Saturday. See y’all Saturday! Go ‘dins!

Have not read any replies yet but I think you wrote an excellent piece.

[gman84]

NDSU runs the ball a lot because they can. They use play-action because they can. What makes this simple approach to offensive football easy is their dominant O-line play. Over the past ten years NDSU has put a lot of big nastys in the NFL. We are improving our O-line play slowly but surely. You can't do anything on offense until you have an O-line. CCH knows this.