All or Nothing
Pass or Fail
Right or Wrong
Good or Bad
Get it?
👍
In thinking about the return to Grand Forks it really did seem like the conference freshman would be playing a more well-established doppelgänger of itself.
Little did anyone know how true that would be
First comes the good
Beyond even what most opponents would muster for a playoff game, the Grand Forks faithful were determined to make it as difficult for the champs as possible. Despite that, Jake Reinholz came through clutchly with all the kicks that he was called upon to try. You could say that Jake from State was not a good neighbor. 😉
The defense didn't find it's way to many of the obvious, key stats but Dawson Weber's interception was key in keeping the Birds out of the end zone for the final three quarters. No one play by the defense was bigger while the whole unit did yeoman's work to hold Otis Weah to 85 yards. That laser focus helped Schuster get to a moderate 176 yards passing. If not for the running back demanding so much focus the QB could have been held to 100 or less yards. So all in all it was another championship effort by the defense.
Until his hands turned to stone in the fourth quarter Noah Gindorff was having a breakout game, hauling in four of the five completions by the quarterbacks. He even showed some rarely-used versatility with a 15 yard run. The horrendous miss in the fourth quarter can't happen but he still far & away qualified as one of the best parts of the game.
What Patterson struggled to do through the air he managed to make up for on the ground with 110 yards from 19 carries. It isn't a strategy that should be employed except in the most dire of situations but to show his mobility to that extent will create more issues for defense's preparations as the season progresses.
And last but not least, the state remains with Fargo for another year.
Which just leaves the negatives
There was a stretch early in the fourth quarter where the officiating went all sorts of backwards in North Dakota's favor. First was a spot at least a yard ahead of where the runner was stopped than came the punt which pinned NDSU at the one. The "review" angles weren't shown as the ball rolled by the pylon but it sure appeared to be inside the lines as it crossed the end zone. It's the lowest of low-hanging fruit for fans to pick at but two occurrences so close in time to each other have a particular stink, beyond the normal stench when officials insert themselves into games.
As mentioned before, today's passing was also odious. I'm hesitant to make a big deal out of though, because they only called for 10 attempts by Patterson, which is barely enough to get warmed up, let alone get into any sort of a groove. With the more than 4.5 to one running to passing ratio, just going to let it slide as a game-flow issue.