NDSU BISON* @ Eastern Washington University

[EWURanger]

Agreed on the stats bit. Throw it all out the window. Different conferences, different tendencies.

While I can't agree that the MVFC is more competitive than the BSC, I can see both sides of the coin there.

As for all the MSU-EWU comparisons - two very different teams with different strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies. MSU was probably more productive offensively this year, although I would argue that EWU's defense has been more solid. They've stepped up time and again and put the offense in a position to win games. That is primarily due to the depth that we have on the defensive line and in the lb's.

I think this game hinges on EWU's ability to stop the run. We have been pretty solid against run-based teams this year. The option attack of SEMO gave us problems in the first half, but we came out in the second and completely shut them down surrendering only 26 yards of total offense. They also had a massive offensive line.

Keys to an EWU victory:

1.) Good balance offensively. Use the intermediate passing game to good effect while keeping the defense honest by attempting to go deep from time to time. Get TJ into open space where he can do his thing.
2.) Minimize NDSU's running game. Stack the box, and force them to beat EWU's defense through the air. NDSU's passing game appears to be average at best.
3.) Field position and TO's - BLM must play within himself and not turn the ball over, even if that means taking a sack. Short field position will play into what NDSU does offensively. EWU will also need to create some TO's to win this game, which is something they do well.

Keys to an NDSU victory:

1.) Pressure BLM. He sometimes makes poor decisions when pressured. On the flip side, if the EWU pass protection can hold up, he has the ability to pick defenses apart.
2.) Minimize Taiwan Jones. The only team that has done so this year has been MSU, and that was because he got knocked out of the game by attempting to hurdle an MSU defender. NDSU seems to be very stout defensively, so this will be a huge test not just for TJ, but the entire offense.
3.) Keep the game close going into the 4th. If NDSU can weather the storm in keep the game tight late, then they might have the advantage.

[EWURanger]

Ndsu torched bozeman, cheney will be next.
You big fluffy kids ain't seen physical football like NDSU brings, ask msu.
Cannot wait for Saturday, you will be thankful for your red turf as you won't be able to see your own blood.
Ndsu by 15!

I hope your team is as arrogant as most of you NDSU fans seem to be.

But keep using a game that was played back in September as a metric for how NDSU is going to torch us on our own field. I like that kind of stuff.

[kalm]

Ndsu torched bozeman, cheney will be next.
You big fluffy kids ain't seen physical football like NDSU brings, ask msu.
Cannot wait for Saturday, you will be thankful for your red turf as you won't be able to see your own blood.
Ndsu by 15!

I hope your team is as arrogant as most of you NDSU fans seem to be.

But keep using a game that was played back in September as a metric for how NDSU is going to torch us on our own field. I like that kind of stuff.

You can't blame a fan for talking up their conference after they lost four times in it and finished what, in a 5 way tie for third?

Evidentally, the Patriot is better than the Big Fluffy too.

[JBB]

I agree on the statistics too. You cant compare them across the board. Thats where you have to interpret what you're reading. Its also another reason Im gaining confidence by the minute. EWU = MSU. They are statistically identical, neither was dominate at all, both allowed a lot of points, neither plays physical football like the NDSU BISON.

The BSC was weaker than the MVFC. When comparing a BSC team, ie EWU, and a great MVFC team like the NDSU BISON, everything has to be kept in the proper context. It's my opinion that BSC stats are not as valid as MVFC stats and must be adjusted downward.

I see MSU when I look at the Eagles and I expect a game similar to that. 28-17 in favor of NDSU would be a good score. Maybe the Eagles are good enough to keep the 2 late scores NDSU tallied against the Cats off the scoreboard?

Im sure The BISON are not looking past this one. The Eagles are, after all, the #1 team in the country.

This is going to be the best defense EWU has seen this season. It will be better than Nevada's.

As far as big stadiums go, NDSU wins in those stadiums, apparently EWU goes for the experience? There were over 50,000 Kansas fans in attendance on the fateful day the NDSU BISON took the filed down there. The rest is now in legend. It resides in the great body of knowledge known by the peoples as the "BISON LORE".

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Great MVFC teams don't go 4-4 in conference. Sounds pretty mediocre to me.

[BisonBacker]

Great MVFC teams don't go 4-4 in conference. Sounds pretty mediocre to me.

I honestly don't think you would have the same W-L record had you played in the MVFC but again that's just my opinion. The MVFC was down this year and yet very stout. You have some teams in the BSC that are just flat out bad. The teams that were down in past years in the MVFC have picked up their game. Top to bottom it's pretty easy to argue that even in a down year the MVFC is more competitive or just has a better overall strenght of conference. The BSC can be wrapped up in 3 schools. UM, MSU and EWU. You can't tell me that NAU, Portland, Idaho or Northern Colorado are going to be vying for a conference championship or even the playoffs anytime soon based on how they have played. Look at the MFFC. We have UNI, SDSU, SIU, Western Illinois and NDSU in just the last two years in the playoffs and beating up on each other. In just the last 5 years the MVFC has put 6 different teams in the playoffs. How many teams in the last 10 years has the BSC put in? Outside of Montana, MSU and EWU are there any others?

[Ivytalk]

I'll take the "Red Team" by 5!

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Great MVFC teams don't go 4-4 in conference. Sounds pretty mediocre to me.

I honestly don't think you would have the same W-L record had you played in the MVFC but again that's just my opinion. The MVFC was down this year and yet very stout. You have some teams in the BSC that are just flat out bad. The teams that were down in past years in the MVFC have picked up their game. Top to bottom it's pretty easy to argue that even in a down year the MVFC is more competitive or just has a better overall strenght of conference. The BSC can be wrapped up in 3 schools. UM, MSU and EWU. You can't tell me that NAU, Portland, Idaho or Northern Colorado are going to be vying for a conference championship or even the playoffs anytime soon based on how they have played. Look at the MFFC. We have UNI, SDSU, SIU, Western Illinois and NDSU in just the last two years in the playoffs and beating up on each other. In just the last 5 years the MVFC has put 6 different teams in the playoffs. How many teams in the last 10 years has the BSC put in? Outside of Montana, MSU and EWU are there any others?

I think we would have a pretty similar record to what we have now (at least this year). It seems all the MVFC teams (except YSU) were on par with NAU and Montana, two teams we beat. 6/9 of BSC teams finished with a winning record, and a score or two in one of their losses from making the playoffs. UNC and ISU, will not likely be competing for a conference title soon, although you never know with Mike Kramer coming into ISU with his track record in rebuilding programs from the bottom up. PSU not likely either, but possible with a year under Burton's belt in getting his system in place. NAU is always in thick of things for a conference title, so you can never really count them out. Just because your teams beat up on each other, doesn't they're great teams. This year in the MVFC there were a good handful of good teams, good handful of average teams, and one bad team... just like with most conferences typically. But no great teams. Great teams dominate their conference.

And yes, in the last 10 years the BSC has sent UM, MSU, EWU, WSU, NAU, and PSU.

[BisonBacker]

Well we will just have to agree to disagree and that's fine. We will know more come this Saturday but right now the MVFC's 4-4 team just knocked the stuffing out of the BSC's C0-Champ. Top that off with the fact that you know what we are going to do and so did MSU. I'd love to see what this team could do with a healthy Jensen or Thornton in the coming years. Either way I'm excited about not only this weekend but the coming years for NDSU should be good ones.

[BisonBacker]

Here's what I'm talking about.. Those last three are virtually gimmes. You don't have that in the Valley.

2010 Football Standings
School Conf Pct Overall Home Away Streak
Montana State # 7-1 0.875 9-3 6-1 3-2 L1
Eastern Washington * 7-1 0.875 10-2 6-0 3-2 W8
Montana 5-3 0.625 7-4 5-1 2-3 L1
Sacramento State 5-3 0.625 6-5 4-1 2-4 L1
Weber State 5-3 0.625 6-5 4-1 2-4 L1
Northern Arizona 4-4 0.500 6-5 4-2 2-3 W1
Northern Colorado 2-6 0.250 3-8 2-3 1-5 W1
Portland State 1-7 0.125 2-9 1-3 1-6 L7
Idaho State 0-8 0.000 1-10 1-4 0-6 L10

[BisonBacker]

By comparison here's the MVFC record this year. Outside of YSU who had a down year there has been a big improvement by the teams who had been down. The same cannot be said of the cellar dwellars of the BSC.

Conf Overall
Team Record Pct Home Away Streak Record Pct Home Away Streak
Northern Iowa 6-2 .750 4-0 2-2 L1 7-5 .583 4-2 3-3 L2
Western Illinois 5-3 .625 4-0 1-3 W1 8-5 .615 6-0 2-5 L1
North Dakota State 4-4 .500 3-1 1-3 L1 9-4 .692 6-1 3-3 W2
Illinois State 4-4 .500 3-1 1-3 W1 6-5 .545 5-1 1-4 W2
Indiana State 4-4 .500 3-1 1-3 L1 6-5 .545 5-1 1-4 L1
Missouri State 4-4 .500 4-0 0-4 W1 5-6 .455 5-0 0-6 W1
South Dakota State 4-4 .500 3-1 1-3 L1 5-6 .455 4-1 1-5 W1
Southern Illinois 4-4 .500 3-1 1-3 W2 5-6 .455 4-2 1-4 W2
Youngstown State 1-7 .125 1-3 0-4 L7 3-8 .273 3-3 0-5 L7

[Gil Dobie]

Great MVFC teams don't go 4-4 in conference. Sounds pretty mediocre to me.

The record reflects having 5 Freshmen starters that have matured during the season, and are playing more now than early in the season, plus a few key injuries during the season have given more experience to the depth of NDSU. The Robert Morris game, NDSU was nearly healthy with 2 LB's still out, that came back for Montana St, then we lost QB Jensen in that game. Injuries are part of the game that may have an initial cost, but they give opportunities for other players to step up and gain experience during the season. NDSU is a young team this year, as was most of the MVFC.

[kalm]

Whether it's Sagarin, GPI, wins and losses, head to head, or transitive, going back a number of years, the MVC and the BSC have been equal. And I'll take our bottom three this year and give you WIU, Indiana State, and NDSU last year. Fact is we are both power conferences that are probably a push with the Southern most years and a little behind the CAA. Any other opinion is laughable.

[TheHerd]

This is a game between two teams that are very good at causing turnovers, so I believe whoever wins that battle will get the W. I am assuming that the eagles defense is better against the run than the bobcats, but if it isn't you may be in trouble. Looks like ya have a couple of good sized DT's, so that should help ya out. How big were the cats DT's? Your run D can't just be a little better either, it needs to be a lot better than the cats.....we put up 378 on the ground, even if you shave a hundred yards off of that you may be in trouble barring to's of course. How many yards of rushing did the griz put up on you guys? Anyways it to's and stopping the run for both squads that will determine who wins..good luck. Can't wait for Saturday!!

[FargoBison]

I won't try to say the MVFC was something it was not this year, I'm sorry BB but the Valley was average and on par with the Big Sky. The reason NDSU was 4-4 in conference had a lot to do with the fact that we have a ton of freshmen and sophomores in the two deep, heck we start six freshmen(several of which are true freshmen). When you have a team that young, they are going to be inconsistent. This team has improved leaps and bounds from early in the year, our OL was terrible against UNI(gave up 11 sacks in that one game and we had something like -40 rushing yards) and now they are like a bunch of road graders.

Right now NDSU is playing with a nice edge and is very confident. Many have been looking back at past games but this team has changed. They look like the 2006 team with the way OL and defense are dominating teams.

[kalm]

Holy crap, two rational Bison posts in a row.

[BisonBacker]

No way can I agree with the at par comment looking at the two conferences and the bottom three. The MVFC is top to bottom a better conference. I would agree that the injury issue but all teams have injuries it's just that NDSU's was/is at the key QB position.

[BisonBacker]

Holy crap, two rational Bison posts in a row.

I think it's funny that if someone doesn't agree with you apparently they are not rational. We just disagree but I'm posting stats from both conferences websites to show why I feel the way I do. You just have nothing but an opinion. If you want to argue that the bottom 3 teams in your conference with a combined W-L record of 6-27 vs the MVFC bottom 3 with a combined W-L record of 13-20 is the same knock yourself out.

[FargoBison]

To me they are very close, I guess you could say if NDSU wins on Saturday the MVFC was a bit better and if EWU wins you could say the same about the Big Sky.

[BisonBacker]

It's not as if I was saying they are comparible to a non scholly conference. Not even close. I think the top tier teams in the sky are very competitive. But to knock NDSU's 4-4 conference record in the MVFC when you have as close to a guaranteed "W" with the bottom 3 or 4 of the BSC for them is a huge difference.

Any Rational fan can see that

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Here's what I'm talking about.. Those last three are virtually gimmes. You don't have that in the Valley.

2010 Football Standings
School Conf Pct Overall Home Away Streak
Montana State # 7-1 0.875 9-3 6-1 3-2 L1
Eastern Washington * 7-1 0.875 10-2 6-0 3-2 W8
Montana 5-3 0.625 7-4 5-1 2-3 L1
Sacramento State 5-3 0.625 6-5 4-1 2-4 L1
Weber State 5-3 0.625 6-5 4-1 2-4 L1
Northern Arizona 4-4 0.500 6-5 4-2 2-3 W1
Northern Colorado 2-6 0.250 3-8 2-3 1-5 W1
Portland State 1-7 0.125 2-9 1-3 1-6 L7
Idaho State 0-8 0.000 1-10 1-4 0-6 L10

I'll give you PSU and ISU, but UNC has a better conference record than YSU did in the MVFC. UNC was within a score or tied with both MSU and EWU in the final minutes, went to 4 or 50T with WSU, and lost by 7 to NAU. They were competitive, just came up a little short. UNC was certainly no gimme. PSU also went toe to toe with UM and hung with MSU for a while. The only real pushover in the BSC this year was again ISU, and they even gave MSU trouble. So MSU wasn't as strong as a team as everyone made them out to be (especially toward the end of the year), or the BSC is tougher than you're realizing and giving us credit for.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

No way can I agree with the at par comment looking at the two conferences and the bottom three. The MVFC is top to bottom a better conference. I would agree that the injury issue but all teams have injuries it's just that NDSU's was/is at the key QB position.

Top to bottom, no way. You were arguing bottom of the MVFC is better than the BSC, and I can concede that, but the top of your conference isn't. No one in the Valley dominated their conference slate like EWU and MSU did. We didn't roll opponents, but at the end of the day we got it done.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

It's not as if I was saying they are comparible to a non scholly conference. Not even close. I think the top tier teams in the sky are very competitive. But to knock NDSU's 4-4 conference record in the MVFC when you have as close to a guaranteed "W" with the bottom 3 or 4 of the BSC for them is a huge difference.

Any Rational fan can see that

Bottom 3 or 4 now huh? Our fourth from worst team was NAU, who went 4-4 in conference, just like NDSU. Now you're just getting blatantly ignorant loose in your generalizations. You're getting further from rational by the post.

[BisonBacker]

I'd like to see UNC pick it up but with Poly and Davis coming in I'm afraid the sledding just got that much harder for them. Don't get me wrong Screamin Eagle like I said I think the top of the conference in the sky is very competitive. Either way it's what us "fans" have to do is talk about it and have some fun (all in good fun) and I hope both teams show up with thier A game. I hope NDSU's is just better

[kalm]

Holy crap, two rational Bison posts in a row.

I think it's funny that if someone doesn't agree with you apparently they are not rational. We just disagree but I'm posting stats from both conferences websites to show why I feel the way I do. You just have nothing but an opinion. If you want to argue that the bottom 3 teams in your conference with a combined W-L record of 6-27 vs the MVFC bottom 3 with a combined W-L record of 13-20 is the same knock yourself out.

Fact: Playing typical FCS schedules like the Big Sky, no one in the MVC finished the season with less than 4 losses. Fact, the MVC champion just like the the BSC champ lost at home, but to a Patriot League team. Fact the computer rankings rated the two conferences almost identical the entire year (just like in year's past). Fact EWU's strength of schedule was at 156 and NDSU's was 158.

But let's not let my beautiful opinions confuse your facts.

BSC = MVC