FCS Championship 'Full Game REPLAY'

[kwcat]

One take away from re-watching the game last night reinforced what I saw on the sideline, the first half. The mood was very funky to say the least between a few players, and I mentioned to my brother that I thought it lended credibility to the rumors of NIL money offered to players a couple weeks back. I think at least two players were playing not to get hurt and their heart was not in it. I’m hoping I am wrong. But that is the take away from re-watching the game as well as sitting behind our bench in Frisco.
You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that players are being offered money before they ever get into the portal. Hopefully the learning curve on this issue is short-lived. I think it causes animosity between players who still have a lot to play for. I also think it is different, maybe by tradition, than a coach being offered a different job that chooses to stay.

So your take is that these highly competitive players weren't going all out in the biggest game of their lives to date...because they knew they were transferring?

Man, they've more than likely known they were going to transfer the entire season. They weren't half assing it because they knew they were gone. C'mon.

Like I said. Hopefully I’m wrong. It might be me jumping to conclusions. But the chemistry was off on the sideline on Monday night as I watched. And it seemed to be a little off as I watched the rerun of the game. But I also think it’s naïve to think that Players don’t protect themselves in moving on. Colorado took out extra insurance just because of the fact they wanted their guys to compete but knew the guys didn’t want to get hurt if they were gonna lose money. Just spitballing. I don’t have the definite answer.

[WalkOn79]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

[catzz]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

Hasn’t even crossed my mind to rewatch it.. Can’t stomach it.. Yet

[nanacat]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

You're not the only one. I don't ever intend to watch that game again. I'm even struggling with articles and pictures that show back up in my feeds from before the game. It's all too depressing.

[kwcat]

I have watched it twice since I’ve been back

[BelligerentBobcat]

I have watched it twice since I’ve been back

I can’t even watch highlights yet. You’re a braver man than me.

[The Butcher]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

You're not the only one. I don't ever intend to watch that game again. I'm even struggling with articles and pictures that show back up in my feeds from before the game. It's all too depressing.

I feel the exact same!

[RICO CAT]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

You're not the only one. I don't ever intend to watch that game again. I'm even struggling with articles and pictures that show back up in my feeds from before the game. It's all too depressing.

I feel the exact same!

I was curious about the broadcasters comments (which by the way, mirrored many of those on this board) but had to wait nearly a week after the game and could only watch a quarter at a time before stepping away and watching more later. Could not watch in its entirety.

[kwcat]

I have watched it twice since I’ve been back

I can’t even watch highlights yet. You’re a braver man than me.

I was especially curious to see how we mixed up our 2 high look and disguised what we were doing. I missed quite a few things when I’m at the game live.
Had to watch the onside kick and see if what my eyes saw live was correct. We missed quite a few opportunities to win that game. North Dakota State played just about perfect.
We got a defensive stop when we needed to, but we could not convert.

[rfischer94]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

Nope. I don't rewatch the losses either. Too depressing.

[AFCAT]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

Nope. I don't rewatch the losses either. Too depressing.

Yeah, I haven't gone back and watched a loss in many years. In fact, I have digitized videos from the 80's of MSU losses, including the first Cat-gris loss to start the streak, but they will never see the light of day, or the internet, as long as I'm around.

[Prodigal Cat]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

You're not the only one. I don't ever intend to watch that game again. I'm even struggling with articles and pictures that show back up in my feeds from before the game. It's all too depressing.

I feel the exact same!

It took me about a month to watch last years NDSU loss. Not sure about this one. Might not ever watch it but if I'm guessing I will.

During the season I ravenously listen to any and every podcast FCS focused. The benefits of working solo in a brewery, you get tired of just music in the background. I finally listened to Skyline and the Nuanez boys recap while kegging today and that was the first one. Haven't been able to consume any others yet.

[Bocephus]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

You're not the only one. I don't ever intend to watch that game again. I'm even struggling with articles and pictures that show back up in my feeds from before the game. It's all too depressing.

I feel the exact same!

It took me about a month to watch last years NDSU loss. Not sure about this one. Might not ever watch it but if I'm guessing I will.

During the season I ravenously listen to any and every podcast FCS focused. The benefits of working solo in a brewery, you get tired of just music in the background. I finally listened to Skyline and the Nuanez boys recap while kegging today and that was the first one. Haven't been able to consume any others yet.

Haha, that’s funny, today was the first day I was able to listen Colter’s podcast about the game as well. Side note, well done Colter and Brooks, I agree with pretty much everything they said.

[GoldstoneCat]

Am I the only one who can’t force myself to watch a loss, any loss?

I'll never watch it. It's burned in my memory. I purposely didn't drink or tailgate hardly at all because I wanted the moment we won to be a crystal clear memory. So it's seared in my mind, will be for a long time. I won't even watch highlights to the extent I can avoid them.

[aucat]

No way that I will ever watch it.

[91catAlum]

I plan to watch it at some point but just couldn't bring myself to do it yet. Still too fresh.

[VimSince03]

A very popular narrative of NDSU media and fans since the title game. Sure there were some elements of NDSU forcing MSU into bad situations but MSU clearly did not have a winning gameplan in the 1st half and had to adjust in the 2nd half. We ran inside zone after inside zone play because we commonly broke teams with big runs eventually and Vigen/Walker never changed it up until they had to to have a shot at getting back in the game. I would've loved our offense making NDSU defend more of the field. That is my fan narrative.

But NDSU is going to puff their chest no matter what so it is what it is.

[Catsrgrood]

I just watched the first half last night for the first time. I’m no film expert and I’m not going to have some deep take that hasn’t already been said.

NDSU just did not make a mistake and tackled incredibly well and the Cats played one of their worst halves of the year. Some credit to NDSU for making that happen obviously but I feel it was just as much on the Cats for playing that way.

The inside zone clearly was not effective, but when the RB’s did find a seam, they were tackled immediately. Many 2 and 3 yard runs that were 7-8 yard runs all year against literally everyone else.

The Milller 60 yd TD…. Nothing else to really say about it, absolute lapse on defense. It wasn’t some incredible blocking scheme, Miller making guys miss, etc. it was a Mack truck sized hole in the middle of the defense, pre snap, from one or more guys being lined up incorrectly and Miller just needing to literally run in a straight line from the spot he took the snap.
I’ll forever wonder how a coach doesn’t see that on an absolutely crucial 3rd down play in the National Championship and call a time out to make sure everyone’s lined up correctly.

Then the 4th and 5 play. I don’t love going for it there, but that’s not my biggest issue, it was more the play call. Just seemed rushed and didn’t have much of a chance for success.
And defense on the ensuing drive was incredibly frustrating with the corners playing so far off the receivers just begging them to dunk and dunk their way to a score.

If any one of about 6 or 7 things goes differently in that first half I absolutely believe the outcome of the game is in our favor. But… that’s sports and those things didn’t happen and here we are….

[Prodigal Cat]

A very popular narrative of NDSU media and fans since the title game. Sure there were some elements of NDSU forcing MSU into bad situations but MSU clearly did not have a winning gameplan in the 1st half and had to adjust in the 2nd half. We ran inside zone after inside zone play because we commonly broke teams with big runs eventually and Vigen/Walker never changed it up until they had to to have a shot at getting back in the game. I would've loved our offense making NDSU defend more of the field. That is my fan narrative.

But NDSU is going to puff their chest no matter what so it is what it is.

I saw this on twitter. Holy cow the NDSU fan base is soft. Some serious butt hurt that they are not #1 on this random dudes math ranking.

He's ignoring that MSU had bad drops and blown defensive assignments. Herder said it in his podcast about how NDSU was ranked something like 116th in tackling going into the game and all of sudden became one of the best tackling teams the Cats faced all season. Credit to them and how they played but it took NDSU playing the best it's played all year and the Cats playing the worst half they played all year for them to barely hang on and to win by a FG.

[TomCat88]

It’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. MSU has won games it never should have won before. Rhode Island comes to mind. Every team in the history of sports has had a game like that. I’m not sure why it’s so hard to admit. Every single run I do on the ski hill I have turns that I have no business skiing out of and hit patches of good snow I had no idea was there. Just get lucky sometimes.