The Bobcat Nation

Travelingcat wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 12:10 am

First, the overwhelming sense I feel (and perhaps this is felt by others on the board, explaining the somewhat muted reaction here) is relief.

We knew that, on paper at least, this was the Bobcats year to get back to Frisco. And throughout the season, we showed, IMHO that we were clearly the best team in FCS, not seriously challenged by any team on our FCS schedule, other than a very fluky game at Davis that should have been over with us having a three TD lead but for a dubious PI call in the endzone, and some lucky bounces and bad tackling that let them back in it. Today we beat by two TDs a team that barely lost in OT on the road in Brookings and beat NDSU. And we did it with a very vanilla 2nd half gameplan in which we hardly threw the ball (Did Tommy complete a single pass in the 2nd half?) and mostly ran it up the middle, trusting our defense to hold. South Dakota was the best FCS team we played this year, and yet, this game, while never an assured win, was always fairly comfortably in hand throughout the 2nd half.

Most of our games this year were over by halfitme and our statistical dominance, substantial as it was, didn't really reveal how good this team was. NDSU was probably our closest competition, but they gave up 31 to Abeliene Christian and 35 in winning by a field goal at East Tennessee State. Our defense didn't give up more than 28 points to a single opponent this year, despite regularly playing our 2nd and 3rd string defense. And we added to that, the top offense in FCS. All that being said, we had to prove on the field that we were the best, and I think there was a real weight on the Team's shoulders that has now been lifted since we are going to Frisco as we know we should. Maybe NDSU goes out there and beats us by four touchdowns in a couple of weeks, but while ultimately we want to prove that we are champions on the field, our overall body of work this year stands alone.

I think the entire team will benefit from going out to Frisco, knowing the pressure is off to some degree- or at least that the pressure weighs equally on us and NDSU. I think we'll also benefit tremendously from having Scottre Humphrey much closer to full strength, as he clearly was not today and Rohan Jones, who was a non-factor today, will also hopefully be healed up enough to be a factor. I didn't recall seeing any serious injuries out there, so we should head into the championship as healthy as we've been in a while.

And with that windup:

THE GOOD:

Tommy Mellott. He was the difference maker and is going to deservedly win the Walter Payton Award as the outstanding offensive player in FCS, if All American Team voting is an indicator. His 2nd TD run was arguably the highlight of the season. In the last two games, when the rest of our offense was stuck a bit at times, Tommy, finally more unleashed in the ground game, consistently got us yards to move the chains when we needed him to, and showed himself a very capable passer as well. He's the one weapon we have that nobody else at our level does. He's one TD pass away from tying Kelly Bradley's single season bobcat record and 70 rushing yards from going over 1000 on the year. I don't know whether he can make it as a developmental QB, but that guy is going to figure out a way to play somewhere at the next level.


First Half Play-Calling: Consistently creative and kept a tough defense on it's heels.

The Crowd: A true X factor, contrbuting to several penalties and a couple of fumbles. Cat fans showed up and were LOUD and I'm sure we'll see the same in Frisco

Defense: Occasionally bent, and gave up two really bad long TD runs, but other than that, they bent a bit, but never broke, giving up just three points outside of those two big plays. They've been outstanding all year.

Taco Dowler: He's really come along as the season has progressed, morphing into our most consistent passing weapon as well as a demon in the return game.

THE TEAM: Lots of great efforts on all sides of the ball. This win was a team effort. Even special teams got into the act, with Hall flipping the field on a couple of key punts.

THE BAD:

Tackling: Those guys are good, particularly their running back, but there were way too many missed tackles out there today and their RB consistently moved the pile forward while running into the teeth of our defense.

Line of Scrimmage: Overall, we were manhandled at times by a S. Dakota Team that looked stronger and tougher up front. This will be a challenge vs. NDSU as well, and I'm glad our lines got a taste of what this will be like so they can hopefully adjust. Tommy made some magic with his legs, and Jones fought for some tough yards, but we didn't have a lot of big holes to run through. Having our power back in Humphrey closer to full strength will probably help a lot, and it was great to see how we could generate offense without dominating up-front, but we'll probably have to improve our performance in the trenches to beat NDSU. These guys are not the '21 NDSU team, which put every OL in the NFL, but they are still NDSU

2nd Half playcalling: I understood the desire to not expose Tommy to hits like he took in the 1st half, but it was still a bit too vanilla for me. If we had driven down the field and scored on one of our conservative drives in the 3rd quarter, we might have put the game out of reach. Especially at a time when we were not dominating in the trenches, it seemed like more of the 1st half's creative playcalling would have come in handy.

THE UGLY

Airline Ticket Prices to Frisco. Pretty brutal out there. And let's not even get into game tickets.


Overall it was a great win and it's been an incredible season. Hats off to the team for playing up to sky-high expectations all year.

No matter what happens in Frisco, it's been a great season, but they are one win away from being MSU legends.

BleedingBLue wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 12:47 am

I disagree with the LOS assessment. On D, we consistently strung edge plays out, and forced the RBs back to the inside. When they ran up the middle, Theis was met close to the LOS most of the time. If he got 4-5 yards, it was because he earned them. The USD O line wasn't pushing our DL back very often, or creating huge holes.

Our O line generated good push for about half the game, and made some great adjustments in the 2nd quarter. USD tackled very well when the RBs got to the second level, limiting big plays.

Travelingcat wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 12:10 am

First, the overwhelming sense I feel (and perhaps this is felt by others on the board, explaining the somewhat muted reaction here) is relief.

We knew that, on paper at least, this was the Bobcats year to get back to Frisco. And throughout the season, we showed, IMHO that we were clearly the best team in FCS, not seriously challenged by any team on our FCS schedule, other than a very fluky game at Davis that should have been over with us having a three TD lead but for a dubious PI call in the endzone, and some lucky bounces and bad tackling that let them back in it. Today we beat by two TDs a team that barely lost in OT on the road in Brookings and beat NDSU. And we did it with a very vanilla 2nd half gameplan in which we hardly threw the ball (Did Tommy complete a single pass in the 2nd half?) and mostly ran it up the middle, trusting our defense to hold. South Dakota was the best FCS team we played this year, and yet, this game, while never an assured win, was always fairly comfortably in hand throughout the 2nd half.

Most of our games this year were over by halfitme and our statistical dominance, substantial as it was, didn't really reveal how good this team was. NDSU was probably our closest competition, but they gave up 31 to Abeliene Christian and 35 in winning by a field goal at East Tennessee State. Our defense didn't give up more than 28 points to a single opponent this year, despite regularly playing our 2nd and 3rd string defense. And we added to that, the top offense in FCS. All that being said, we had to prove on the field that we were the best, and I think there was a real weight on the Team's shoulders that has now been lifted since we are going to Frisco as we know we should. Maybe NDSU goes out there and beats us by four touchdowns in a couple of weeks, but while ultimately we want to prove that we are champions on the field, our overall body of work this year stands alone.

I think the entire team will benefit from going out to Frisco, knowing the pressure is off to some degree- or at least that the pressure weighs equally on us and NDSU. I think we'll also benefit tremendously from having Scottre Humphrey much closer to full strength, as he clearly was not today and Rohan Jones, who was a non-factor today, will also hopefully be healed up enough to be a factor. I didn't recall seeing any serious injuries out there, so we should head into the championship as healthy as we've been in a while.

And with that windup:

THE GOOD:

Tommy Mellott. He was the difference maker and is going to deservedly win the Walter Payton Award as the outstanding offensive player in FCS, if All American Team voting is an indicator. His 2nd TD run was arguably the highlight of the season. In the last two games, when the rest of our offense was stuck a bit at times, Tommy, finally more unleashed in the ground game, consistently got us yards to move the chains when we needed him to, and showed himself a very capable passer as well. He's the one weapon we have that nobody else at our level does. He's one TD pass away from tying Kelly Bradley's single season bobcat record and 70 rushing yards from going over 1000 on the year. I don't know whether he can make it as a developmental QB, but that guy is going to figure out a way to play somewhere at the next level.


First Half Play-Calling: Consistently creative and kept a tough defense on it's heels.

The Crowd: A true X factor, contrbuting to several penalties and a couple of fumbles. Cat fans showed up and were LOUD and I'm sure we'll see the same in Frisco

Defense: Occasionally bent, and gave up two really bad long TD runs, but other than that, they bent a bit, but never broke, giving up just three points outside of those two big plays. They've been outstanding all year.

Taco Dowler: He's really come along as the season has progressed, morphing into our most consistent passing weapon as well as a demon in the return game.

THE TEAM: Lots of great efforts on all sides of the ball. This win was a team effort. Even special teams got into the act, with Hall flipping the field on a couple of key punts.

THE BAD:

Tackling: Those guys are good, particularly their running back, but there were way too many missed tackles out there today and their RB consistently moved the pile forward while running into the teeth of our defense.

Line of Scrimmage: Overall, we were manhandled at times by a S. Dakota Team that looked stronger and tougher up front. This will be a challenge vs. NDSU as well, and I'm glad our lines got a taste of what this will be like so they can hopefully adjust. Tommy made some magic with his legs, and Jones fought for some tough yards, but we didn't have a lot of big holes to run through. Having our power back in Humphrey closer to full strength will probably help a lot, and it was great to see how we could generate offense without dominating up-front, but we'll probably have to improve our performance in the trenches to beat NDSU. These guys are not the '21 NDSU team, which put every OL in the NFL, but they are still NDSU

2nd Half playcalling: I understood the desire to not expose Tommy to hits like he took in the 1st half, but it was still a bit too vanilla for me. If we had driven down the field and scored on one of our conservative drives in the 3rd quarter, we might have put the game out of reach. Especially at a time when we were not dominating in the trenches, it seemed like more of the 1st half's creative playcalling would have come in handy.

THE UGLY

Airline Ticket Prices to Frisco. Pretty brutal out there. And let's not even get into game tickets.


Overall it was a great win and it's been an incredible season. Hats off to the team for playing up to sky-high expectations all year.

No matter what happens in Frisco, it's been a great season, but they are one win away from being MSU legends.

mule wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:21 am

Travelingcat wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 12:10 am

First, the overwhelming sense I feel (and perhaps this is felt by others on the board, explaining the somewhat muted reaction here) is relief.

We knew that, on paper at least, this was the Bobcats year to get back to Frisco. And throughout the season, we showed, IMHO that we were clearly the best team in FCS, not seriously challenged by any team on our FCS schedule, other than a very fluky game at Davis that should have been over with us having a three TD lead but for a dubious PI call in the endzone, and some lucky bounces and bad tackling that let them back in it. Today we beat by two TDs a team that barely lost in OT on the road in Brookings and beat NDSU. And we did it with a very vanilla 2nd half gameplan in which we hardly threw the ball (Did Tommy complete a single pass in the 2nd half?) and mostly ran it up the middle, trusting our defense to hold. South Dakota was the best FCS team we played this year, and yet, this game, while never an assured win, was always fairly comfortably in hand throughout the 2nd half.

Most of our games this year were over by halfitme and our statistical dominance, substantial as it was, didn't really reveal how good this team was. NDSU was probably our closest competition, but they gave up 31 to Abeliene Christian and 35 in winning by a field goal at East Tennessee State. Our defense didn't give up more than 28 points to a single opponent this year, despite regularly playing our 2nd and 3rd string defense. And we added to that, the top offense in FCS. All that being said, we had to prove on the field that we were the best, and I think there was a real weight on the Team's shoulders that has now been lifted since we are going to Frisco as we know we should. Maybe NDSU goes out there and beats us by four touchdowns in a couple of weeks, but while ultimately we want to prove that we are champions on the field, our overall body of work this year stands alone.

I think the entire team will benefit from going out to Frisco, knowing the pressure is off to some degree- or at least that the pressure weighs equally on us and NDSU. I think we'll also benefit tremendously from having Scottre Humphrey much closer to full strength, as he clearly was not today and Rohan Jones, who was a non-factor today, will also hopefully be healed up enough to be a factor. I didn't recall seeing any serious injuries out there, so we should head into the championship as healthy as we've been in a while.

And with that windup:

THE GOOD:

Tommy Mellott. He was the difference maker and is going to deservedly win the Walter Payton Award as the outstanding offensive player in FCS, if All American Team voting is an indicator. His 2nd TD run was arguably the highlight of the season. In the last two games, when the rest of our offense was stuck a bit at times, Tommy, finally more unleashed in the ground game, consistently got us yards to move the chains when we needed him to, and showed himself a very capable passer as well. He's the one weapon we have that nobody else at our level does. He's one TD pass away from tying Kelly Bradley's single season bobcat record and 70 rushing yards from going over 1000 on the year. I don't know whether he can make it as a developmental QB, but that guy is going to figure out a way to play somewhere at the next level.


First Half Play-Calling: Consistently creative and kept a tough defense on it's heels.

The Crowd: A true X factor, contrbuting to several penalties and a couple of fumbles. Cat fans showed up and were LOUD and I'm sure we'll see the same in Frisco

Defense: Occasionally bent, and gave up two really bad long TD runs, but other than that, they bent a bit, but never broke, giving up just three points outside of those two big plays. They've been outstanding all year.

Taco Dowler: He's really come along as the season has progressed, morphing into our most consistent passing weapon as well as a demon in the return game.

THE TEAM: Lots of great efforts on all sides of the ball. This win was a team effort. Even special teams got into the act, with Hall flipping the field on a couple of key punts.

THE BAD:

Tackling: Those guys are good, particularly their running back, but there were way too many missed tackles out there today and their RB consistently moved the pile forward while running into the teeth of our defense.

Line of Scrimmage: Overall, we were manhandled at times by a S. Dakota Team that looked stronger and tougher up front. This will be a challenge vs. NDSU as well, and I'm glad our lines got a taste of what this will be like so they can hopefully adjust. Tommy made some magic with his legs, and Jones fought for some tough yards, but we didn't have a lot of big holes to run through. Having our power back in Humphrey closer to full strength will probably help a lot, and it was great to see how we could generate offense without dominating up-front, but we'll probably have to improve our performance in the trenches to beat NDSU. These guys are not the '21 NDSU team, which put every OL in the NFL, but they are still NDSU

2nd Half playcalling: I understood the desire to not expose Tommy to hits like he took in the 1st half, but it was still a bit too vanilla for me. If we had driven down the field and scored on one of our conservative drives in the 3rd quarter, we might have put the game out of reach. Especially at a time when we were not dominating in the trenches, it seemed like more of the 1st half's creative playcalling would have come in handy.

THE UGLY

Airline Ticket Prices to Frisco. Pretty brutal out there. And let's not even get into game tickets.


Overall it was a great win and it's been an incredible season. Hats off to the team for playing up to sky-high expectations all year.

No matter what happens in Frisco, it's been a great season, but they are one win away from being MSU legends.

Very nice write up and thanks.
These two teams that meet in two weeks are so similar in style of play on both sides of the ball it is scary. I guess we can see why with who Vigan was molded by, played for, and coach for. It will be a great game, and I can tell you both will be ready. I'm so happy that either SD teams got to advance.

Only one correction Bobcats gave up 31 points to NM. Bison scored 28 on jacks and jacks only allowed 24 points on any single game this year.

BleedingBLue wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 12:47 am

I disagree with the LOS assessment. On D, we consistently strung edge plays out, and forced the RBs back to the inside. When they ran up the middle, Theis was met close to the LOS most of the time. If he got 4-5 yards, it was because he earned them. The USD O line wasn't pushing our DL back very often, or creating huge holes.

Our O line generated good push for about half the game, and made some great adjustments in the 2nd quarter. USD tackled very well when the RBs got to the second level, limiting big plays.

wbtfg wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:34 am

Ugly: Gris fans.

Bobcat Sig wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:52 am

wbtfg wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:34 am

Ugly: Gris fans.

Eff those whiny losers. To be expected from those classless simps.

BleedingBLue wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 12:47 am

I disagree with the LOS assessment. On D, we consistently strung edge plays out, and forced the RBs back to the inside. When they ran up the middle, Theis was met close to the LOS most of the time. If he got 4-5 yards, it was because he earned them. The USD O line wasn't pushing our DL back very often, or creating huge holes.

Our O line generated good push for about half the game, and made some great adjustments in the 2nd quarter. USD tackled very well when the RBs got to the second level, limiting big plays.

VimSince03 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 1:39 pm

The Good:

ClowderUp wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 1:48 pm

Bobcat Sig wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:52 am

wbtfg wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:34 am

Ugly: Gris fans.

Eff those whiny losers. To be expected from those classless simps.

There's some major butthurt on Twitter from gris fans. It's not anonymous, and some of these idiots are otherwise respectable and professional people. Hard to believe really.

SparkCat wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 1:59 pm

VimSince03 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 22, 2024 1:39 pm

The Good:

That’s a powerful image