Bizon Bitz Week 11 UND

The Bison played 4 quarters against a talented Youngstown State team to get a 38-30 win. They are one more win from outright earning the Missouri Valley Football Conference title with just 3 games left. NDSU has to travel to a place where they have struggled in the D1 era, Grand Forks, which came off a disappointing loss to USD last Saturday.

Can the Bison overcome their past struggles and win the MVFC? @tjlee728 will break down this in-state matchup and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
We now Bits with TJ. Jets. It's good morning, good afternoons,
good evening, wherever and whenever you are listening to this,
Welcome to Bison Bits. It's your audio blog video blog
of Bison football. And we are really into the nitty
gritty as we're down to the last three weeks of

(00:27):
the season and the Bison got to play four full
quarters last week against a really gutsy and gritty and
talented Youngstown State team. Is the Bison win thirty eight
to thirty a game that was won really by the
special teams. The Bison got a fumble recovery on special

(00:47):
teams that gave him a short field, and they got
a huge kickoff return from Jackson Williams which became very
pivotal in the contest. But I mentioned last week that
old Bruntguard, Youngstown's quarterback was going to be a handful,
and he really was. He may have been as accurate
completing percentage why as he was nineteen to thirty, but

(01:08):
he had two hundred and three yards. He did throw
an interception on a pick or on a deflected pass.
He did throw a touchdown too. He rushed for fifty
yards and he was two hundred and fifty three yards
of the team's three hundred and seventy one yards of offense.
So again, Bo Bruntguard one of the best FCS quarterbacks

(01:30):
you're gonna see this year for sure. I think he
needs to get more kudos. And I was really surprised
as to how that Youngstown offensive line held up. They
held up really, really well against the boys in front four.
The Bison tried to blitz a lot, They tried to
run some twists. They couldn't keep the outside contained and

(01:52):
Brountguard had time to throw and he didn't because they
couldn't hold her contain. He did a great job of
getting up field and picking up first downs. He was
a handful. I was wondering about how he would you
would do and he did very well. That offensive line
for Youngstown they're very That's a mature offensive line. They
can hold together and if they could get into the postseason,

(02:16):
I agree with dom is a lookout. See where they
are in the bracket. They are going to cause some
trouble for their opponents. North Dakota State Cole Payton was
seventeen to twenty four for one hundred and ninety four yards,
did not throw a touchdown pass and had an interception
on a deflection that deflected off DJ Scott. He wasn't
bad overall. I thought he played fairly well. Youngstown did

(02:39):
a good job of keeping a spy on him, as
a matter of fact, two spies, to be honest with you,
and so he when he took off, there was somebody
hovering around him at all times. It was hard for
him to get going. Twelve carries twenty eight yards. But
Breeka Penu, who I believe. I said in last week's
show that he's going to have to play a big role,

(03:01):
and boy did he ever fifteen carries for seventy four yards,
three rushing touchdowns. So did a great job. The defense
held up. They won the game. At the very end,
huge huge fumble. Bison are up thirty eight to thirty.
It's just over a minute left. Youngstown's got to go
about eighty yards to win the art to at least

(03:21):
potentially tie the game. They throw a bubble screen to
the right and the Bison get the strip. They force
the fumble, they get the recovery. Game over four full quarters,
the Bison got to play and it was a tough one,
extremely tough game for our NDSU Bison, and they escape,

(03:42):
I don't say they escape, but they got out the
Farlow Dome realizing that Youngstown State's well coached, and that's
gonna move them into next week or this week now,
I should say, as the Bison gonna take on North Dakota,
who we thought was going this was going to be
probably for the Missouri Valley outright, but it might not
be now because North Dakota went down to Vermilion, a

(04:05):
place they've never won in the Division One era and
completely dropped an egg, losing twenty six to twenty one
to the Coyotes. Jered Kamiski two picks in the game,
sixteen of thirty. They did average about five and a
half yards of carry. They rushed about thirty seven times.
How USD won this game, I don't know. Abe Bauman

(04:25):
was fourteen to twenty four, one to seventy three. They
only rushed thirty eight times for ninety seven yards, and
that includes LJ. Phillips' twenty four carries for one oh six,
so they had a lot of negative carries in that game.
USD got some turnovers at the right time and and
the era has just come out of you in these sales,

(04:45):
and we're gonna look at this game coming up in
the Alera Center, because even though you might think well
USC showed their true color or un D showed their
true colors, shouldn't the Bison have very little problem with him?
I would hold because if you listen to the press
conference this week, Coach Polosek was very open about he's

(05:06):
aware of how poorly the Bison have played. They won
in the Aleris Center in nineteen on a Christian Watson
punt return. They won sixteen to ten. That was a
game that was nip and tuck throughout the whole contest.
After that, I don't think they've they won in Grand Forks.
It was ninety five or ninety seven. They played very

(05:29):
very very poorly up there in Grand Forks. I have
that the Bison won in twenty one in Grand Forks,
but I don't think that's right. They didn't. Yeah, it
was twenty one. I'm sorry I thought it was before that.
But they've only won once in the Alera Center. It's
a place they do not play very well. Polisek has

(05:51):
acknowledged it. He knows they don't play well, but he
says that's already said and done. It's the game that
means a ton for this team. These games mean a lot.
I think these games mean a lot more to Polisic
than they did coach Ens. There seems to be a

(06:11):
lot of emphasis with Coach polisk about these games. It's
a Dakota game. You don't lose them, and if you win,
you win the Missouri Valley Football Conference outright with two
weeks left in the season, almost unheard of. But with
South Dakota State losing to Indiana State last week, that

(06:34):
makes it all possible. Some of the things I think
that we need to look at. Actually, we'll reflect back
on last week's Youngstown State team and that's again Cole
Payton very clutch on third down against Youngstown State, kept
the sticks moving. He likes to look for Rajah Nelson
on third down. I anticipate this again. Watch for third

(06:55):
down is going to mean everything. Coach Polisik had mentioned
that they see some things that they can hold the protection.
They see some things in the passing game they can exploit.
But U and D is going to get up and
get after it and go get the Bison and put
pressure on them. That's what they do at home. That's
what they've done defensively all you put a lot of
pressure on their opponents, and this team relies on their

(07:19):
defense very much a defensive driven team. They get some turnovers,
they can shut you down. That's what they want to do.
Anticipate them probably trying to turn it up to the
next level anyway against NDSU. Jerry Kamiski leads their team

(07:39):
with seventeen hundred yards passing. He's completing sixty one percent
as passes, twenty two touchdowns, four picks. He's someone that
Policic tried to recruit back in his Wyoming days. Great,
really really good quarterback Sawyer Sidell six hundred and fifty
yards so far rushing and six point one on average.

(08:02):
He's going to be a load to bring down. BJ
Fleming as their leading wide receiver right now, five hundred
and thirty three yards, he's got five touchdowns. And defensively,
they're led by Antonio Bluet the three picks, and they're
leading tackles by Malachi McNeil. This Malachai McNeill is a
heck of a tackler, thirty two solo tackles alone. So

(08:25):
from that linebacker position, they get after it and we'll
look at it a little bit and I'll go back
if you forget. They lost to Kansas State thirty eight
thirty five. Chris climb And had his hands full with them.
They rolled over Portland State fifty to twenty. They lost.
They had Montana beat throughout fifty eight minutes of that game,
but they went out went out to Montana and lost

(08:48):
twenty four to twenty three. At the end, they beat
val Pole fifty eight to seven. They beat Northern Iowa
thirty five seven. They beat Youngstown thirty five seventeen. That's
really interesting. That was home. They beat Southern Illinois thirty
eight nineteen. They beat Indiana State forty six seventeen, and
they have the one blemish with the University of South

(09:10):
Dakota in Vermilion. So this team's gonna bring the defensive heat.
They're gonna try to control through their running game. I
think they're gonna try to control that Bison defense, picking
their spots like any team's gonna try to pick their
spots when they go down the field, catch Bison in
the right packages, et cetera. The Kamiski is going to
be a handful all day long with those Byson. With

(09:34):
that Bison defense, the Bison are thin at defensive back.
That's a problem. They've got some injuries there's that's a
little bit concerning. Well, it's a lot concerning, if you
want the truth. So they're gonna have to figure out
how to pick it up within their thin linebacker corps.
Just to go out just to review some things there.

(09:55):
Jalen Duffy will be out with an upper body issue.
Mogan Larson's better today than he was than he had
been all week. Styles progressing nicely, but he's doubtful. Jalen
Crumby is also doubtful. That's another d back. Austin Altipeter
had surgery Wednesday. We're not gonna see him. And then
they dismissed the sophomore wide receiver Sila Sevens. So they've

(10:16):
got some injuries, and like Duffy and Crumby, that's their
defensive backfield. That's they've been so solid there and now
they're a little banged up. Well Comisky, if he can
get the time, can he exploit some of that As
they're gonna be rotating in some younger players, They're going
to have to get a pass rush and they're gonna

(10:36):
face another really big offensive line that the Fighting Hawks have.
They're gonna probably do some blitzing, and they're gonna have
to mix up some blitzes. They're gonna have to hide
some things to get Commisky a little unsure of what
he's seeing and then get him to throw the football early,
which is what they did really well against Brunsfield, the
Youngstown State quarterback the previous week. They got him to

(10:57):
throw the ball earlier that he wanted two at times. Now,
that was important. That's something they're going to try to
do again Saturday up in Grand Forks. Looking at the
national rankings, thank you to ex user mister Tim Howell.
At T how fifteen scoring defense, the Bison ranks second
in the nation un D at eighteen scoring offense, the

(11:18):
Bizon four You and The's eleven third down offense. The
Bison aer second in the nation in fcs U and
these forty six third down defense. NDSU's number six, You
and D is number nine, so you un D is
good at getting three and outs and getting punts, So
a field possession game could be important. Passing efficiency ndsus second,

(11:39):
You and DS thirty eight time of possession NDSU is
second in fcs UN D forty three. In the turnover margin,
NDSU is number six, you DS twenty five. So when
you look at that, you think to yourself, well, hell,
the Bison statistically are just going to absolutely roll here. Again,

(12:01):
this team does not play well in Grand Forks, they
never have. They got to figure out how to do it.
And again they have to come out and start fast.
I don't think they started real fast against Youngstown. They
give up points early. They had to constantly play catch
up until they got the deflection interception, which they had

(12:23):
the short field and they scored, and then Youngstown fumbled
the next kickoff, which the Bison covered short field touchdown.
Very fortunate there. They can't allow you and D to
go right down the field on their opening drive and score.
That crowd will erupt and they sure can't have what
happened two years ago when U and D took the

(12:45):
opening kickoff in the LIR Center against the Bison all
the way for a touchdown. Those things have to stop.
They can't do it. If they get behind, they're gonna
have a long day ahead of them. But I think
they're gonna come mentally prepared because politics got this team
fired up. It's a Dakota school game that they know
that they don't want to lose to their in state rival,

(13:07):
and they want that Missouri Valley outright and they can
get it next Saturday. But on the flip side, you
and D might be playing for their postseason lives. They
can't afford another loss here. That would give them they
would actually give them four losses, and that might be
really hard to get into the postseason. Plus after that,

(13:28):
they still have the South Dakota State come into town,
so they could go actually with five losses if they can't,
If they can't right the ship, and five losses might
keep you out of the postseason, which would be kind
of a crying shame considering this team ripped off five wins,
six five, six out of seven wins at one point
and really started beating up people. I think you and

(13:50):
D realizes they have a lot to play for. My prediction,
this is gonna be a good game, folks. It's gonna
be a really good game. Is gonna win this twenty seven?
Twenty Ah, There you have it. I appreciate you listening.
Thank you so much. Taking care of yourself and each other.
Until next time,