LDopaPDX said:
I’ll throw out my $.02 after some reflection:
Eastern played really hard today and have nothing to be ashamed of. It was a great year. North Dakota State probably had a *little bit* more talent, but it was very comparable. Had we had all our assets available, I think we could and probably should’ve beaten them.
NDSU is a smart team. As hard as we played, we didn’t play very smart all day. Getting a procedure penalty for a receiver not getting on the line is like failing Football 101 in week 15. All three turnovers were poor miscues, two bad throws that shouldn’t have been made and one fumble with hardly any contact.
Losing Tiuli was tough. I believe he’s been out the whole time and was never going to play. The school wouldn’t wait until the last second to make a decision like that. NDSU exploited it beautifully. They ran that QB draw about a thousand times and it always worked.
I think we set up nicely for next year as a lot of younger guys wound up in impact roles due to injuries. Addressing the perpetual injury situation is a big item. I have no idea why our injuries always seem at critical levels. But we need to figure out why and address it. You can’t chalk it up to bad luck each and every year.
Pretty much all of the above. It occured to me that people keep referencing how much we’ll drop off next year because of all the seniors lost while failing to recognize that many of those guys were’t playing at the end of the year, or missed large portions of the year anyway. We had a lot of guys gain valuable reps during the season and especially in the playoffs.
In terms of talent, I think this year’s team was as talented or more talented that NDSU, especially with Gubrud, Taylor, Eagle, Fettig et.al who missed large portions of the season. And, of course, losing Tiuli at the most critical time of the season. I agree, he was never going to play. And to answer Cal’s question in a previous thread, yes - missing him in the middle against NDSU made a huge difference. Maybe not the difference in the game (execution and penalties did), but I think with him in there they don’t run straight in the middle of our D line. Our guys played admirable, but they struggled against the NDSU O line.
Our O-line played well and pushed NDSU around at times. What’s scary is that we didn’t play a very good game (execution wise) and still hung around with them.
One conclusion I’ve made the past several years that’s only been reinforced by this year’s success: We can no longer play finesse style offense and go deep in the playoffs or compete with NDSU. We have to recruit well on the defensive side of the ball, and we need to match up well physically with them on offrnse. Maybe if they drop off the face of the earth or move up that will change, but we need to continue to do what made us succesful this season. I think we’re on the right track with Coach Best, and I think he’s a guy who’s interested in staying around. He’s definitely not a punch your ticket kind of guy.
