In Game thread: Guins vs Terriers

[IAA Fan]

Lot's of things in this game so I am just excited to walk away with one.

Wofford is a very good team and two things in particular hit me:

1. We never figured their offense out until the very end and I cannot believe we still won the game. Credit to the O and the D for that. They had the toss sweep that just killed every time.

2. The Wofford lines never fell until it very late in the game and at that point we had committed to the pass. Passing was the right decision. I mean we were bigger and faster, but we were not stronger.

Worried about Kennedy, especially with the weather impacting that groin. I still have all the faith in the world in him. Same thing with Hunter.

Hunter seemed to have no short touch on the ball in the first-half, so Martin Ruiz was REALLY missing in this game. He would have easily had 100+ yards. We needed his strength & speed badly. His absence was the only reason this one was as close as it was. That being said. McCaster took his game to another level & great job Kevin. Does anyone know what happened with Ruiz and are we past it? He only had the one run.

[HappyPenguin]

Lot's of things in this game so I am just excited to walk away with one.

Wofford is a very good team and two things in particular hit me:

1. We never figured their offense out until the very end and I cannot believe we still won the game. Credit to the O and the D for that. They had the toss sweep that just killed every time.

2. The Wofford lines never fell until it very late in the game and at that point we had committed to the pass. Passing was the right decision. I mean we were bigger and faster, but we were not stronger.

Worried about Kennedy, especially with the weather impacting that groin. I still have all the faith in the world in him. Same thing with Hunter.

Hunter seemed to have no short touch on the ball in the first-half, so Martin Ruiz was REALLY missing in this game. He would have easily had 100+ yards. We needed his strength & speed badly. His absence was the only reason this one was as close as it was. That being said. McCaster took his game to another level & great job Kevin. Does anyone know what happened with Ruiz and are we past it? He only had the one run.

How can you have all the faith in the world on a kicker who went 1 for 4 AND missed a PAT? 10 points is kind of a big deal when you end up going double OT.

If we had lost most would be pointing a finger squarely at him, and for good reason.

[DavedS]

Vindicator said Ruiz was benched for unspecified reasons.

[guinpen]

Lot's of things in this game so I am just excited to walk away with one.

Wofford is a very good team and two things in particular hit me:

1. We never figured their offense out until the very end and I cannot believe we still won the game. Credit to the O and the D for that. They had the toss sweep that just killed every time.

2. The Wofford lines never fell until it very late in the game and at that point we had committed to the pass. Passing was the right decision. I mean we were bigger and faster, but we were not stronger.

Worried about Kennedy, especially with the weather impacting that groin. I still have all the faith in the world in him. Same thing with Hunter.

Hunter seemed to have no short touch on the ball in the first-half, so Martin Ruiz was REALLY missing in this game. He would have easily had 100+ yards. We needed his strength & speed badly. His absence was the only reason this one was as close as it was. That being said. McCaster took his game to another level & great job Kevin. Does anyone know what happened with Ruiz and are we past it? He only had the one run.

How can you have all the faith in the world on a kicker who went 1 for 4 AND missed a PAT? 10 points is kind of a big deal when you end up going double OT.

If we had lost most would be pointing a finger squarely at him, and for good reason.

I understand what you meant about Kennedy 1AA and I agree. If he is still not 100 percent from the injury no doubt the cold was a factor. Glad we have a good backup.

[HappyPenguin]

Post game call in show said Ruiz was first half suspension. Still doesn't explain him not playing second half really.

[94Terrier]

Congratulations on a tough, hard-fought win.  Much respect for your program and staff.  Good luck next weekend against EWU.  And thanks for your hospitality on the fan board. 

Go Terriers!

[IAA Fan]

Lot's of things in this game so I am just excited to walk away with one.

Wofford is a very good team and two things in particular hit me:

1. We never figured their offense out until the very end and I cannot believe we still won the game. Credit to the O and the D for that. They had the toss sweep that just killed every time.

2. The Wofford lines never fell until it very late in the game and at that point we had committed to the pass. Passing was the right decision. I mean we were bigger and faster, but we were not stronger.

Worried about Kennedy, especially with the weather impacting that groin. I still have all the faith in the world in him. Same thing with Hunter.

Hunter seemed to have no short touch on the ball in the first-half, so Martin Ruiz was REALLY missing in this game. He would have easily had 100+ yards. We needed his strength & speed badly. His absence was the only reason this one was as close as it was. That being said. McCaster took his game to another level & great job Kevin. Does anyone know what happened with Ruiz and are we past it? He only had the one run.

How can you have all the faith in the world on a kicker who went 1 for 4 AND missed a PAT? 10 points is kind of a big deal when you end up going double OT.

If we had lost most would be pointing a finger squarely at him, and for good reason.

No doubt Happy. I also award game ball to Connor ...that PAT came at such a crucial  time and he just jumped up and did it. I completely agree on the points and will add that they got a piece of 3  of our punts one cost us a TD. Hunter's INT cost us 3 more. So we also spotted the Terriers 10. Again, these are game that I think we would have lost in the first half of the season. Just shows that we are still maturing. Next week will be the toughest game of the season and do not have a chance without Ruiz.

[penguinpower]

Two big plays.  The tipped FG at the end of regulation and the 4th down in OT.  That stands out to me

[IAA Fan]

You know what I noticed Power, that the Terriers did not dare run outside the hatch-marks on the first half of the OT (most-likely because they had to worry about the FG) and we were lucky they did not as they probably would have scored a TD. That second series in OT was just shear desire on both sides. Hunter walked up on what was a sure run and tossed it. Then the defense just stepped it up.

[go guins]

Wells has been terrible.  Now you see the real wells.

one bad pass, you Wells haters are pathetic.  I think the final results speak for themselves.  I'm sure I will read your retraction later on in this blog! (sure)

[penguinpower]

Here is the reality like it or not...............Talk about Wells all you want, but the fact is we are in the semifinals and he is a big part of why we are here.  Webb fumbled the ball against Wofford and Wells threw a pick and got tackled out of bounds when we needed to run the clock.  Everyone makes mistakes. 

Wells also made some big time throws in this game.  So I say STFU.  He and Ricky are friends and they were celebrating with each other on the sidelines.  This is out of hand already.  If Wells was that bad we wouldn't be where we are being one dimensional on offense. 

Montgomery must have heard a loud sucking sound when he pulled his head out of his a$$ because the games we are calling are what I have been screaming for 8 years.  We are running power O with the QB under center.  Wells struggles a little at reading the defense and that may be the single reason why  he gets shut down in zone schemes.  I wasn't able to put that together until the Wofford game.  Montgomery needs to help him with that.  That is the advantage an NDSU QB has.  The communication system in our offense relies on our team to look at the sideline and to allow the OC to make every call.  We take the audible away from our QB.  May sound like a simple difference, but it is not.  It is huge.  If Wells was better at reading the defense he could call audible plays.  Wofford ran two different zone schemes and Wells was holding on to the ball too long because he wasn't sure of where to go with it.  I don't blame him here I blame Montgomery.  I am happy that he is using play action from under center, because Wells can throw the long ball, especially in man coverage, so when those CB's and Safeties bite on the play action he is accurate enough to lay the ball in the bread basket.

No one on here can tell me he is a bad QB.  That is simply not the case.  We are a top 4 team.  The QB position is as important as the guys playing around him.  However, we have a disadvantage to NDSU in that we do not develop our QB's.   Well is smart, so I can only imagine how good he could have been if he truly knew how to read a defense.

Arguing over the QB on a team that has had the toughest road to the final 4 is ridiculous.

[FOOTBALLFEVER]

Indiana St was a very rough game for Wells, but what would you expect for not doing much of anything for a couple of months and only having a week to prepare. Since then he has completed about 66% of his passes 78-119 with 7 td's and 2 picks..I will take that any day of the week..I think there was something wrong with him last year

[go guins]

Indiana St was a very rough game for Wells, but what would you expect for not doing much of anything for a couple of months and only having a week to prepare. Since then he has completed about 66% of his passes 78-119 with 7 td's and 2 picks..I will take that any day of the week..I think there was something wrong with him last year

Fever, I agree.  I thought he was injured most of the year.  (unfortunately your "something wrong with him" should leave the haters plenty of room to work!)

[IAA Fan]

Cannot fully agree Power, but good observations. Many would argue that coach M gives his QB's too much leeway. They always have several options and we are usually calling in coverage schemes. With that code our QB has the option to call a number of plays, to audible, pull the hand-off and usually 2 or 3 receivers, you are spot on that he is only recently improving on the latter. Up until this year, Davis needed every play called in. Even Mays was given at least 2 options on every play when he stepped in. Usually it was 3, as he has a bit more mobility.

I like our mix of under center vs. shotgun. In fact, if it was not so cold I would prefer more shotgun. It matches with our smaller TB's. However, like you, generally I like under center. At the DI level that is not always practical.

[penguinpower]

Ruiz doesn't want a college education, he prefers to be educated as a thug