Time to set some bear traps!
Have the Mo. State Bears Become Unbearable?
View this evening delivery as a night cap to a busy day and or week. It has been for me. If you don’t open and read until morning, take it as a part of your pre-game brunch. There is nothing better than a Saturday with a Bison football game on the docket. Enjoy.
The last three weeks the previews have revolved around how good Davis, the Redbirds or the Panthers were. All were highly ranked and with certain dominant team features. This week it’s the bad news bears. These Bears come limping in at 1-4. Their only win was a hard fought battle with winless Western Illinois in overtime 37-31. They are offensively challenged scoring only 20 PPG (97th out of 124 FCS teams). The defense isn’t any better, giving up 41.2 PPG (120th in FCS). In hindsight, their non-conference schedule was too hard for where the program is at.
They opened with Northern Arizona (loss 37-23). They are a bubble playoff team. Then played Tulane (FBS loss 58-6) and then Kennesaw State (a 35-24 loss to a ranked team). They needed to be like the CAA teams. Go find some Pioneer, Patriot or Northeast conference foes. Villanova did and went 3-0 against such teams which got them into the top 25. After beating WIU, the Coyotes smoked the Bears last week 45-10. There is no putting lipstick on this pig. This program has struggled in mediocrity and seems to be trending down from there.
At this juncture I am not going to sound the alarm that this could be a trap game if the Herd overlooks them for SDSU next week. I do believe the coaches and team do take games one at a time. As a team, they still have 63 scholarships, so it isn’t like playing Butler.
What do I expect? I believe this is going to be a developmental game. Mo. State can’t run the ball (73.6 YPG, 117th in FCS). We need to stuff their run game and work on blitz and coverage packages. When the game gets out of hand, this would allow for many true freshman DL personnel to get another of their 4 free games without burning the year.
Next, Peyton Huslig, their QB is throwing for 241 YPG. This is the game we need to start turning pass breakups into interceptions. If Code Green stuffs their run game, Huslig will spend the afternoon running for his life. Don't be surprised if we get five or more sacks.
The Bear’s run defense is the mirror image of their run offense except in reverse. They give up 238 YPG (112th in FCS). Expect the Bison to run early and often. This should set up Trey to have a field day throwing the ball to wide open receivers off of play action. Overall they have one of the worst defenses in the FCS. NDSU has the best balanced offense in the FCS. Enough said.
Sagarin has the Herd as 41 point favorites with a 97% chance of winning. Vegas has the Bison a 40 point winner. Unless half the team gets sick overnight and can’t play, these Bears are no match for the Bison.