A ROAD WIN.... (updated 10-30-2005) The Measuring Stick    NDSU went into Cedar City needing a win badly and got it. It wasn't a totally dominating performance but they got the job done. The Bison came up with 220 yards rushing besting the 3 they netted against Cal Davis. They made some obvious changes in their offensive scheme, most notably Nick Jackson's increased playing time, Marques Johnson's decreased playing time, an attempt to get Shamen Washington more involved in the offense, more effective offensive line blocking and getting the ball in the hands of fullback Tyler Jangula a few times. SUU had a couple of the hardest hitters since Joe Mays, most notably DB Jonathon King, and it appeared that he intimidated NDSU wide receivers at least a couple times. That contributed to the 12 of 30 passing performance by Steve Walker. Another factor is Walker himself. He appears to have "happy feet". He just doesn't look like he can get comfortable in the pocket. Also there was the usual complement of dropped balls by several receivers. The defense contributed greatly to this win with two int's and a couple of fumble recoveries, but they could never really shut down theThunderbird offense. In fact, they nearly matched the Bison's offensive output.    For the first time this year Shamen Washington struggled to hang onto the ball, fumbling a couple of kicks and losing one. His increased presence in the offense was only marginally effective, but I hope they continue trying to use him more. The player that really impressed everyone, especially with his 29 yard TD run, was Cinque Chapman. It was great to see him running with authority again. Of the changes made to the offense there were a couple things that stood out. One of them was the offensive line blocking scheme. SUU came out with a similar defensive scheme to Davis and Poly and the Bison handled it much better. The other was the swing pass to the fullback that gained a total of 63 yards and resulted in one of the five NDSU touchdowns.    There were two things that were really troublesome. They were #1) the state of the passing game (12-30 120 yards) and #2) the worst, especially this late in the season, was the yardage lost to penalties. The passing game, given the effectiveness of the running game, should really click, especially when you use play action to freeze the safeties. And there really is no excuse for so many penalties this far into the season. Players of the Game    We gave the Defensive Player Of The Game to Justin Frick. He is really becoming a fine defensive tackle. The Offensive Player Of The Game had to be Kyle Steffes. Holiday Vibes - Steffes moved into the 8th place on the all-time rushing list, passing Paul Hatchett and Doug Lloyd. - Mike Dragosivitch did nothing to hurt his second place yards per punt standing in IAA with his 6 punts that averaged more than 49 yards. - Kole Heckendorf was temporarily knocked out of the game by a vicious hit in the third quarter, but appeared to have not sustained a serious injury. Go Bison!! Bob H.