It was setting up so neatly for yet another North Dakota State victory over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.
While many North Dakotans were either asleep or glued to their favorite bar’s TVs, the Bison were trying to put the finishing touches on another one of those games where they physically impose their will and run over their opponent in the game’s final minutes.
Only this time, NDSU hit a wall.
The Bison paid the price for over-reliance on their ball carriers and the result was them falling short of an Arizona team out of the Pac-12 that oddsmakers had them favored to beat.
The Bison, ranked No. 1 in the Football Championship Subdivision, fell victim to athletic Arizona QB Jayden de Laura and their own confidence in a 31-28 loss at Wildcat Stadium.
The comments on Forum columnist’s Mike McFeely’s piece said it all: NDSU put in Cole Payton as a wildcat quarterback to try and extend a fourth-quarter drive deep in Arizona territory. And the Wildcats 100% knew what was coming.
The Bison didn’t go for trickery. They didn’t try to do anything fancy. They stuck to the same guns they would have against Northern Iowa or South Dakota State either on the road or in the Fargodome. But it didn’t work.
With NDSU leading 28-24 in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats stuffed Payton’s shotgun dive up the gut at the 22-yard-line, then turned around and marched downfield 78 yards to take a 31-28 lead.
OK… Well, I guess we’d seen this movie before too. (And on the same national TV network.) This looked like it was going to be fun.
With just under 5 minutes left, NDSU got the ball back at its own 25-yard-line and ran it up the middle twice to no effect and then, facing third down and long, quarterback Cam Miller was forced into a ditch-out screen pass to Brylon Henderson. One NDSU punt and one Arizona first down later and that was the game.
Long story short, the Bison stuck with what they’re usually good at and what they always do. They just did it one too many times against an opponent talented enough and smart enough to see it all coming – twice.
Arizona coach Jedd Fisch said it was a moment that will “define our defense,” adding “These are big-time, and we should love them. So let’s go out here and get a stop.”
And the Wildcats celebrated the win like it was a big-time victory.
NDSU – an uber-successful team from the lower division with fewer scholarships, less funding and way more recent success – came into their house as the favorite, imposed their will most of the game with 283 yards rushing while misfiring on just two of 12 passing attempts … and the Wildcats still held them off.
Perhaps this will go down as a defining win for a young, rebuilding Arizona team not much was expected of.
What’s certain is that NDSU can no longer be defined as FBS kryptonite.
At least not until 2024, when the Bison open the season against another Pac-12 opponent, Colorado.
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