Todd Golden: DOWN IN THE VALLEY: Five takeaways from ISU's 31-26 loss to No. 1 NDSU

Oct. 9—For the second week in a row, Down In The Valley gets written from the point of view of so close, but so far.

This time, it was even more exciting, if not more heartbreaking. Indiana State gave FCS No. 1 North Dakota State fits for much of the game at Memorial Stadium. The Bison punted frequently, turned the ball over, got dinged for explosion plays and even got pushed around at times. You rarely see any of the above from the Bison in any game, much less against 1-3 ISU.

The Bison, it must also be said, also gathered themselves — a touchdown right before halftime when ISU led by 10 was crucial — and had more for ISU in the second half to escape the Haute with a 31-26 victory.

Every Sycamore I talked to, as well as ISU coach Curt Mallory, all said they expected to win. Of course they did. If they believed otherwise, you'd question their heart.

However, there weren't many outside their room who thought this would be a competitive game.

Against Northern Iowa, where ISU hasn't won since 1988, you could dismiss ISU's performance as a one-off, but this is two weeks in a row where the Sycamores looked as if they're a team on the rise. That can't be dismissed.

What ISU did on Saturday, without the reward it wanted, was to make others believe in them. Casual observers here in town and in the Missouri Valley Football Conference will see the score and think to themselves, "hmm, maybe this ISU team is on to something?"

And they should because ISU, if I'm being honest, is playing better than I expected them to. Remember, most of this team, especially on the defensive side, is young. This is a team without an established quarterback, yet, ISU is making its let-everyone-play ethos work for them. The question marks they had coming into the season are being answered in positive ways.

ISU (1-4, 0-2) has no margin for error to make an unlikely playoff surge. However, stay tuned for the final six games. This ISU team is getting better, and while the schedule never truly lightens up in the MVFC, there are winnable games on the horizon.

There is optimism ... and that's always a welcome feeling.

Here's five takeaways from the game:

1. Offensive line was much improved — Last week in this space, I opined that part of the difference in ISU winning or losing at Northern Iowa was the lack of push up front when it mattered, a la in the red zone, a la in goal line situations.

The offensive line was better on Saturday, and at times, spectacular. It wasn't perfect. Cade Chambers got hit a lot — four hurries and three sacks — but that's a different issue than the push up front I mentioned last week.

However, ISU was better in physical situations. Still not totally on-song, but better. ISU was 6 of 14 combined on third and fourth down conversions. ISU was able to score twice in goal line situations.

More than that, though, was the holes that were being opened, especially in the first half. ISU averaged 6.1 yards per carry.

Yes, an 82-yard run by Justin Dinka helps that total, but it's not as if the line gets a demerit for an 82-yard run. Dinka had a huge gap to exploit to create the run. The right side of the offensive line gets total credit for that.

ISU coach Curt Mallory thought the line played well at UNI last week. He was pleased again on Saturday.

"That's a physical football team out there. There was some hitting out there. That O-line went toe for toe and opened up some holes. We got better from last week," Mallory said.

2. Dante Hendrix is special — From the Department of Duh? Maybe, but once again, Hendrix demonstrated to the home folks why he's so valuable to the Sycamores.

If you read the game story, Mallory favorable compared Hendrix to Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard, a teammate of Mallory's at Michigan.

He knows better than I do on that comparison, but what I do know is that there is no catch too difficult for Hendrix to pull down.

The 36-yarder he had in the second quarter on ISU's second scoring drive was one of the better catches I've seen at Memorial Stadium. Well-defended, the ball was tipped, but while falling down to the ground, Hendrix maintained concentration and hauled it in.

The side judge was so crossed up by the remarkable catch that she ruled Hendrix out of bounds before the head linesman overruled her.

I sometimes feel like Hendrix — who eclipsed 2,000 career receiving yards (2,106) on Saturday and who passed Terry Bell and Rob Tonyan on the all-time yardage list to vault into second all-time at ISU — has been hard done by during his ISU career because he's rarely had a good quarterback throwing to him.

However, Hendrix is one of those rare receivers who makes his quarterback better. Think about this. Take Hendrix's seven catches out of the equation and Chambers is 5-for-19 on the day.

3. Defense is physical, opportunistic, but it slowed down — ISU's defense has been nasty at times this year. They get downhill, a football cliche, but one that holds true when you're hitting your gaps.

ISU also forced three turnovers, very rare against the usually disciplined Bison. One was fortunate, a muffed punt, but the other two were forced fumbles, pure graft on the part of the Sycamores.

However, NDSU's second half stats don't lie. The Bison gained 393 yards of total offense and were 8-for-13 combined on third and fourth down in the second half.

There were some killer conversions, none more so than Zach Mathis's 28-yard catch on a late fourth-quarter 3rd-and-19 conversion. That was the play of the game from NDSU's point of view.

Also, TaMerik Williams was a big problem. He had 145 rushing yards on 13 carries. While fullback Hunter Luepke was somewhat held in-check, Williams made up for it.

ISU's defense can be nasty and NDSU is certainly a difficult opponent, but that ever-lasting quest to find the stopping power for all 60 minutes continues.

4. Regrets? A few — There were some situations that held the Sycamores back.

Going for two early on didn't pan out, though I can't really fault ISU for going for an early dagger, especially with the inconsistent kicking game. However, ISU ended up later having to play out from under the point they didn't get.

It meant going for two on their last TD. ISU had both Chambers and Evan Olaes on the field to create confusion, but NDSU didn't bite, and the direct snap to Tee Hodge went nowhere.

It goes without saying that two second-half NDSU turnovers that netted zero points is a significant regret.

Perhaps the biggest, though, was ISU's last possession of the first half. After NDSU cut the ISU lead to 13-10 with 1:19 left, it appeared as if the offense lost track of time.

There were four straight runs called, with only one timeout used in that stretch, and before the final run, and none of the runs got out of bounds. It can understand managing the clock so NDSU didn't get another shot, but that was a tad conservative.

With the ball at the NDSU 48, an 8-yard completion to Hendrix over the middle did more harm than good, as time ran out.

It looked as though some of the ISU coaches were shouting for the ball to be spiked during the series, but it probably shouldn't have come to that until ISU had gone further downfield.

Regrets? Yes, a few.

5. NDSU is not the best team to play at Memorial Stadium this season — I haven't voted in the FCS poll in many years, but if I did vote? I'm going to commit blasphemy to say that NDSU wouldn't be in my No. 1 position.

Montana looked like a better team when they came into Memorial Stadium and rolled ISU 49-14 on Sept. 17.

That's not to say the Bison weren't good. Nor does it suggest that NDSU won't be the better team in November and December, which is their stock-and-trade, but there were some uncharacteristic traits demonstrated by the Bison.

For one? Going into the game, NDSU had some underlying defensive stats that were below their usual standard. They were sixth against the run entering the game and ISU did nothing to help that standing with their 178 rushing yards at a 6.1 per carry clip. Take out sack yardage and ISU rolled up 191 yards.

ISU breached the 20-point mark for the first time in series history on Saturday. In the previous 11 meetings, the high water mark was 17 points.

ISU also had its third-highest total yardage in series history with 340.

ISU's only games that were higher were with the excellent Ronnie Fouch at quarterback in 2010 and 2011, accompanied by elite running backs Darrius Gates and Shakir Bell in those years, respectively.

Cade Chambers hung in there admirably on Saturday, but he's no Ronnie Fouch.

Against NDSU's defense, you just expect better. They've set a ridiculously high standard. Here are ISU's total yardage totals in their games against NDSU since the series began in 2008:

2022 — 340

2021 — 298

2017 — 242

2016 — 244

2015 — 201

2014 — 227

2013 — 157

2012 — 197

2011 — 373

2010 — 357

2009 — 273

2008 — 143

Throw out 2008, because that was year one of Trent Miles, and ISU had one of the worst offenses that year I've ever seen, but some of those other totals are a testament to how monolithic NDSU's defense typically is, especially considering that in many of those years, ISU had a decent offense.

NDSU's offense was fine, 522 yards and some gut-check drives in the second half speak to that, but the Bison also made unforced errors you're not used to seeing. Ones that would cost them against teams more willing to hit the kill switch than ISU did on Saturday.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you put Sept. 17 Montana vs. Oct. 8 NDSU on the same field? I'm taking the Griz.

Of course, it doesn't work that way. NDSU is the Death Star of the FCS division. Their name and reputation for excellence alone scares the hell out of this division. The Bison have earned that rep time and again.

But this NDSU team felt more like the under-construction Death Star from "Return Of The Jedi" more so than the finished product in the original "Star Wars". (I will never call it a "New Hope".)

We'll see if the Bison are fully operational come playoff time.

Todd Aaron Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com. Follow Golden on Twitter @TribStarTodd.