NDSU Defense Got Off to a Fast Start Against Illinois State

Bison held the Redbirds scoreless in the second half

Fargo N.D. — Slow starts were a facet of the game NDSU wanted to fix leading up to Saturday’s game against Illinois State. The Herd gave up the lead early in their past two games against Northern Iowa and Western Illinois.

Against Western Illinois they were down in the third quarter. Last week, they were down in the second quarter against the Leathernecks. The Bison defense wanted to change that and they did today. They held the Redbird offense scoreless through the first half.

“We hit our fits. We tackled way better in the first than the second,” head coach Chris Klieman said. ‘There’s not many teams who have tackled that guy (Brady Davis) consistently including us but I thought we continued to rally to the football and get him off schedule a few times.”

“We see a lot of these plays in fall camp. It’s a lot stuff that our offense runs and we know their offense is not better than our offense, safety Rob Grimsley said. “If were able to execute and hit our fits, were able to make plays.”

Bison hit the road next week to face South Dakota. Kick-off is set for 2 p.m.