Bison Look to Replicate Saturday’s Performance In Regular Season Finale
THE BISON OFFENSE AND DEFENSE IMPRESSED IN SATURDAY'S WIN VS. SIU.
FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) —The Bison all but secured a spot in the playoffs with their win over Southern Illinois last Saturday. Now they look potentially secure a top-8 seed with a win Saturday vs Northern Iowa.
A big reason for the Bison success last Saturday was their performance on defense. ‘Code Green’ pitched a shutout in the second half and allowed just 55 rushing yards and 206 total yards in the Bison 34-10 win.
Senior defensive end Jake Kava had four total tackles and two-and-a-half sacks in the win. He says the Herd knew the win was important and now the focus is to replicate that performance at the UNI-Dome.
“We all have phones, we all see the playoff brackets and kind of the ‘what if’ scenarios and stuff like that,” said Kava. “So, we knew it was a huge game that we need to get a win in. It was really exciting and fun. We knew we were capable of it all season, but to finally just execute at that high level and … put together three, four or five three-and-outs in a row and get the offensive the ball back and see what they can do. I’m glad it happened and we finally put that game together. We had really good weeks of practice and we just didn’t execute on Saturdays. So, I think knowing that’s this team’s standard and just elevating that every week.”
The Bison offense excelled as well Saturday. The Bison rushing attack saw eight different rushers rack up 217 total yards. TaMerik Williams led the way with 51 yards and two touchdowns, and Cam Miller racked up 48 en route to a score on the ground of his own. The success on the ground led to right guard Jake Kubas being named Missouri Valley Football Conference Offensive Lineman of the Week.
“Honestly, I don’t know if it was much of what I did,” said Kubas. “I think it was a collective game plan as an offense and all 11 Guys executing against a really good rush defense. I think there were the third-ranked rush defense in the country coming in. Honestly, I didn’t think I played that well, but we got enough rushing yards for somebody to get nominated for us. So yeah, that’s cool. As an offensive line, we always want to play with pretty violent intent, trying to finish guys and really set the tone for our entire team. And I think we came out in the second half [versus Southern Illinois] and did that.”
The No. 9 Bison will finish the regular season on the road versus No. 22 Northern Iowa. Kickoff set for 4 P.M. at the UNI-Dome.
