Those 2 big plays were huge breakdowns for a horrible defense. Also I'm not excusing the offense. Both are totally unacceptable.
Most of that 1st quarter I was wondering when NDSU was going to break one though. We were bringing a lot of guys on nearly every play. As Wally said all summer long, this defense was going to have to take a lot of chances, so there might be some big plays for us, but there might be some big plays for them too.
I was concerned that whole 1st quarter though that if one of their RB's broke through the line of scrimmage they might be gone. Turned out, that was pretty much right.
And eventually they just started wearing us down. Our offense was pathetic too, and that only gassed the defense even more. It was a bad cycle.