FARGO-As expected, North Dakota State lost its status as the No. 1-ranked football team in the FCS national polls. Moreover, the Bison lost one of their top playmakers for an undetermined amount of time.
Running back Bruce Anderson, also one of the top kickoff returners in the subdivision, reinjured his ankle on a routine-looking running play up the middle last Saturday against South Dakota State. Replays showed SDSU linebacker Christian Rozeboom holding on to Anderson's foot and then twisting as Anderson was trying to get away.
NDSU head coach Chris Klieman on Monday was asked if he thought the tackle was cheap in nature.
"You can make your own determination," he said. "I'll keep it to myself."
Whatever the case, the Bison head to Western Illinois this Saturday, Oct. 22, coming off a loss for the first time since losing to the University of South Dakota about this time last season. The 19-17 SDSU loss ended a winning streak of 14 games that was the second-best in Missouri Valley Football Conference history behind the Bison's 33 straight from 2012-14.
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There are parallels in that NDSU had two road games following the USD defeat. This time it plays at WIU and Northern Iowa in successive weeks.
"One thing we won't do is hit the panic button here," Klieman said. "We have to attack this week and have a great practice today. We always talk about this and you guys think it's coach-speak or players-speak, but we talk about going 1-0 for the day and that gives us a chance to go 1-0 for the week. Our guys know that. I have confidence in our leadership."
The Bison fell to 5-1 overall, which dropped them to No. 4 in both the FCS coaches and STATS.com media polls. Sam Houston State (Texas), Jacksonville State (Ala.) and Eastern Washington occupy the 1-2-3 spots in both polls.
It was a banner day statistically for the Jackrabbits, too, who on defense held the Bison offense in check in the second half while quarterback Taryn Christion was eating up yardage with his legs and right arm. For his efforts, Christion on Monday was named the STATS.com National Offensive Player of the Week accounting for 444 yards of total offense including the game-winning touchdown pass with one second remaining.
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"What we stress to the players about, we didn't make enough plays to warrant winning," Klieman said. "We had some good things out there, but we didn't make enough plays to deserve that victory and I thought SDSU did. That's every week. If we don't make enough plays against Western Illinois, it will be another loss."
Klieman said the playing status of starting cornerback Jaylaan Wimbush, who went out of the SDSU game with a possible concussion, won't be known until around the middle of this week. Senior Quinten McCoy took Wimbush's place in the lineup against the Jacks.
"I'm happy with Q," Klieman said. "He had one error on a quarterback run, where he came inside and should have stayed outside. He made plays and felt confident."
