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In just a few weeks North Dakota State will officially no longer be an FCS program. It’s an odd thing for fans across the college football world to wrap their minds around because no team… perhaps in any sport at any level… has ever been as utterly and crushingly superior as the Bison were in their 22 years in the subdivision. Ten national titles, a dozen Missouri Valley crowns, countless NFL Draft selections and a whole heap of other accolades in the trophy case make NDSU the unquestioned kings of the FCS. There will very likely never again be another stretch of sheer dominance as long nor as consistent.
Since 2010, North Dakota State has won an astonishing 51 playoff games. Lost in the many epic finishes and big blowouts alike that have adorned NDSU’s postseason history, there really is only one game that makes sense to reflect on as the sun sets on the FCS era in Fargo. There may not have been a thrilling last-second play or a heart-stopping singular play that decided it. In fact it’s a game that, on its face, most wouldn’t think twice about when just looking at the 26-point differential in the box score. It was, however, maybe more significant than most of those others simply because it was the first. No one knew it back on November 27, 2010 when the Bison faced off against Robert Morris but that 43-17 first-round win kicked off the greatest dynasty American sports has ever seen and it was done in a fashion that was so quintessentially them.
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The Colonials came in as the Northeast Conference champions that year and it was the Bison who were an at-large qualifier out of the Missouri Valley and checking in as the #25-ranked team at the time. RMU, like NDSU was making its first ever FCS playoff appearance, and looked every bit the part of a conference frontrunner through the first 30 or so minutes. In a start that seems unfathomable in today’s scene, it was Robert Morris that scored first and held the edge for a good long while. On the opening drive running back Myles Russ carried the ball five times with the fifth touch going for a touchdown. Russ found his way into the end zone from five yards out and, just six minutes into the game, the visitors were on top 7-0.
NDSU would respond with a Ryan Jastram field goal but the story of the first half was certainly the two defenses. Early in the second quarter, Robert Morris was threating to go up two scores on the Bison and had gotten the ball all the way down to the one-yard line. Quarterback Jeff Sinclair was dicing apart North Dakota State with his arm and it seemed like they had no answers. Standing in the shadow of the goal line, though, the defense made its first big stand of the day. Sinclair handed the ball off to Raphael Johnson who was stuffed and pushed backwards. Johnson coughed up the ball and linebacker Brandon Jemison fell on it, thwarting what could have been a game-changing touchdown.
The Colonials defense was stifling in their own right, though, and turned NDSU over on downs a few plays later when the defense swarmed punter John Prelvitz and brought him down setting up great field position. Again, however, the Bison held strong and forced a punt. The only other points that would be tacked on before the break was another Jastram field goal, this one from 51 yards away. When the two teams headed to their locker rooms and RMU was surprisingly leading 7-6, it seemed to everyone that they were in store for a defensive slugfest for the final 30 minutes, a notion that could not have been more incorrect.
You couldn’t have faulted those watching for thinking that, though. North Dakota State quarterback Brock Jensen had just had one of his worst halves of the entire season, throwing for only 71 yards and was being outdueled by Sinclair. The Bison have always been a run-first team but even that part of the game wasn’t getting it done when it needed to. A one touchdown-for-two field goal trade was not going to get it done and it seemed like Robert Morris had a real shot of sending the Bison home before their playoff run could actually begin.
That sentiment was certainly felt by NDSU because Jensen and company wasted little time when the second half began. A quick two minute drive ended in the first Bison touchdown of the day when Jensen connected with receiver Warren Holloway for a 32-yard score.
Now up 13-7 and the momentum back, it felt like the floodgates were set to burst open for North Dakota State’s offense but that wasn’t necessarily the case, at least not yet. Following the touchdown, the next three Bison drives ended with no points. Two punts and a fumble from D.J. McNorton kept Robert Morris hanging around. The saving grace was that NDSU’s own defense was having a day of its own, keeping Sinclair and the Colonials off the scoreboard as well. RMU also had to three times in the third quarter. It was right at the end of that third frame, however, when the game finally started to break the Bison’s way.
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It took Jensen and McNorton just one snap. With just over two minutes to play in the third, Jensen unloaded a pass to the junior running back who broke free and took it 49 yards to the house. The Fargodome erupted. It was the type of play that NDSU would become all too famous for over the next 15 or so years; a long, explosive and back-breaker that put the other team away for good. It seemed like that for sure that would be the one that buried Robert Morris and yet, somehow it wasn’t.
The pesky Colonials refused to fold and in no time Sinclair had orchestrated a scoring drive of his own. Aided by a big 28-yard run from Russ, RMU found the end zone again on the very next series. Russ scored his second of the day and once again it was a one-score game heading into the final 15 minutes. The discomfort that plagued the Bison fans only grew in the early stages of the fourth the quarter An untimely interception from Jensen was followed up by a field goal and, with 11:58 to go, it was a very uneasy 20-17 lead for NDSU.
It was undoubtedly the tipping point in a game that could have gone either way and someone would need to snatch the moment. That someone would end up being the home team it they did so in resounding fashion down the stretch. Jensen capped the next drive with a short touchdown run to make a ten point game and then it completely avalanched on RMU from there on out.
The NDSU defense forced a safety when it collapsed on Sinclair in the end zone just one play after Jensen’s touchdown run. Right after that McNorton found paydirt and then again disaster struck for the Colonials on the next snap when Sinclair tossed it to cornerback Josh Gatlin. Mike Sigers ran it in for a 28-yard exclamation point and, in what felt like a blink, North Dakota State had scored 23 unanswered points and left Robert Morris squarely in the dust. When the clock hit triple zeroes the Bison were on the right side of a 43-17 thrashing; a deceptive score for how close it had been for three quarters. It was a win that would become so indicative of what the Bison did to many, many teams throughout their FCS tenure.
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That win propelled NDSU to the second round where they went on the road and manhandled Montana State, eventually earning them a spot in the quarterfinals. There they bowed out to Eastern Washington in overtime, the last time they would lose in the playoffs all the way until the 2016 season and just one of six times they would suffer a defeat in the postseason. That legacy was all kicked off with a dramatic onslaught of Robert Morris over a decade and a half ago. Jensen, McNorton and everyone else involved in that win laid the groundwork and, in many ways, set the Bison standard that November evening against the Colonials.
As NDSU prepares for a new chapter in the Mountain West, folks in and around Fargo will undoubtedly look back and reminisce on the countless triumphs that defined the FCS era. It’s likely, however, that the first ever playoff win will get overshadowed by all the other bigger moments upon the recollection of Bison victories. In 2010 North Dakota State may not have won it all but they certainly knocked on the door that they would kick down a year later. There’s a good chance they would have never gotten to that door, though, had they not seized the moment in a long-forgotten fourth quarter of a first-round contest all those seasons ago.
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