By james art 
BROOKINGS — After back-to-back weeks of hard-fought, heart-pounding, nationally televised thrillers against rivals North Dakota State and South Dakota State, the third-ranked Jackrabbits got something of a reprieve Saturday at Dana J Dykhouse Stadium when they faced Murray State.
The Raiders are winless in Missouri Valley Conference play this year and 5-25 over the past three seasons. The Jacks were favorites with 42.5 points.
So nothing about SDSU’s 52-6 win in front of 16,376 fans (the Jacks’ first sellout of the season) was surprising or particularly extraordinary. They did what they had to do against an inferior team.
A defense that was dominant continued to be so. An offense that had scored just 23 points in regulation in its last two games went into the lane and racked up nearly 600 total yards. They didn’t turn the ball over and had just 35 yards in penalties.
So while this win was expected to come easily, and it did, there’s still value in it, and not just that the coaches were able to empty the bench and give meaningful reps to players who haven’t seen much.
With the Jackrabbits’ most challenging games behind them, this win should set the tone for the remainder of the regular season.
SDSU (7-2, 4-1 MVFC) finishes at North Dakota, at home against Southern Illinois and at Missouri State. Neither of those games should be easy, especially the finale against a 7-2 Bears team. But the Jacks will be favored in all three of them, and none will have the hype or rivalry like the last two games.
Jen Kenyon/Sioux Falls Live
If the Jacks can repeat the formula from Saturday’s comfortable win over the final month of the season, they’ll likely be right where they want to be.
“Practice started Monday,” center Gus Miller said. “You can never (disrespect) an opponent because the game will respect you. Our coaches are always talking to us, making sure that in these kinds of matches we focus on ourselves, focus on the basic techniques and make sure we don’t overlook anything. “
In that regard, Jack certainly took care of business.
They racked up 595 yards of total offense — 343 of them on the ground. Angel Johnson, Amar Johnson, Chase Mason, Maxwell Woods and Kirby Voorhees all had rushing touchdowns. Mason and Mark Gronowski threw touchdown passes. The defense held Murray State out of the end zone and limited them to 236 total yards.
Jen Kenyon/Sioux Falls Live
There wasn’t much evidence that the Jackrabbits had it easy or going out without a hitch, but coach Jimmy Rogers said that while his team largely performed well, they didn’t have the same pregame fire and excitement that he’s used to.
“I’ll watch the film when it comes to the execution because it felt like there was a lack of energy, just the whole stadium,” Rodgers said. “Just watching (the players), I see them so much in practice that I kind of know what to expect when I watch them and their energy level. I was happy with how we played, but there is a lot to clean up. You have to be cleaner and better next Saturday.”
It will be against a UND team that looked strong early in the season but has lost back-to-back games against Youngstown State and, on Saturday, lowly Indiana State. Both were on the road, though, and the Hawks are a different team at Alerus Center, where they host SDSU next week. UND defeated No. 8 Montana at home earlier this year.
This will be SDSU’s third game against one of their Dakota rivals in the last four weeks, but Saturday’s low-stress battle between the Racers should help them.
Marcus Traxler / Mitchell Republic
“It’s been a physical couple of weeks and a lot of close games,” safety Tucker Large said of the games against NDSU (13-9 loss) and USD (20-17 overtime win). “So it definitely boosts the confidence of our team. It was good for our offense to get those yards and it’s good to see our defense let some young guys fly around and have fun and be themselves.
“Coach Rodgers does a great job of making it Jax vs. Jax every game, no matter who our opponent is,” Large added. “We want to be the best. We know our standard and if we meet it, good things will happen.”
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sportswriter. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed a lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from the University of St. Cloud State, he returned to Sioux Falls and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at [email protected].