The collision course of the latest Dakota Marker game featuring a battle of undefeateds between No. 1 North Dakota (7-0) and No. 2 South Dakota State (7-0) held serve, as expected, on Saturday as the Jackrabbits and Bison both beat two of the worst teams in the Missouri Valley Football Conference convincingly. But the collision course of a battle of dual threat, freak athlete, rocket-armed and fleet-footed quarterbacks Cole Payton and Chase Mason may have taken a detour. Mason was hurt on a 6-yard touchdown run to open SDSU's 35-14 win at Murray State and never returned. His ankles were taped and he walked with a hobble the rest of the day. In his first public remarks since the Jacks returned home Saturday night, head coach Dan Jackson would not tell Happy Hour host John Gaskins what Mason's specific injury was and deemed Mason's status for this Saturday as "day-to-day," with Mason "getting all the tests done — standard procedure for this type of thing." Jackson said SDSU does not practice Mondays and does not know if Mason will practice the rest of the week, or how much. So, with that is the top story heading into a massive rivalry game that will be a major factor in determining the MVFC title, playoff seeding, and which of these two teams will be in the driver's seat for a Top-2 seed and home games up until the national championship game. Mason's health and mobility is undoubtedly a linchpin in SDSU's chances of winning against a Bison squad that is Top 5 in the nation in both offense and defense, averaging 43.5 points on offense and giving up an average of 10 points on defense. How much do those chances decrease if his mobility is even somewhat limited? How much do chances decrease if he doesn't play at all and redshirt freshman Luke Marble — who was 13-of-21 for 189 yards with two touchdowns and one interception after taking over in Murray — starts against the Bison's barnstorming defense? Both Jackson and SDSU TV analyst Kurtiss Riggs have answers to that and plenty of other aspects of the matchup, including how ready SDSU's running game and defense is to butt heads with the Bison. In his weekly Monday Afternoon Quarterback segment, Riggs also digs into the other pressing local and regional football topics of the week.

• Why has USD's offense failed to score 21 points in five of its eight games, and are the Coyotes in trouble against four straight Top 25 opponents to finish the regular season?
• What do we make of Iowa's win over Penn State and Mark Gronowski's rushing heroics?
• How impressive is Jimmy Rogers' "Washington State Jackrabbits" back-to-back three-point losses at Top 20 teams?
• Has Carson Wentz done enough to convince us it is time to go back to the bench for good once J.J. McCarthy is healthy enough to play?
• Who is the best team in the NFL?

Gaskins also tackles these topics in his opening "John-o-logue."