Despite 3 week Train Wreck, Gophers can still finish 9-3!

Final record will be…..

  • 9-3 West co-Champs

    Votes: 6 11.1%
  • 8-4, almost got back into it!

    Votes: 15 27.8%
  • 7-5, still can’t beat Iowa and Whisky twice in a row!

    Votes: 16 29.6%
  • 6-6, no trophies for you!

    Votes: 13 24.1%
  • 5-7, Thank God for Northwestern

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • 4-8, complete meltdown

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • Total voters
    54

Otis

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To say it has been ugly would be an understatement. But, the remaining schedule is manageable.

Rutgers
@ Nebraska
Northwestern
Iowa
@ Wisconsin

I see anything from 5-0 to 2-3 being believable possibilities.

I’ll give PJ the benefit of doubt and say we go 5-0 after the campus-wide mid season tryout for a new receiver! Vote on your expected record!
 

We're a team that seemed to peak early and needs a breath of fresh air. Hopefully Rutgers provides that this weekend.
 



I’ll give PJ the benefit of doubt and say we go 5-0 after the campus-wide mid season tryout for a new receiver! Vote on your expected record!

I rarely go out on a limb to predict anything but I believe strongly that this team isn't winning 5 games in a row. 7-5 most likely but 8-4 certainly is possible. However, I believe we could beat Iowa but still finish 7-5.
 



Anything is possible. Probable? Not as sure.
 


The season has boiled down to Floyd and the Axe, and to a lesser degree, the Broken Bits of Chair. Win those three and we will be overjoyed. Lose three, and Gopher hole Meltdown reaches Defcon 6 (at least).
 




Me reading the thread title….
Me after reading the thread title 🤣
 

Hell yes. Win out, then get the bowl trophy to make it a 10 win season. Let's get it.
 

Still optimistic for 9-3, but I don't think the west champ will have 3 losses at this point (I think Illinois runs the table other than Michigan, leaving them at 2 conference losses), so no co-champs
 



Iowa’s defense is probably going to score on us. Our offense needs to score more points than Iowa’s defense.
I'd rather our defense outscore their defense and our offense outscore their offense.
 


Yes indeed!! So many Rock Stars from my early school days are passing away these days... sad to see and just goes to show how old I'm getting, was very very sad when Peart passed away in '20.
 

I'd rather our defense outscore their defense and our offense outscore their offense.
OK, but our defense doesn’t score points. It just doesn’t. So, our offense also has to “shutout” Iowa’s defense by eliminating bad turnovers. Iowa’s defense scores on a regular basis through pick sixes and scoop and score fumbles. Iowa’s defense is as good as Iowa’s offense is bad.
 

I'd like to think that we can win all five. But I believe that we could lose 2 or 3 if we continue to play with such a limited and dispiritingly predictable offensive playbook. What the Illinois and PSU games showed is that the Gophers appear to have no answer to teams with aggressive, athletic defenses that bring regular blitzes. Rutgers, Iowa and Wisconsin have aggressive, athletic defenses that love to blitz and to feast on offensive predictability. They will blitz us back to the Stone Age if we have no credible, punishing answer for excessive blitzing.

Good offenses have imbedded tactics to beat any blitz--because every blitz package presents a momentary glaring weakness as well as a shock & awe threat. Blitz-beating tactics almost always require mutual recognition of the true blitz threat at the LOS by the QB and the "hot" receiver. Sometimes blitzes are beaten by screen plays (like the naked screen to Bryce Williams that gained 19 yards in the PSU game). Sometimes an offense moves to a quick-pace--to the line and snap--diminishing a defense's ability to keep jumping around and presenting lot of confusing fronts. You can use five receiver sets (RB moves out) to expose possibly DB weaknesses in coverage if the blitz is on. Sometimes you use a quick buck sweep with pulling OL creating numbers leverage outside (which Michigan did to PSU). Or you can have the QB preemptively roll out of the pocket, away from the blitz, to a side where some nominal receivers might stay home to block. There are many, many more tactics that our coaches know, I am sure. A blitzing team can be beaten, and beaten badly, by pre-installed, well-scripted tactics that are well understood to the offense. But if an offense has no special tactics designed to "counter-punch" the blitz by quickly attacking its weak point, it can lead to a situation in which an inferior team beats a "superior" team through excessive, unpunished blitzing.

I think we have the talent to win out this season. But if our offensive game plan is to try to overpower all our upcoming opponents with nothing special installed to beat and punish excessive blitzing, we could easily lose several games, because we still have some very good defenses on the docket. And losses in that fashion will be on the coaches, for their lack of tactical thinking and creativity, not the players.

Athan has the height, arm strength and confidence to beat a blitz. Give him and the receivers the tactics to beat excessive blitzing, and we can win out. It is that simple.
 
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