Chip: P.J. Fleck's choice of cautious play-calls over boldness backfires again


You shorten the game against teams with more talent. You shorten the game against teams with high powered offenses that put up a lot of points. THAT'S NOT IOWA!!!

After our first two series....our next series through the end of the game went 72 (TD), 73 (missed FG), 76 (FG), 31 (punt), 88 (fumble), 22 (INT), end of game drive with 9.

Gophers were absolutely GASHING Iowa. And Fleck handed them a present by making sure it was a game at the end. Disgusting to lose that.
Yup. Another overlooked facet, Iowa “outgained” us by over 100 yards in the punt and PR game with their total punt yards and the +24 edge in return yards. Had to work to get those yards back every drive with our lack of ability to return or catch a punt
 

You shorten the game against teams with more talent. You shorten the game against teams with high powered offenses that put up a lot of points. THAT'S NOT IOWA!!!

After our first two series....our next series through the end of the game went 72 (TD), 73 (missed FG), 76 (FG), 31 (punt), 88 (fumble), 22 (INT), end of game drive with 9.

Gophers were absolutely GASHING Iowa. And Fleck handed them a present by making sure it was a game at the end. Disgusting to lose that.
The Gophers first 2 offensive series were into the wind. Not a single point scored in that direction. Only serious drive into the open side of the stadium was the one that resulted in Mo's fumble.
 

per Chip:

A year ago, Fleck played for field goals at Iowa, and it backfired. This decision did, too. Matthew Trickett's 34-yard field goal missed wide right with 38 seconds left until halftime.

Fleck's decision might have been influenced by him having already used all his timeouts. He called his first timeout early in the game to mull a fourth-and-1 decision. He ended up punting.

Fleck had to burn his second timeout when his defense showed confusion. He called his final timeout with 11:08 left in the half when he noticed something askew with the offense.

Those sequences made the Gophers look disorganized. Then they turned overly cautious. Then they leaned on Ibrahim to carry them to the finish line.

That formula nearly worked but close doesn't count.

Eight losses in a row is a trend. An ugly trend. And the Gophers keep falling into the trap.


Go Gophers!!
How could our defense ever have confusion against that vanilla offense?!
Rule #1 seven weeks ago should've been "COVER LAPORTA!" and they couldn't even get that right, geezuz...
 

one thought:

whether it's fair or not, whether it's right or wrong, the media does help to shape public opinion.

and I think Fleck has lost - or is losing the media.

Scoggins is one of the more 'balanced' media members, and now he's criticizing the approach.

Barreiro spent 45 minutes of his Sunday show ripping the Gophers for not being able to beat "good" teams.

Judd Zulgad posted a video saying that "anyone who believed in this Gopher team should be ashamed of themselves."

the Gophers need to beat Wisconsin to try and win back some of the public opinion. If they lose to Wisconsin, it's going to get even messier.
 


Agree. If they had one they run the ball on third and 1.
That being said in a game when one play literally is the game (the pick for instance) you call timeout to get out of a bad play.

There may have been others but without knowing the only one I can for sure say was a bad timeout was the one before the punt. Should’ve taken a delay of game there (or just know to punt)

This is not me saying the other usage was good. Just that we don’t know for sure it was bad.
Our special teams may have set a record this year for number of times punt team had to call timeout to avoid delay penalty. One yesterday and two in a previous game. May have been more earlier.

Iowa special teams help the Hawks win games. Ours reflects poor coaching and preparation.
Agreed. They completely abandoned that play calling in the second half and look what happens. Then, after they ran the ball a dozen times in a row, they put our young QB in a 3rd and long situation on a must have touchdown and he tries to force the throw.

We were like 6/6, 6/7 in passing and they decided, hmm why keep throwing the ball effectively, let’s make it much harder to win and go into turtle mode.

This conservative BS is mind numbing, but totally Minnesotan. Playing not to lose will never ever get you a division win or national championship, just know that.
Coach Timeout's offensive philosophy is designed to beat inferior teams. It guarantees six to eight wins a year.
 

You shorten the game against teams with more talent. You shorten the game against teams with high powered offenses that put up a lot of points. THAT'S NOT IOWA!!!

After our first two series....our next series through the end of the game went 72 (TD), 73 (missed FG), 76 (FG), 31 (punt), 88 (fumble), 22 (INT), end of game drive with 9.

Gophers were absolutely GASHING Iowa. And Fleck handed them a present by making sure it was a game at the end. Disgusting to lose that.
That is logic. Immaterial to a coach who believes shortening game is the goal no matter the opponent or circumstances on the field.
 

Our special teams may have set a record this year for number of times punt team had to call timeout to avoid delay penalty. One yesterday and two in a previous game. May have been more earlier.
yeah but that had absolutely nothing to do with special teams
It had to do with the coach thinking about going for it and changing his mind

Don’t let Ryan burns call it a special teams timeout. It wasn’t
It was a head coach taking too long to make a choice and then taking a timeout instead of 5 yards timeout. Had nothing to do with the punt team
 

yeah but that had absolutely nothing to do with special teams
It had to do with the coach thinking about going for it and changing his mind

Don’t let Ryan burns call it a special teams timeout. It wasn’t
It was a head coach taking too long to make a choice and then taking a timeout instead of 5 yards timeout. Had nothing to do with the punt team
When I referred to punt team I was not talking about the players. I am talking about coaches. Should have made that clear. As an aside, I have never seen, heard, or read Ryan Burns.
 



Yup. Another overlooked facet, Iowa “outgained” us by over 100 yards in the punt and PR game with their total punt yards and the +24 edge in return yards. Had to work to get those yards back every drive with our lack of ability to return or catch a punt
We had our punt returner lined up 60 yards deep. We don’t try to block, return, or field it.
 

When I referred to punt team I was not talking about the players. I am talking about coaches. Should have made that clear. As an aside, I have never seen, heard, or read Ryan Burns.
Count your blessings
 

The Gophers first 2 offensive series were into the wind. Not a single point scored in that direction. Only serious drive into the open side of the stadium was the one that resulted in Mo's fumble.
If the wind was blowing in from the west as that would have been basically right in my face, which it never was. It was from the North the entire game. The team flags on the top north and those on the pole at the west end were pointing straight to the south.
 
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Bingo.

The complainers are here to complain. Chip is paid to criticize.

The play-calling didn't lose this game. A missed FG, an interception and a fumble were the reasons the Gophers lost this game. Those are miscues in execution, and not errors in coaching or game-planning.
Disagree. Game planning is the reason we didn’t cover Iowa’s receiver who had 85% of the receiving yards. Take their tight end out of the equation and we win.
 



If the wind was blowing in from the west as that would have been basically right in my face, which it never was. It was from the North the entire game. The team flags on the top north and those on the pole at the west end were pointing straight to the south.

My phone was saying NW, though I did not need that as from my seat (visitors side, chairback near the open end). The air felt like it was constantly punching me on the right side of my face, as opposed to at my back. Watching the TV replay yesterday, flags were also blowing diagonally.

That said, I recognize it could have felt much differently wherever you were. Gaard said on his sideline he could not even feel it field level. Possible the coaches in the press box paid too much heed to it, especially early.

Both coaches must have felt it was predominantly west enough to kick to the closed in both halves. No scoring in the west end zone and the Gophers were the only team to crack the red zone. Granted small sample size. Iowa had several drives that stalled just past mid-field going that direction. Feels like it was a combo platter of offensive miscues (bad snap), good defense (sack) and the wind.

I think the NW part of of the wind is what affected the Gophers missed FG, blew it just enough wide right. Still got to have that.
 

And that sound you here is me canceling my strib subscription
What did Iowa do that was Bold? 4 games in the B1G conference were won by the winning team scoring less than 20 points. What do these people expect to be done in November with the wind and cold that has taken place? What would they have wrote had we won 13-10 and 8-3 headed into Wisconsin?

Being bold is going opposite of the B1G culture and only tOSU can get away with it due to talent. SEC culture it to open up the offense and Georgia's defense is the difference maker.

Again the team showed what they can do in 2019 when they had certain talent at certain positions.
 

What did Iowa do that was Bold? 4 games in the B1G conference were won by the winning team scoring less than 20 points. What do these people expect to be done in November with the wind and cold that has taken place? What would they have wrote had we won 13-10 and 8-3 headed into Wisconsin?

Being bold is going opposite of the B1G culture and only tOSU can get away with it due to talent. SEC culture it to open up the offense and Georgia's defense is the difference maker.

Again the team showed what they can do in 2019 when they had certain talent at certain positions.
Yeah I don’t get it.
Every team in the west scored less than 20 Saturday and nobody gave up more than 20

I’m sure the coaches would rather score more than 20

They’re trying to win the game I am pretty sure.
 

Yeah I don’t get it.
Every team in the west scored less than 20 Saturday and nobody gave up more than 20

I’m sure the coaches would rather score more than 20

They’re trying to win the game I am pretty sure.
Watching USC/UCLA on TV Saturday night it felt like I was watching a different sport than what I witnessed in person in the afternoon.

Hard to wrap my head around those being future Conference opponents for the Gophers.
 

Watching USC/UCLA on TV Saturday night it felt like I was watching a different sport than what I witnessed in person in the afternoon.

Hard to wrap my head around those being future Conference opponents for the Gophers.

Yup. I thought the same.
 

What's he supposed to do with a Freshman QB that's throwing sub-50 and receivers that can't catch.

Minnesota is down it's starting QB and WR1. The fact that they were still in the conference hunt is damn near a miracle. If OSU lost Stroud next week then nobody would be calling to fire Day for losing to UM.
Where did BSF go in this game? He caught 2 passes in the first quarter and never was targeted again! Talk about a mismatch... look at what Iowa did with their TE's!

They won the game by utilizing (I know, here we go again, why not use the Tight Ends!!) their TE's and exploiting our horrendous middle coverage.

EDIT: I need to edit and add as this is the same thing Penn State did, abused our LBs and Safeties with their TE's. Iowa was smart enough to put a game plan together to exploit something we obviously haven't fixed defensively.
 
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Some Research looking at P5 programs and how they run/pass the ball. It does not take into account number of snaps per game. Just season long total snaps.

Top 10 teams for passes attempted:
Mississippi St. Texas Tech, Washington, Purdue, OkSt., Iowa St. Indiana, Arizona, California, Washington St. Combined 33-46 in Conference play. Washington and Purdue are only two with winning records in conference play.

Top 10 teams for rushing attempts:

Ole Miss, Arkansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Oklahoma, Baylor, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Auburn. Combined 40-33 in conference play. (Just counted Notre Dame ACC games for Conference record) Ole Miss, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Tennessee with winning records.

Bottom 10 teams for passes attempted:

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Kansas, Oregon St. Auburn, Iowa, Syracuse, Michigan, Kentucky. Combined 43-35 in conference Play. Notre Dame, Oregon St, Iowa, and Michigan with winning records.

Bottom 10 teams for rushes attempted:

Mississippi St. California, Washington St. Texas A&M , Arizona, Boston College, Virginia, Michigan St. Arizona St. , Washington. Combined 26-50 in conference play. Washington is only team with winning conference record.

Only two teams landed in the top 20 for Pass and Rush attempts. Texas Tech (4-4) and Wake Forest 3-4). Combined 7-8 in conference play.

Thought to look for more balanced teams:

looked at 25-34 for rush and pass attempts.

25-34 for Pass attempts were combined 46-32 in conference play (Oregon, Clemson, UCLA, LSU, Utah on this list)
25-34 for Rush attempts were combined 41-37. (Penn St. tOSU, and Georgia on this list)

Interesting that Michigan is the only team that show up on this list of the 4 Undefeated teams.


TCU is 38th in Pass attempts and 23rd in Rush attempts.


Looks like balance is good. Explosive plays and QB mobility are the X factors to me. Defense is a whole different discussion.
 


How could our defense ever have confusion against that vanilla offense?!
Rule #1 seven weeks ago should've been "COVER LAPORTA!" and they couldn't even get that right, geezuz...
Yes, leaving LaPorta uncovered was puzzling. For some reason, it looked like we didn't respect him. But the game overall was close. Two plays made the difference. We failed to intercept a deflection and they didn't.
 

You're going to cancel because you don't like a correct take. Ok🙄
I’m going to cancel because I subscribe to newspapers for reporting not hot take machine. And that’s what they’ve become
 

Watching USC/UCLA on TV Saturday night it felt like I was watching a different sport than what I witnessed in person in the afternoon.

Hard to wrap my head around those being future Conference opponents for the Gophers.
True. Will be interesting if the conference moves towards that or if they move more towards the big ten.
I’ll always remember frost saying the big ten will have the adjust to him.
 

I’m going to cancel because I subscribe to newspapers for reporting not hot take machine. And that’s what they’ve become

The Strib has plenty of non "hot take" articles on the Gopher/Hawkeye game.



 

I’m going to cancel because I subscribe to newspapers for reporting not hot take machine. And that’s what they’ve become
It seems insane that if you actually still subscribe to a newspaper, that this would be the article that ended it for you.
 

It seems insane that if you actually still subscribe to a newspaper, that this would be the article that ended it for you.
I don’t always. Off and on. Subscribe during football season and then unsubscribe after.
Actually the straw that broke the camels back is more their high school reporting. This just happen to hit the same week
 

The Strib has plenty of non "hot take" articles on the Gopher/Hawkeye game.



Lol did you read the second of those three? That’s the definition of a hot take article. You’re right, they do have some people in reporting still. Not enough focus on it.
It also would be helpful if their hot take people were better writers with better hot takes.

Jim Paulson is maybe single handedly ending my subscription
 




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