Post Game Thread: Gophers 1-0 After 23-10 Win Over Buffalo

did they get a new sound system? Sounds like more bass then I remember
 

Thursday night with many working tomorrow. At no time did I feel the game was in jeopardy, so the early exits were expected from my perspective.
Up just 16-10 early in the 4th quarter, this game looked like it could easily be another one of losses where the Gophers dominate statistically but find a way to lose. Maybe I am a lot older than you and have seen more haunting losses.
 

Need to fix the drops, drake would be above 60% completion percentage and likely over 300 yards passing had the receivers caught the easy passes they dropped.
And a couple close ones on the sidelines/end line that didn't go out way.
 

1st games are weird, didn't get to see the first half but watching the recording, the game was very close to being a route had things broken a little different.

D looks really good and D-Line could be a ton of fun to watch.

Drake has a chance to be special. He didn't look like a redshirt freshman and that is a really good thing. Bad luck on the pick, some drops on very catchable passes. Both of his TD throws were really impressive and just missed on the one in the back of the EZ as well. The exciting part is that he should only get better with experience.....but a very impressive debut.

Plenty of things to clean up and work on but a solid first effort that was closer on the scoreboard than it was on the field.
 

Need to finish drives better of course, but nice to see us move it consistently against what is considered to be one of the better G5 defenses. Also great to see the defense completely shutdown what was supposed to be a pretty good running game. Really a fluke INT and a blown coverage were the only ways we gave up any points. Score didn’t reflect it but we dominated far more than we did in the past against lesser MAC opponents.
 


Need to fix the drops, drake would be above 60% completion percentage and likely over 300 yards passing had the receivers caught the easy passes they dropped.
TE stands out most to me in this regard. Gears seems good for a drop a game.

Brevyn “stone hands” Ford was worse in his time here. Both are specimens - I’m hoping it gets ironed out
 

would have liked to to win by another score or 2, but I was happy with what we saw from the defense. Two big concerns at this point are receiver hands and o-line play. If those two get shored up this team could make some real noise.
 

Either the Buffalo LBs are very good or the Gopher O-line wasn’t getting to the second level. They’ll figure that out.

WRs didn’t do Lindsey any favors (he looked good for a first timer).

The D looked great. Talented and fun scheme. Corners weren’t challenged much so still a ??.

Typical first game vs a decent MAC team.
 

TE stands out most to me in this regard. Gears seems good for a drop a game.

Brevyn “stone hands” Ford was worse in his time here. Both are specimens - I’m hoping it gets ironed out
Geers is the TE version of Tyler Johnson. Some amazing catches but also some drops mixed in.
 



Either the Buffalo LBs are very good or the Gopher O-line wasn’t getting to the second level. They’ll figure that out.

WRs didn’t do Lindsey any favors (he looked good for a first timer).

The D looked great. Talented and fun scheme. Corners weren’t challenged much so still a ??.

Typical first game vs a decent MAC team.

Buffalo LBs are very good especially #2 Red Murdock. Had 16 tackles and a sack last night. Last year he had 156 tackles, 7 forced fumbles, 2 sacks, and a TD. He will be in the NFL next year.
 

TE stands out most to me in this regard. Gears seems good for a drop a game.

Brevyn “stone hands” Ford was worse in his time here. Both are specimens - I’m hoping it gets ironed out
Yes, Geers is a problem. Comical he makes that tough TD catch then drops those right in his chest.
 

Buffalo LBs are very good especially #2 Red Murdock. Had 16 tackles and a sack last night. Last year he had 156 tackles, 7 forced fumbles, 2 sacks, and a TD. He will be in the NFL next year.
It amazes me no one threw a bunch of money at him and convinced him to transfer. Dude is really good
 

My thoughts being at the game and watching live:
-Crowd was better than expected for the opponent and timing, beautiful weather and overall great atmosphere. Man I love college football!
-Drake can really throw a nice ball, made a few bad decisions but that’s to be expected, lots to build on.
-Oline clearly needs time to gel, saw a lot of mental mistakes that lead to pressures/runs getting stopped. They work that out and they could be good.
-WRs didn’t get a lot of separation on a lot of plays. I think Buffalo D is a quality one.
-Dline could be really good. Smith and Eastman are beasts. Pretty nice rotation of guys.
-Karmo is going to be a player, he made plays and can see why Fleck said he will get reps. Very impressed with some of what he did.
-kicker boomed kickoffs and hit his FG but seemed to have a weird low trajectory?
Fun first game, looking forward to the season!
 



I thought the defense got away from being aggressive in the 3rd quarter. A lot of playing playing back on their heals.

The offense got within Buffalo's 25 six different times but only scored 16 pts in those six drives. That can't happen.

Overall a solid start. Still a lot of things to improve upon. Would prefer Turner get more than 6 touches on offense.
 
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Smith looks like catches the ball with his body regularly. Yes he looks the part at WR running routes but I'm concerned he doesn't have good hands.
 

Dont worry. I took care of the problem. On X i sent PJ a terse message. Get Darius the hell out of the game at the end and dont wear him down and risk injury or fumble. He used to do that with Mo and missed enough games. Ok Problem taken care of--if he listens
 

Smith looks like catches the ball with his body regularly. Yes he looks the part at WR running routes but I'm concerned he doesn't have good hands.
They can work with a FR on catching with his hands.

All part of his development as a WR.
 

My thoughts after attending my first game in about 8 years:
  • Stadium is still as fun as ever. Crowd was nice. Student section was rocking.
  • Team still starts the season slow. Seems to be every Fleck team.
  • They completely lost the crowd at halftime. Zero energy until that life-saving late TD. But after halftime, the majority of the student section was gone. And by the 4th quarter, I'd say the stadium was less than half full. That was disappointing.
  • Hope the offense can continue to mesh as we go forward. Enjoyed the win!

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Agree on second half crowd. Tracy got them going with the run after catch but otherwise it was pretty quiet.
 

Like the last "grind-it-out" drive. 9 minutes possession! But, yes, P.J., you do have other running backs you can use to spell Darius.......
 

Up just 16-10 early in the 4th quarter, this game looked like it could easily be another one of losses where the Gophers dominate statistically but find a way to lose. Maybe I am a lot older than you and have seen more haunting losses.
Im 45...I never thought Buffalo would win. I though worst case it would be 20-17 or something like that.
 



Yes, Geers is a problem. Comical he makes that tough TD catch then drops those right in his chest.
I do not understand why this coaching staff keeps giving Geers chances in the passing game. He has had a terrible case of the drops his entire time at Minnesota. Do the coaches not see this in practice? Or were they not watching the games last year? Why, after all of that, is he still such a core part of the passing game?
 

Up just 16-10 early in the 4th quarter, this game looked like it could easily be another one of losses where the Gophers dominate statistically but find a way to lose. Maybe I am a lot older than you and have seen more haunting losses.
No, long time fan here. I never felt Bulls could get anything going on offense, so not worried.
 

did they get a new sound system? Sounds like more bass then I remember
Definitely seemed to be amped up a notch over in Section 211.

Losing my hearing so my data is biased but it almost seemed so loud that it distorted more than in the past.

The U installed a new LED board here recently from Daktronics. The articles do not mention the sound system though.
 

Buffalo LBs are very good especially #2 Red Murdock. Had 16 tackles and a sack last night. Last year he had 156 tackles, 7 forced fumbles, 2 sacks, and a TD. He will be in the NFL next year.
I think they also had another with 150+ tackles last year.
 

It was a fun game - got a little too exciting for a while. Nice cool football weather. We sat near the student section, they're always fun.
 

I do not understand why this coaching staff keeps giving Geers chances in the passing game. He has had a terrible case of the drops his entire time at Minnesota. Do the coaches not see this in practice? Or were they not watching the games last year? Why, after all of that, is he still such a core part of the passing game?
He's frustrating to watch. Seems to get open a lot, made a very good TD catch, and dropped a couple easy ones.
 

Little worried about kicking game. None of those FG's looked pretty
The Gophers will have some tight one-score games. I liked what I saw of both offense and defense, but our FG kicker looked shaky. A future games which comes down to a 40 yard FG to win? Hopefully, it was opening night jitters.
 




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