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Maroon92

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I am think most gopherhole fans have packed it in for the year because I am surprised I did not see any comments about the offensive performance today. Today the offense looked worse than the Michigan game.

Does anyone think the wind was a big factor in Gray's throwing? He does not have a strong arm to begin with so every throw has to be affected and he looked horrible throwing the ball. Our seats are high up on the Gopher side so were protected from the wind most of the game. Anyone else near the field think the wind was a factor.

I also thought Gray's decision making on the reads of his running plays was awful. He kept the ball way to many times when it didn't look like he had any open room.

I think Bennett has been the lone consistent bright spot this year and it is too bad he is the one leaving. I am hoping all the positions are open for competition come spring including the Gray/Shortell/any other QBs.

Also--is Orseske the only punter we have. It is hard to believe someone can be so inconsistent. No two punts are the same.
 

The 4 yard punt was a freak incident. I doubt that happens once in a decade.
 

I think they had a "shadow" on Gray each play. Sure seemed that way on the running plays. They closed on him fast.

I was surprised that they came out with a trick play (not that it made any difference), but I thought they would try to run some quick-hitting stuff and relatively easy passes.
 

You would think you wouldn't--but he has 7 other punts under 30 yards including one for 7 and another for 14. These punts absolutely kill any field position battles we definitely need to win
 

I expected our defense to have more than their hands full yesterday. Offense was our biggest problem. Never got into much of a rhythym except before the half and then Q threw the pick. That ended up being a big swing maybe 14 before the half.
 


I agree that the 4 yard punt was a freak, but had it been caught as a fair catch it would only have been a 25-30 yard kick.
 

My criticisms of the offense
1. Gray just didn't play very well, plain and simple.
2. My opinion is we don't get the RBs involved enough. Gray ran the ball 19 times, Bennett and Kirkwood only 12.
3. On 3rd or 4th and short, It should be Gray under center running a QB sneak every time. With his size he should be able to get a yard every time.
4. That interception in the 1st half was huge. We continue that drive and get a least a FG, Wisconsin may not have time to march down and score.

And on Orseske, he's shown he can be a very good punter, but he's also shown he can be very bad. It has to be mental.
 

We would be in worse shape if we had anyone but Gray at QB in our present situation and that is not saying much. Gray is a fighter. They are asking a ton of him out of the run game. He had some receivers drop the ball but the biggest problem is that he is slow to read the play. Even my wife says that as we watch games. He is like a second or sometimes two late in throwing the ball.
 

We did not have the ball enough

We had a lot of trouble blocking there front yesterday, to many penalties in key situations. To many dropped balls and they had the best defense, long drawn out time consuming drives by there offense that kept the defense on the field to long. They figured out how to isolate on #14, clear out and hit the slant out,(Safety was dropped down in run support or high over the top) and we could not rush the passer or adjust to stop it. Wilson hit his passes with precision and had enough time to cook a pizza or fix a Subway sandwich while scanning the field.
Gray missed some wide open guy's at times because he was flushed out of the pocket and did not keep his eyes up the field it seemed like as he was under duress quite often.
He had the tight end open on multiple occasions and either didn't have the time or did not see them, could have checked it down sooner too. Guy's were dropping balls that were hitting them in the hands, it was just a bad day by the offense, lack of execution, mistakes
struggles with holding calls, Gophers could not get any kind of momentum going. This is one game tape I would show it and tell the guy's put it behind you and move on.
Today we just got beat by a better team, nothing more nothing less. We did not have the ball enough to make any plays.
 



GophersInIowa said:
My criticisms of the offense
1. Gray just didn't play very well, plain and simple.
2. My opinion is we don't get the RBs involved enough. Gray ran the ball 19 times, Bennett and Kirkwood only 12.
3. On 3rd or 4th and short, It should be Gray under center running a QB sneak every time. With his size he should be able to get a yard every time.
4. That interception in the 1st half was huge. We continue that drive and get a least a FG, Wisconsin may not have time to march down and score.

And on Orseske, he's shown he can be a very good punter, but he's also shown he can be very bad. It has to be mental.
Click to expand...

This post nails it, at least my thoughts on our offense. I don't understand how a college team that is struggling to throw the ball has that much imbalance between QB vs RB carries. Even more peculiar is all the talk about Gray having a back injury. Wouldn't we want to run him less? I'm sure much of it is our lack of solid oline play, but only 12 carries by the RBs is hard to believe.

Also, the pick right before halftime was one of the worst passes I have seen. No excuse to have a reciever have to stop and wait for that ball.
 

Is Kill just a huge fan of the read option offense? I am not a fan of it, and it seems the other QB's on the roster would not be effective at it...asking?
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Is Kill just a huge fan of the read option offense? I am not a fan of it, and it seems the other QB's on the roster would not be effective at it...asking?
Click to expand...

It's always been a part of he and LImegrover's offense. I think it's a bigger part this year because Gray is obvioulsy more advanced as a runner than thrower.
 

Another game where a team challenged Gray to beat them with his arm. Without any downfield passing game teams will continue to focus on Gray and attempt to minimize his rushing yards. The 2 games Gray was effective was when he hit some downfield passes which backed off the defense which resulting in our run game being much more effective. Have a credible downfield passing game and the run game will follow.
 



WHB Brewer said:
This post nails it, at least my thoughts on our offense. I don't understand how a college team that is struggling to throw the ball has that much imbalance between QB vs RB carries. Even more peculiar is all the talk about Gray having a back injury. Wouldn't we want to run him less? I'm sure much of it is our lack of solid oline play, but only 12 carries by the RBs is hard to believe.

Also, the pick right before halftime was one of the worst passes I have seen. No excuse to have a reciever have to stop and wait for that ball.
Click to expand...

I think the more we get the RBs involved, the more things could open up for Gray's running as well.
 

Shades of 2007 - the QB was trying to do everything on offense - we haven't had a non-QB running game since 2006 (we need some bigger, stronger and/or quicker backs - watching Oregon's speed last night was instructive). Gray's passing was improving in recent games but he had an off-day Saturday. All the things going on in his life, plus the wear and tear Weber used to suffer with as a spread QB, plus the birth of his sons probably left him pretty tired out. I think he'll look good against Illinois - and we may win that one. Also, the team was a little flat after two big emotional efforts against Iowa and Michigan State. A big disappointment was the poor crowd. Imagine what it would have been like without the Badger fans.
 

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