Defensive Struggles

I don't know about every kickoff, either, but they did the "touchback" thing far more than any other college team I watched.

Just don't understand the logic when you're receiving the kick between the 10/15 yd line? Makes your team look "soft".

BTW: Watching the Indiana/Iowa game last weekend, I think they mentioned that Iowa led the nation in interceptions last season.
I believe the logic is Tresselball pure and simple. Minimize risk everywhere you can. Additionally it was Indiana who led the nation -- they averaged 2 per game.
 

To me that was Mafe’s bad. He deserted the edge to go after the QB who had handed off to the RB.
I'm sure the defensive staff shares your sentiment here and gives him blame as well. So what I said (100%...) is wrong.

That said, Nubin was still always the widest guy on the side, and he can't lose leverage like that.
 

On Saturday, Iowa scored 14 points on Indiana just off of pick sixes. Iowa’s incredible defense not only very rarely allows high scores, it also scores a lot of points itself. Gophers’ problem, in a sense, is that our offense is tasked with scoring virtually all our needed points. Our defense is still working on the basics of position responsibility and just trying to get stops; opportunistic plays like pick sixes seem on the other side of the rainbow. And we have simply stopped trying to even advance the ball much less score on kickoffs and punts (might be wise with our personnel). So, it is 100% on our offense to score all the needed points in each game. Thus, we need a high scoring offense.
Agree. I hope this changes. Is this a typical slow start that gets better as the year goes on?...Seems to be the Gophers M.O. under PJ Fleck....at least that's what I'm going with.

On another note, Iowa's team is getting a lot of praise nationwide and raising a lot of eyebrows. This makes me angry. Is Iowa that good, or is Indiana that bad? From the bits that I saw, the Hoosiers looked confused. I am rooting for Iowa St. this weekend.
 

Football lives and breaths on hype and talk. Nonstop. I think some people enjoy talking about the games more than the games themselves!

Iowa got a very nice matchup, at home, with a team that was absolutely not ready to play them, and a QB that was gifting interceptions like candy.

So of course people are pronouncing Iowa has the best defense in modern college football history. Talk, talk, talk.


Rooting like hell for Campbell to get his first win over Ferentz, in Ames hosting GameDay, and for the 'Clones to take the trophy.

Given our tomato can opponent, it'd be tempting as hell to make the 3hr drive down there. Bet the tailgating atmosphere will be awesome.
 

Agree. I hope this changes. Is this a typical slow start that gets better as the year goes on?...Seems to be the Gophers M.O. under PJ Fleck....at least that's what I'm going with.

On another note, Iowa's team is getting a lot of praise nationwide and raising a lot of eyebrows. This makes me angry. Is Iowa that good, or is Indiana that bad? From the bits that I saw, the Hoosiers looked confused. I am rooting for Iowa St. this weekend.
Indiana is overrated and have tons of work to do to be a consistently good program. Iowa is good defensively like they are most years, Iowa’s offense is not special at all.
 


Agree. I hope this changes. Is this a typical slow start that gets better as the year goes on?...Seems to be the Gophers M.O. under PJ Fleck....at least that's what I'm going with.

On another note, Iowa's team is getting a lot of praise nationwide and raising a lot of eyebrows. This makes me angry. Is Iowa that good, or is Indiana that bad? From the bits that I saw, the Hoosiers looked confused. I am rooting for Iowa St. this weekend.
Iowa did win 6 straight to close 2020 and then came out and rolled a top 25 Indiana team that most think is going to be pretty good.

Indiana may take a step back but I think there is a pretty good chance that Iowa is also going to be very good again this year.
 

Most games Iowa isn’t scoring special team or defensive tds either. I do wonder if the reigns will be taken off of the return game or if they were playing it safe against OSU. I know in the punt return game they were super safe last year, but I don’t remember them fair catching every kick return.
Fair catching punts is smart, unless the receiver has lots of room on a low trajectory punt. Fair catching every kickoff that isn't in the end zone is probably smart against Ohio State, which has its excess 5* and high 4* players on special teams. But fair catching kick offs against every team, meaning every KO drive must go 75 yards, means you lack confidence in you special team's personnel and/or its ability to avoid penalties on kick offs.
 

Agree. I hope this changes. Is this a typical slow start that gets better as the year goes on?...Seems to be the Gophers M.O. under PJ Fleck....at least that's what I'm going with.

On another note, Iowa's team is getting a lot of praise nationwide and raising a lot of eyebrows. This makes me angry. Is Iowa that good, or is Indiana that bad? From the bits that I saw, the Hoosiers looked confused. I am rooting for Iowa St. this weekend.
Iowa's defense is for real. I heard somewhere that they haven't given up more than some ridiculously low number (24 points) in the last three years. Haven't double-checked. Almost shocking if true. That will win you a lot of games even with a middling offense. But Indiana and Penix might be overrated. Pulling for Iowa State (which just snuck by its MAC opponent last week).
 

My thoughts too. The DBs got beat bad anyway. They might as well blitz when that type of thing is happening.
I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with you, but we were killed blitzing against Ohio State too.

Chris Olave's first TD was really similar to the Wilson's TD. Both essentially were slight rolls to the right with the receiver working away against the grain. I remember watching the Olave TD thinking "we can't just let him sit back there, they'll kill us". On Wilson's TD, we blitzed and therefore one of their weapons was forced to be covered one on one by Swenson. That was also an easy pitch and catch.

In re-watching those plays, I guess I don't blame a DC for thinking that they'd rather see if Stroud can keeping making the tougher throw (Olave TD) because the Wilson one was REALLY easy.
 



I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with you, but we were killed blitzing against Ohio State too.

Chris Olave's first TD was really similar to the Wilson's TD. Both essentially were slight rolls to the right with the receiver working away against the grain. I remember watching the Olave TD thinking "we can't just let him sit back there, they'll kill us". On Wilson's TD, we blitzed and therefore one of their weapons was forced to be covered one on one by Swenson. That was also an easy pitch and catch.

In re-watching those plays, I guess I don't blame a DC for thinking that they'd rather see if Stroud can keeping making the tougher throw (Olave TD) because the Wilson one was REALLY easy.
Yeah, given what Ohio State can do to stress a defense anywhere on the field (at multiple places, simultaneously), maybe our defensive strategy was the best. But I hope that against lesser offenses--meaning everybody else we play in the regular season, including IA and WI--we try to cause the other team some similar stress by blitzing and DL stunts.
 

Fair catching punts is smart, unless the receiver has lots of room on a low trajectory punt. Fair catching every kickoff that isn't in the end zone is probably smart against Ohio State, which has its excess 5* and high 4* players on special teams. But fair catching kick offs against every team, meaning every KO drive must go 75 yards, means you lack confidence in you special team's personnel and/or its ability to avoid penalties on kick offs.
Even against Ohio St Potts can catch the ball moving forward from the 10-12 yard line and trot past the 25. We gave up 50 - 100 yards of field position by ignoring OSU's only weakness -- short kickoffs.
 

Football lives and breaths on hype and talk. Nonstop. I think some people enjoy talking about the games more than the games themselves!

Iowa got a very nice matchup, at home, with a team that was absolutely not ready to play them, and a QB that was gifting interceptions like candy.

So of course people are pronouncing Iowa has the best defense in modern college football history. Talk, talk, talk.


Rooting like hell for Campbell to get his first win over Ferentz, in Ames hosting GameDay, and for the 'Clones to take the trophy.

Given our tomato can opponent, it'd be tempting as hell to make the 3hr drive down there. Bet the tailgating atmosphere will be awesome.
We need every B1G West team to lose as many games as possible.

Whether it be to improve recruiting, W/L record, or just the perception that Minnesota is relevant again. I'm not quite ready to concede anything to Iowa, but ISU always seem to choke away games when they play Iowa.
 

We need every B1G West team to lose as many games as possible.

Whether it be to improve recruiting, W/L record, or just the perception that Minnesota is relevant again. I'm not quite ready to concede anything to Iowa, but ISU always seem to choke away games when they play Iowa.

You can place a wager on Iowa, and get 5 points, against Iowa State. Sound tempting?

 



Yeah, given what Ohio State can do to stress a defense anywhere on the field (at multiple places, simultaneously), maybe our defensive strategy was the best. But I hope that against lesser offenses--meaning everybody else we play in the regular season, including IA and WI--we try to cause the other team some similar stress by blitzing and DL stunts.
Honestly, I don't even know what I would do. Not bringing people was a problem and our blitzes weren't landing. I do agree with your take though about other teams.

One of our big problems was also execution. MSM really struggled. He was out of position all night. Nubin had a couple really bad plays too.
 

Fair catching punts is smart, unless the receiver has lots of room on a low trajectory punt. Fair catching every kickoff that isn't in the end zone is probably smart against Ohio State, which has its excess 5* and high 4* players on special teams. But fair catching kick offs against every team, meaning every KO drive must go 75 yards, means you lack confidence in you special team's personnel and/or its ability to avoid penalties on kick offs.
Our special teams screw up more than advance past the 25
 

Honestly, I don't even know what I would do. Not bringing people was a problem and our blitzes weren't landing. I do agree with your take though about other teams.

One of our big problems was also execution. MSM really struggled. He was out of position all night. Nubin had a couple really bad plays too.
The disappointing part is most of the guys screwing up were upper classmen.

This is a veteran team. That shouldn't happen.
 

I bet the defense gets better. No, not awesome but better.
The offense somehow has to get really good to carry us. We will never have a more experienced, deeper offensive line. We have to make that translate into a very effective offense to carry us and keep the dang defense off the field.
 

I bet the defense gets better. No, not awesome but better.
The offense somehow has to get really good to carry us. We will never have a more experienced, deeper offensive line. We have to make that translate into a very effective offense to carry us and keep the dang defense off the field.
Should be on the field longer, because we won't have Mo turning 5 yard gains into 15 and 15 yard gains into 35.

Potts is more than capable. He'll just need a few more plays to get those yards.

OL will open the holes for him and others.
 




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