Identity of the Offense

To my eyes, this team does not lack talent – it lacks identity. Bear with me, if you care to.

In previous years, if you really thought about our running attack, the path to a dominant running attack looked like this: (i) rush in vain up the middle for about a quarter-and-a-half; and then (ii) after having aggregated punishment against the defense, begin gashing the defense with our rushing attack 5, 6, 7 yards at a clip. So, in other words, as long as game situation permitted, we would succeed if we could basically deliver body blows for much of the first half.

Now that we can pass, we are unwilling to simply deliver body blows for three-fourths of the first half. But we also can’t really run the ball – because we are unwilling to deliver said body blows. To complicate matters, we haven’t installed an offense designed to move the ball 5 and 6 yards at a clip via the passing game, to serve as a proxy for a running attack.

I think this team could proceed either way. The issue is that the Gophers are caught in between identities at the moment.

Either commit to body blows. Or commit to a West Coast offense.

Either way OL needs to get get better so we have the option / threat of a run.

I got no problem with passing if we can protect The Drake.

We are losing at the line of scrimmage which has been much worse than in previous seasons. We have had multiple 3rd/4th down situations where we failed to convert and essentially had no push forward from the OL. The coaches have tried multiple combinations without any significant improvement. We need to improve our run game or we will have trouble continuing to win. We need a hybrid model as we don’t have the talent at the receiver position to run a West coast offense.

I would like to see more two tight ends sets with 19 Walsh, #44 Bierman, #86 playing more. Not just blocking I want to see them running some option routes, quick stick, digs, wheels out of the backfield. Not this week, but against Iowa. I want to give Iowa a dose of their own medicine.

Drake Lindsey is saving our team.

If the defensive team on the other side of the ball runs any line shifts or stunts, our offensive line gets confused.

If we don't run long crossing routes or double moves and have enough time to throw the route, our wide receivers are not getting open quick enough.

Our running game is not there because unless we go straight down the center of the line and let the running back cut to the A or B Gap, anything to the outside of the tackles has no chance.


I don't think the offensive coordinator is calling bad plays. I think our offensive line is just not syncing and unfortunately when you don't have holes to rush through and you can't hold your past blocks long enough to let the plays develop, you get what you see here. Thank God we have Drake.

Texan Gopher said:

Drake Lindsey is saving our team.

If the defensive team on the other side of the ball runs any line shifts or stunts, our offensive line gets confused.

If we don't run long crossing routes or double moves and have enough time to throw the route, our wide receivers are not getting open quick enough.

Our running game is not there because unless we go straight down the center of the line and let the running back cut to the A or B Gap, anything to the outside of the tackles has no chance.


I don't think the offensive coordinator is calling bad plays. I think our offensive line is just not syncing and unfortunately when you don't have holes to rush through and you can't hold your past blocks long enough to let the plays develop, you get what you see here. Thank God we have Drake.

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Agree completely. Bad OL play leads to BIG problems everywhere.

“Either commit to body blows. Or commit to a West Coast offense.”

We’ve committed to an offense that blows!