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Think last year was a whole lot of good fortune with how the schedule played out. First game was against an FCS, not Michigan. And really the first 3 games against FCS/mid major programs were literally one late 4th Q play each from leading to 0-3, and zero national interest in the Gophers had that happened.
 

Seems like a transition year into 2021. That defense is very young, and clearly needs a lot work. Gonna be about getting guys time to play and get adjusted to what it means to play a Big-Ten level. That was hard to watch tonight though. Really thought it would be a battle.

I also didn't think Michigan's offense did anything special, or that their QB looked that great. They coulda ran the ball up and down the field on dive plays if they really wanted. Work to do.
 


Offense doesn’t worry me too much with the exception of the line. Not sure if Dan and Dunlap are coming back, if not we’ve got work to do. Defense reminded me of pre-Rossi times, lack of contain, seemed like some scheme/execution issues. I was worried about Milton, dude is the real deal, that didn’t help. Honestly I think not having a fully functioning special teams was probably at least a 14 point swing. I’m concerned but not ready to write anything off just yet.
 


With all the new players on D really could have used the spring & summer normal practice schedule along with non-conference games to get them up to speed. Looked completely lost out there and slow because of it.

Hopefully it’s just inexperience and not a talent issue. Unfortunately with a shortened season if and when the D does show improvement it may be too late.
 

RahSkiUMah said:
Offense doesn’t worry me too much with the exception of the line. Not sure if Dan and Dunlap are coming back, if not we’ve got work to do. Defense reminded me of pre-Rossi times, lack of contain, seemed like some scheme/execution issues. I was worried about Milton, dude is the real deal, that didn’t help. Honestly I think not having a fully functioning special teams was probably at least a 14 point swing. I’m concerned but not ready to write anything off just yet.
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Maryland should be a nice bounce back next Friday. Get right type of game and relax everybody a little bit.
 

scools12 said:
With all the new players on D really could have used the spring & summer normal practice schedule along with non-conference games to get them up to speed. Looked completely lost out there and slow because of it.

Hopefully it’s just inexperience and not a talent issue. Unfortunately with a shortened season if and when the D does show improvement it may be too late.
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Agreed. The guys just need reps. Might be a blessing to get beat up like this game 1 and then gain some confidence against Maryland next week, with Illinois the following week. A lot can change with these young guys week to week.
 

Maryland will not be a pushover, but we should win. Forget about Wisconsin and Nebraska. Looks like 4-4 going into the final crossover game. Northwestern looking good again.
 




Position rankings
QB: Morgan missed some and hit some. B For anyone else but for Morgan’s standards, C
RBs: Mo was great, backups fine. B+
WRs: overall fine. Were open overall. Nothing spectacular but hard to say with lack of time. B
TE: Kieft with some good and some bad. B+
OL: dominant in the run game at times, abysmal pass blocking at times. C
DL: nothing special or flashy, expected more after first drive. No consistent pass rush. C
LB: was a real rough intro to what college FB is. F
CB: they seemed overall fine. Nothing big from WRs on outside. B+
S: anothergroup that was not ready college football. F
K: PATs and FGs were fine, but kickoffs were big for field position. C
P: woof: this cannot stand for the season. F
 

Does anybody know the extent of all the absences? The performance tonight was abysmal. It sure would be good to know if it will be like this all year or not. Are there really that many on the COVID list? (Which can’t be more than 7 on the team, or we can’t play). More opt-outs than we knew about? Injuries during practice? I understand why Fleck isn’t forthcoming, but without reporters at practice, there is no information on what is going on, which is aggravating. If I knew the absences were temporary, I’d sure feel a lot better.

On a side note, this one hurt especially bad. Being a Gopher fan, losing isn’t something new. However, losing to a Michigan team with a new QB on the road for his first start, with a HS completion percentage of 47%. And now the jug is in MI for 3 years. That’s a long time to have to wait to avenge this loss. Not all losses are created equal. We win this, we get to have the jug on display for 3 years. This one hurts.
 

Hoped for the trophy trifecta this year. Guess not.

Down to the trophy difecta from here.
 




There is a "chance" that Michigan is really good this year and challenges OSU.

Best to not over-react after one week.


They got a couple quick easy scores from our offense early and our defense made mistakes.

Hopefully they are all correctible mistakes.
 


Trying to tell myself we still control our destiny, PJ get this teams shit together. This was unacceptable and I hope the coaches take accountability for thay
 

Give me our starting kicker and punter and a full TCF Bank crowd and let's play them again next week. Much better game!
 


WoodburyTim said:
This site loves to hate on Kill and Claeys, but their guys were gone today and it showed. Hope that thing turn around, but it is worth noting that the fun of pretending last year that the previous regime didn't play a massive role in the success was just wishful thinking.
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Yeah well their guys were around for the first 2 years of Fleck and it showed then too.
 

I was pretty excited at 7-0, but that 70 yard untouched run up the gut my Michigan followed up by Tanner not seeing the blizter coming from the right side was bad.
this new oline and mostly new defense will have to figure it out quickly.
 

Michigan has solidified itself and Gophers will be right there in a couple years. Massive talent gap due to sustained success over time, which is coming for the Gophs.

Maybe it's a different game if you have Dunlap, Faalele, Oliver, the punter and kicker (including Kickoff Specialist). We probably still don't win it without fans in the stands, but it's probably closer. Fans rocking in the stands changes things too. Either way Fleck has higher rated recruits coming in than we've seen in a long time at Minnesota. Fleck was the one who developed those guys of Kills (Martin, Winfield, etc.). This team is gonna be just fine over time. It'll be an up and down year at times this year but all these guys on Defense need PT and reps. They'll be better later this year and much better down the road in a year or two.

We do need a couple confidence building wins though and hopefully we get those at Maryland and Illinois. I like us to be favored at home against Iowa and Purdue as well. 4-1 would be a very good spot to be in and it's attainable IMO. That might be asking too much with this young and inexperienced defense but hopefully we see solid improvement week-to-week. Offense may be able to carry the load over the next 4 as well. It is tough when you think about the struggles of that linebacking core combined with the safeties and D-Line play tonight. It'll be a grind to get these next 4 but I'll keep the faith.
 


btowngopher said:
Yeah well their guys were around for the first 2 years of Fleck and it showed then too.
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Yeah well, maybe Winfield, Coughlin, Barber, and Martin weren't factors, but that didn't appear to be the case tonight.
 

builtbadgers said:
Really like PJ as a coach but he is not getting a blue blood job with a 12-16 conference record, a 1-7 record against ranked teams .
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He has 2 wins against ranked teams, right? PSU and Auburn?
 


The opening kickoff, and the deluge of info (news to me) on all the missing kickers, was very deflating. Then we looked decent for a few plays, but what a way to start. How were we that frickin out of sync on play one, during prime time, game day.
 

oak_street1981 said:
I was very young and at Memorial Stadium in 1977. It was a very surreal experience. The older people around me were in a haze late in the game as it was such an unusual and unexpected result.
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I was in Hibbing watching the community college there (that's where by brother attended) play some other range community college and the PA announcer put the game on for the last five minutes so we could hear the victory as it was secure. The dozens of people there displayed an inordinate amount of enthusiasm so it sounded like at least 100 fans.
 

upnorthkid said:
Position rankings

CB: they seemed overall fine. Nothing big from WRs on outside. B+
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I have to disagree on this grade.

They all seemed super slow..always chasing, put themselves in wrong positions, can’t tackle, they all just seemed small, slow, and just bodies out there.

St-Juste I swear is a mole, didn’t think he was that great last year and last night he was atrocious.

Nubin didn’t do much either....always two steps behind
 

AWJr was really important to this team.

The Gophers were mostly exposed in areas where their biggest stars moved on -safety play, pass rush, and someone other than Bateman to catch passes.

Guys are gonna have to grow up fast against Maryland and Illinois. The meat is back soon.
 

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