2-0 is GREAT, my biggest concern

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Looking at Big Ten stats, Gophers are 14th in total offense and 13th in total defense. Need those numbers to improve.
 

Not to go all WREN in tone but...

Scoring defense is all that matters

We played really well first week, the second week was concerning with the weak tackling and the poor play overall in the second half (entire defense). We are playing a ton of true freshman. Mind-boggling. 2-0. How many turnovers? Our turnover margin is excellent. These are the important things. Scoring defense and turnover margin is all that matters. And Big Ten wins.
 

Yeah, 2-0 is fantastic, but I have to say that this is one of the oddest 2-0 starts I've seen in awhile, as we've given up 400+ yards to each of our opponents and been outgained by both of them. That is not the usual formula for football success, and is probably not sustainable once we get into the meat of our schedule.

The incredibly opportunistic defense has been our salvation so far, but you can't really rely on that every single week.

My biggest concern echoing many on here is our struggles in the passing game, and the fear that we will become essentially one-dimensional on offense due to the inability to reliably throw the football, because in my opinion you just can't expect to win in the Big Ten anymore without having at least the threat of a semi-competent passing game.
 

Seany said:
Yeah, 2-0 is fantastic, but I have to say that this is one of the oddest 2-0 starts I've seen in awhile, as we've given up 400+ yards to each of our opponents and been outgained by both of them. That is not the usual formula for football success, and is probably not sustainable once we get into the meat of our schedule.

The incredibly opportunistic defense has been our salvation so far, but you can't really rely on that every single week.

My biggest concern echoing many on here is our struggles in the passing game, and the fear that we will become essentially one-dimensional on offense due to the inability to reliably throw the football, because in my opinion you just can't expect to win in the Big Ten anymore without having at least the threat of a semi-competent passing game.
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Once we face teams that can load the box and stop the run our offense will look just like it did at the end of last year. Good defenses can stuff one dimensional teams. If we are going to find a passing game, it better show up this week or we have no chance.
 

Seany said:
Yeah, 2-0 is fantastic, but I have to say that this is one of the oddest 2-0 starts I've seen in awhile, as we've given up 400+ yards to each of our opponents and been outgained by both of them. That is not the usual formula for football success, and is probably not sustainable once we get into the meat of our schedule.

The incredibly opportunistic defense has been our salvation so far, but you can't really rely on that every single week.

My biggest concern echoing many on here is our struggles in the passing game, and the fear that we will become essentially one-dimensional on offense due to the inability to reliably throw the football, because in my opinion you just can't expect to win in the Big Ten anymore without having at least the threat of a semi-competent passing game.
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Santoso, Mortell and our kick coverage are also a big reason why we can be out gained yet still dominate the opponent. If we start every single drive on the 50 and the opponent starts every drive on the 20 it doesn't really matter who has more total yards because they have to go farther anyways. Also only 8 penalties in two games is worth noting.
 


I'm not too concerned about our defense (other than maybe the DL depth). They played very well for most of the Eastern Ill game and played excellent for the first half yesterday. Just have to correct a few things going forward. But they've shown they are good.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I'm not too concerned about our defense (other than maybe the DL depth). They played very well for most of the Eastern Ill game and played excellent for the first half yesterday. Just have to correct a few things going forward. But they've shown they are good.
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You are right again.
 

Yeah, our "opportunistic defense" is also a direct correlation to having fewer yards than opponents. When we get a pick-6, the other team has 2 possessions to gain yards, but we get a "free" TD with 0 offensive yards
 

Total yards don't mean much anymore, especially when it comes to teams who run hurry up offenses with their goal of getting as many plays off as possible. So far we have played two teams who want to run a lot of plays and snap the ball quick.

If you look at yards per play, we are 10th on offense and 7th on defense. We're fine.
 



I'm concerned with no pass rush this year. Crocker lived on Rsheed side last year without him it's going to be tough. D line is way down from last year
 

play hard said:
I'm concerned with no pass rush this year. Crocker lived on Rsheed side last year without him it's going to be tough. D line is way down from last year
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I wasn't too surprised we didn't get much pass rush yesterday. I thought Cockran did a pretty good job (he caused the Wilson pick), but we played the 4 true freshmen a ton. Richardson did a good job but the other 3 have a ways to go. We need Alex Keith back, he's probably our best pass rusher besides TC. With our secondary talent I would expect Claeys to dial up more blitzes from here on out now that the competition is getting tougher.
 

jaymil said:
Total yards don't mean much anymore, especially when it comes to teams who run hurry up offenses with their goal of getting as many plays off as possible. So far we have played two teams who want to run a lot of plays and snap the ball quick.

If you look at yards per play, we are 10th on offense and 7th on defense. We're fine.
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All you need to do is ask Washington State what they rather have - Air Raid offense has led to amazing passing stats, but 0-2. I think they'd take our 2-0 any day.
 

Sparlimb said:
Once we face teams that can load the box and stop the run our offense will look just like it did at the end of last year. Good defenses can stuff one dimensional teams. If we are going to find a passing game, it better show up this week or we have no chance.
Click to expand...

It's actually scary how much this year has mirrored last year, to be honest. Good start, but pretty much riding special teams, run game, and opportunistic D. Looks like this will be our formula going forward, but it makes you nervous when you look at what happened last year against teams who stop the run like Iowa, wish, msu, and even Syracuse. The rest of this year pretty much depends on developing a passing game, I'm afraid. If we don't, I'd say 8 wins again is the absolute BEST Scenario
 



Its Points allowed vs. Points Scored, its called a Scoreboard. The scoreboard is a marvelous measure of teams.

All the rest is great for fans to analyze and debate.

The one thing your have to give Coach Kill and staff is the ability to play with a lead. My biggest concern is getting the lead. With the lead especially in the second half its you and the clock against the opponent. The clock is the enemy of team playing from behind. And with a good defense it has been a deciding factor for Kill coached teams. They have the ability to run out the clock.
 

Rescooter said:
All you need to do is ask Washington State what they rather have - Air Raid offense has led to amazing passing stats, but 0-2. I think they'd take our 2-0 any day.
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Who have we played- two cupcakes.
 

Does anyone know or have an idea when Drew Wolitarskie (sp?) will be back in action and playing at full strength. I saw he was listed on yesterdays "participation" list for stats but I do not remember seeing him on the field. If he gets healthy it can only help our passing game.
 



Stats can be misleading, they had big leads in both games and went conservative against gimmicky offenses late in both games, bend do not break, 2-0 is the statistic that matters.
 

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