Against "Spread" teams

[Some guy]

MTSU - 190 rushing given up
TCU -169 given up
Northwestern - 121 rushing given up
Purdue -298 rushing given up
Illinois - 123 rushing given up
Ohio state - 289 rushing given up
Nebraska - 174 rushing given up
Missouri - 337 rushing given up


Average = 212


Any cause for concern?

 

[Spoofin]

Most definitely. That and scrambling QBs were an issue for us all year.

 

[MaxyJR1]

That is screaming for better front seven play.

 

[MGGopher]

Yup. IMO, we struggle so much to get to the QB that we're forced to stunt quite a bit (vacating the 2nd level) and "jet" our DE's straight up the field often (leaving huge holes off tackle). I'm hopeful it'll get better as personnel improves and we get a better pass rush. This will also allow us to play less man coverage, which should also help. Guess we'll see.

 

[50PoundHead]

Yup. IMO, we struggle so much to get to the QB that we're forced to stunt quite a bit (vacating the 2nd level) and "jet" our DE's straight up the field often (leaving huge holes off tackle). I'm hopeful it'll get better as personnel improves and we get a better pass rush. This will also allow us to play less man coverage, which should also help. Guess we'll see.

I've noticed that as well. We seem to stunt ourselves out of plays a whole heckuva lot. On a couple of the big runs Missouri pulled off, it looked like they had two blockers to handle one LB and then it was off to the races. In fairness, Missouri's C was pretty darn good. He was getting to the second level and putting a hat on guys with regularity.

 

[414GopherFan]

Great points in this thread. 1)The Center for Missouri was a fine ball player but its not hard to get to the 2nd level when no one in your front 4 demands a double team(with the exception of Mr.Richardson at times) 2) When the OL get to the 2nd level the LB has to step up and engage and get off a block and play Big BOY football. The LBs are good sideline to sideline but are atrocious at the point of attack. When we play I teams like Iowa and Wisconsin we have to put 8-9 guys in the box to stop the run.The front 7 is MAC quality.

 

[maxwellsmart]

Not problems unique to gophs. Why do so many teams employ a spread? Lots of insane yardage and scoring going on all over the country.

 

[Iceland12]

Not problems unique to gophs. Why do so many teams employ a spread? Lots of insane yardage and scoring going on all over the country.

True. Gophers were also hard hit by injuries to players on the Defensive side of the ball. Nick Rallis, Cody Poock, and Scott Ekpe were all lost for the season to ACL injuries. Alex Keith was even gone for awhile correct?

Good news is they finally had enough depth to step-up. The bad news is they were all mainly Freshman/Redshirt Freshman, so size and inexperience came into play.

 

[1983]

I expect this to improve this year with more experience on the D line and at safety.

 

[Ogie Ogilthorpe]

True. Gophers were also hard hit by injuries to players on the Defensive side of the ball. Nick Rallis, Cody Poock, and Scott Ekpe were all lost for the season to ACL injuries. Alex Keith was even gone for awhile correct?

Good news is they finally had enough depth to step-up. The bad news is they were all mainly Freshman/Redshirt Freshman, so size and inexperience came into play.

Pretty much nailed it. Stats show Alex Keith played in 9 games and started just 1, the first one. That tells me he was pretty much NOT 100% the entire season, but I saw him all over the field yesterday. He must have been pretty healthy.

What they did this year with a patchwork D-Line was not much short of amazing. You just can't consistently play with numerous Freshmen (or even very many SOPH) on either side of the trench. Elmore, Richardson, Moore, Stelter.... Kind of scary to even think about it. 5-3 in the BT schedule under those circumstances was phenomenal.

Can't wait to see what another year in the S&C program and just plain another year in the program does for those 4 guys, among many others. Hopefully S. Ekpe comes bigger, stronger, and better than ever.