Chip: Looking at Gophers football stats: They rank 7th nationally in time of possession and 108th in scoring. That seems darn near impossible to do.

[Dakota2]

I agree that focusing on TOP doesn't improve scoring. I think the intent is to limit the opponent's opportunity to score thus enhancing the difference between your score and your opponent's score -- thus winning. Deliberate offenses are not fan favorites, they annoy fans, especially younger fans. But to me, there's nothing more frustrating than watching your opponent eat up the clock with glacial 80 yard drives. So when my team does that, I love it.
Another point (and BTW, I enjoy this civil discussion about pace, thank you for it) I think UM's play style considers two factors of this program. We play outdoors in the worst weather city in the conference, so rushing is treasured. (I wonder how the pass/rush ratio in the 'Dome compared to outdoors now). And given that climate and the other recruiting negatives of the Twin Cities, it might be that this type of offense is what can be most effective with the players we can attract. Having said all that, I'd like to see more passing this Saturday.. It started to look better last Saturday, so maybe the players and coaches will have more confidence in it. Regards.

If it has any limited merit, it is only late in the game when you have a two score lead. It is foolish when you are trailing and not even smart in a close game.

All proponents of hiding the ball from the opponent automatically assume that you are going to have multiple 80-90 yard drives that end in a TD. If you have that kind of dominance running and you get out in front, fine. Then it becomes smart.

We are not in any position to dominate the good teams in the league in that fashion on a consistent basis. To run most downs and dominate you are assuming your front five, six, or seven (two tight ends) can keep blocking nine guys.

 

[Dakota2]

Well they say possession is 9/10ths of the law

Guess that's the theory of law enforcement allowing squatters to occupy your house for a couple of years.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

Well done! Some people around here shoot off their mouths before looking at the evidence. Three of the four conference leaders in TOP are head and shoulders above the rest of the conference. The difference between them and us is that they have larger sets of more complete players and therefore have more dependable options when it comes to finishing their drives.

Key word: finishing. PJ knows that lack of finishing is why the Gophs are mediocre this year. When the Gophs were last good at finishing, in 2019, they had, if I recall, 31 TD passes. So far this year in 8 games we have 7 TD passes. Our lack of a passing game, and the concomitant predictability that results, hurts most in the red zone, when defenders have a compressed field to defend.