COSGROVE - No adjustments

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Clyde Tester

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After arriving home from the game I'm shocked that I don't see any threads with the name Cosgrove in the title. The Gopher defensive adjustments were...well...there weren't any!!!! The Wisconsin rushing yards in the 2nd half should all be laid directly at the feet of Cosgrove - there is no excuse for a defense with at least average ability and typically good effort to get throttled like that on the ground. It's not as if we should be surprised that a coach who was horrible in his last tenure and then was OUT OF FOOTBALL last year would get outcoached, but it was still very disheartening to see.

The kids on the field need to be put in a position to succeed - and the Gopher defense (especially in the second half) was in no position to have any success stopping the Badger run. Brutal.
 

In my best Denny Green voice re: Cosgrove - "HE IS WHAT WE THOUGHT HE WAS!!!" :mad:
 

I mean in all fairness it's not his fault we were tackling players forward.......
 

I agree - stick em and send them back

Our guys were getting run over by Clay. Very rarely did they hit him and he went down. Forward momentum for an extra 2 yards killed us all game.
 

The TV announcers were mocking the fact that our Defense did not make any adjustments. They commented repeatedly that every time the tight end went in motion the running play went the same direction. They could not believe we did not adjust for it.
 



Get a clue. We lost this game because we have an extremely mediocre quarterback, and an unimaginative offense that does not take advantage of all of the weapons the Gophers have at their disposal.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Get a clue. We lost this game because we have an extremely mediocre quarterback, and an unimaginative offense that does not take advantage of all of the weapons the Gophers have at their disposal.
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Here is the clue you might be looking for...Wisconsin rushed for 295 yards today!!! Honestly, is it even POSSIBLE to win a game in which you give up 295 on the ground? I'm all for ripping the offense (they deserve it today too but let's do it in one of the 15 other threads dedicated to THAT ineptitude) but that lack of defensive scheme (apparently also ripped by the announcers on ESPN according to an above poster) is inexcusable. Unless, of course, you're going to blame the players for the 295 yards...I'm more than willing to place the blame on Cosgrove for the scheme before I do on the players for their performance or effort today.
 

When I was watching the highlights I started thinking Clay was the second coming of Ron Dayne. Not just because how big he is or how plays but also because how many times he touched the ball. It seemed he got every the ball everytime.
 



Clyde Tester said:
In my best Denny Green voice re: Cosgrove - "HE IS WHAT WE THOUGHT HE WAS!!!" :mad:
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I could not agree more. We hired a coach that no one else wanted and got what you would expect. I sure am glad Cosgrove spent last season doing research and studying defenses because it sure is clearly showing. He must have been in the remedial class.
 

Clyde Tester said:
Here is the clue you might be looking for...Wisconsin rushed for 295 yards today!!! Honestly, is it even POSSIBLE to win a game in which you give up 295 on the ground?
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Michigan gave up over 400 yards to us in 2003 and still won.
 


In all fairness to Cosgrove, our guys were literally bouncing off clay when the went to tackle him. Our d-backs looked like jv players compared to clay. It would be nice if we could transfer some of the weight from our o-line to our linebackers and d-backs.
 



We haven't mentioned anything negative about Cosgrove since the 1st Half of the Syracuse game and now it's time to fire him?
 

Gee, anyone here think Cedric McKinley should have to run laps for the next two weeks seeing what his absence meant.

Cosgrove/Lee should have made adjustments. No question about that. But we need some bodies as well.
 

Tester: The Gopher defensive adjustments were...well...there weren't any!!!!

Not true.

Cosgrove finally went with 4 LB's and pulled #15 and we did a better job of defending the run. Problem is we were so committed to reading the backside OL pulling that the Badgers were salivating waiting to run a reverse or better yet a fake handoff to the RB and a naked rollout with the QB.

We got whipped up front. Plain and simple. How do you stop that?
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Tester: The Gopher defensive adjustments were...well...there weren't any!!!!

Not true.

Cosgrove finally went with 4 LB's and pulled #15 and we did a better job of defending the run. Problem is we were so committed to reading the backside OL pulling that the Badgers were salivating waiting to run a reverse or better yet a fake handoff to the RB and a naked rollout with the QB.

We got whipped up front. Plain and simple. How do you stop that?
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Your absolutely right. There is a reason most of the running yards came in the second half. The defense was gassed from being on the field most of the half because the offense did nothing until the very end. They jumped the counter trey to Clay and left Tolzien alone on the naked boot. When your D-line is getting pushed around, you have to take chances to get a stop. The adjustments that were made left the defense vulnerable as well as exhausted. The lack of depth from the suspensions certainly hurt the D-line.
 

At halftime I remember thinking, 'man we always play so much better in the 2nd half after we make adjustments.' Weather Cos made adjustments, they didn't work or didn't make adjustments is up for discussion but I'm still confident given the other games this year that we play better as the game progresses.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Tester: The Gopher defensive adjustments were...well...there weren't any!!!!

Not true.

Cosgrove finally went with 4 LB's and pulled #15 and we did a better job of defending the run. Problem is we were so committed to reading the backside OL pulling that the Badgers were salivating waiting to run a reverse or better yet a fake handoff to the RB and a naked rollout with the QB.

We got whipped up front. Plain and simple. How do you stop that?
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+1

WI 1st drive in the 3rd was mainly passes until the fumble. Our 1st drive lasted 3 minutes. The 2nd WI drive was the start of the ram it down your throat which took . After WI scored, our offense was on the field for less than 2 minutes. Then another WI drive for a TD, followed by another 2 minute 3 and out for our offense.

It is really hard to change the scheme on the fly when your defense is on the field all the time getting gassed.

Our inability to get any offense going in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half put a ton of pressure on the defense. We needed to be able to run the ball effectively to get a couple of 1st downs. We were too predictable - up the middle, short pass, short pass.

I really like that the staff HAS been making 2nd half adjustments this year - a big growth area from the last several years.
 

sugarriver said:
Your absolutely right. There is a reason most of the running yards came in the second half. The defense was gassed from being on the field most of the half because the offense did nothing until the very end. They jumped the counter trey to Clay and left Tolzien alone on the naked boot. When your D-line is getting pushed around, you have to take chances to get a stop. The adjustments that were made left the defense vulnerable as well as exhausted. The lack of depth from the suspensions certainly hurt the D-line.
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I don't think any chance the defense takes should ever break containment. No matter what kind of blitz package you're running you always have to protect the backside of the play.
 

Yes, Cos got toasted today after good second-half adjustments in the first four games.

What I can't figure out is why after Clay started to run wild repeatedly, Brew didn't run over to Cos and say "WTF is going on and how do we fix it NOW!!"

Anyone have a clue other than to say plug into the ESPN-feed by Chris S/Bob G?
 

thailleagle said:
I mean in all fairness it's not his fault we were tackling players forward.......
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Actually, it was a staple of his defense at Nebraska. Now that Nebraska team is playing defense and tackling much better. Coincidence? I think not. One of the problems that Cosgrove defenses have shown in the past is the "stand up and try to strip the ball" tackle, which often results in ballcarriers gaining another 5 yards. That particular tackling method is exposed even more when you are facing a big strong runner like Clay. The thing is, I think our tackling could get a whole lot worse the longer Cosgrove is around. Maybe he learned a thing in his year off... we'll find out over time.
 

Come on like anyone knew whisky was going to run the ball in the second half.;)
 

I agree with all, but at some point the defense has to make a play and get off the field on third down..offense did nothing to help the cause.. when you can run 4+ yds every time you touch the ball you can do pretty much anything you want to from tactical standpoint to mix it up and really torch a defense. this team is simply not good enough on either side of the ball (ST included) to make nearly the number of errors (penalties, turnovers, redzone) it did saturday and win any more games this year, same sdsu. We should have won this game comfortably. That is the tragedy here. Yes we were whipped on the lines, and could not stop clay, but our offense was in position to mitigate that. The field goals in the red zone killed us. Play mistake free (NU game) here on out, and we have a chance to win 6 or maybe 7. This game was very big...how we come back from this against purdon't will be very telling for the balance of the year.
 

I thought the defensive tackles were driven off the ball and then sealed away from the play time after time. If you can't stand up the offensive player and move to the ball it is going to be tough to stop anyone. My guess is that the defense will see more of that in the future. If it was basically an alignment adjustment like the TV announcers were suggesting then it really is a failure in the coaching. Brewster/staff have not proven they can be sucessfull in game conditions.
 

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