Defense Underreaction Thread + Question

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A_Slab_of_Bacon

A_Slab_of_Bacon

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We gave up yards but I felt like the defense didn't look ... hopeless today.

I felt like I saw good pursuit by individuals.

Saw some 1:1 tackles.

Saw some defensive line pressure ...

Still gave up yardage and etc but I feel like I'm seeing individuals hitting assignments and etc.

What I haven't seen as far as I know ... and I'm not sure I've seen all year was Goal Line 7. Urban talks about it here at the 2:33 mark:


Have we completely abandoned Goal Line 7?
 

Some nice plays by Hickox, Aune, and Howard. Did Howden play?
 

btowngopher said:
Some nice plays by Hickox, Aune, and Howard. Did Howden play?
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Not sure.

I thought Rush had some good persuit of other guy's assignments and his own tackels... if I'm thinking of the right guy #8
 

Otomewo finally flashed at times. I've been waiting on him to take a step, seems to have the physical tools.
 

I forgot to mention too, you could hear the defensive guys cheering each other loudly in the 4th when they made tackles.

I know they were gassed but it was good to see them positive.
 


We're having broken plays less frequently so that seems better.
Considering the large turnover of players in the game tonight, that's improvement.

We'll have more good talent next year, so hopefully this only lasts a couple more games.
 

I still say Sori-Marin isn’t a Big10 linebacker, but he does hustle. I’ll give him that. I was impressed by Swenson. I thought he tackled pretty well and seemed to be around the ball. He was a pleasant surprise. Very little pressure on the Purdue QB all night and we still look slow overall. I do believe some of the younger players are showing a lot of potential for the future.
 





It was great to see some of the young talent out there and making some plays! I thought that the big fella Richter looked really good when he was out there. I also thought there was quite a bit of pressure and a lot of close calls on the rush. MJ Anderson had some close ones and Big Esezi also got in there at times. Good to see Hickcox out there too...did he miss 3 games from Covid? He got minutes last year and this was the first I've seen of him. Still struggling at safety and LB but I think the D-line has good promise.
 

U2Gopher said:
I still say Sori-Marin isn’t a Big10 linebacker, but he does hustle. I’ll give him that. I was impressed by Swenson. I thought he tackled pretty well and seemed to be around the ball. He was a pleasant surprise. Very little pressure on the Purdue QB all night and we still look slow overall. I do believe some of the younger players are showing a lot of potential for the future.
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I thought we got decent pressure, but the purdue qb moved well. Didn't seem like we ever blitzed.
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
It was great to see some of the young talent out there and making some plays! I thought that the big fella Richter looked really good when he was out there. I also thought there was quite a bit of pressure and a lot of close calls on the rush. MJ Anderson had some close ones and Big Esezi also got in there at times. Good to see Hickcox out there too...did he miss 3 games from Covid? He got minutes last year and this was the first I've seen of him. Still struggling at safety and LB but I think the D-line has good promise.
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DT has tons of promise and two more good looking prospects coming in.
 




I was also glad to see Logan Richter in there. He is a mountain, one that can move and push. And he did something that our DL are having trouble with this year. He shed a blocker on the play I where i followed him. I hope they give him more time in games this year to gain game some full speed experience.
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
With our missed assignments and straight up missed tackles ... I'm not sure we can afford to blitz. Imagine being -1 guy in the secondary and someone wifs ....
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I agree with this, however, we get no pressure and our safeties are often lost in coverage. I would bring them a bit more often because I don't think their coverage provides a ton (often).

All of that said, I think Swenson looked to be in the right spot a lot. I do wonder how in the world he got lined up 1-on-1 on Moore on a play where we didn't blitz though.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I agree with this, however, we get no pressure and our safeties are often lost in coverage. I would bring them a bit more often because I don't think their coverage provides a ton (often).

All of that said, I think Swenson looked to be in the right spot a lot. I do wonder how in the world he got lined up 1-on-1 on Moore on a play where we didn't blitz though.
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Give credit to Purdue for making that happen as well.
 


Saw the big kid from Perham tonight. Not sure he has played much before? #96. Made a nice play. Space eater.
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Not sure.

I thought Rush had some good persuit of other guy's assignments and his own tackels... if I'm thinking of the right guy #8
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You're right that Rush is #8, but I'd strongly disagree with this take. I'm probably a major rube, but I thought Rush played terribly. It seemed like he couldn't set the edge to save his life, and he got beat time and time again on plays to the outside.
 

yeah the interior d line looked better tonight. Moore is so good in the open field. I wish the Gophers would find more ways to use Bateman like Purdue does with Moore.
Thankfully they had a big slow running back as it limited the big plays. There were opportunities for some huge runs for Purdue if they had a faster running back.
Howard played another good game, Durr was the victim of some very good pass and catches. Both safety positions seem like they are still a mess.
 


All things considered the D played ok, especially when you take into account who was missing off of an already inexperienced group.

Defensive players out for the season: Teague, Oliver
Defensive players out for this entire game: St. Juste, Mafe, Cheney, Shad

So right there you have 6 guys that they were counting on to be factors this season out for this game. Then you add in Howden missing a big chunk of it due to injury as well and you can see where they were just trying to hold things together as much as possible. And to their credit, the D made the play at the end of the game to seal the victory.
 

Our defense didn't really stop purdue but played better as odd as that sounds. We came close to making plays but you have to give credit to purdue playmakers especially Bell and Moore bell took away an interception (Aune?) on the last drive that probably would have sealed the game for us earlier. All in all, progress by Phars.
 

Need to stop giving up the big plays and the D will be ok.
 

MNVCGUY said:
All things considered the D played ok, especially when you take into account who was missing off of an already inexperienced group.

Defensive players out for the season: Teague, Oliver
Defensive players out for this entire game: St. Juste, Mafe, Cheney, Shad

So right there you have 6 guys that they were counting on to be factors this season out for this game. Then you add in Howden missing a big chunk of it due to injury as well and you can see where they were just trying to hold things together as much as possible. And to their credit, the D made the play at the end of the game to seal the victory.
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Howden going out put Swenson in the game and I thought he looked better than Howden has all year.
 

Two guys played bad yesterday in my opinion. Nubin had some played he looked awful. Some outside backer was really bad early and didn’t see the field much after that. (Number something in the 30s I think)
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
It was great to see some of the young talent out there and making some plays! I thought that the big fella Richter looked really good when he was out there. I also thought there was quite a bit of pressure and a lot of close calls on the rush. MJ Anderson had some close ones and Big Esezi also got in there at times. Good to see Hickcox out there too...did he miss 3 games from Covid? He got minutes last year and this was the first I've seen of him. Still struggling at safety and LB but I think the D-line has good promise.
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Yessir. Was going to post all this but you beat me to it. A few observations:
  • MJ Anderson took reps at rush end due to Mafe being out and he actually looked decent and almost got home a couple times.
  • Otomewo had his best game rushing the passer as well.
  • Richter was a really pleasant surprise. Tough to move off the ball and was hustling.
  • Dew-Treadway was a difference maker. Made several plays around the LOS and chased down another 5 or 6 yards downfield. Lots of hustle.
  • Swenson made two open field tackles that were better than anything I've seen from this team all year. He needs to play more, regardless of how he is in coverage. This team's problem is missing tackles/poor angles at the 2nd and 3rd levels. Anybody who can help that should be playing.
 

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