ESPN Big Ten stock report, Week 2 (stock up Shortell; stock down Minn pass defense)

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Double teaming a wr?

I know it's the first game but how probable is it to double a wr like Woods. We had shut down the run game so using a safety commited to Woods with the fastest corner, say studamire, playing bump and run?
 

Yep, Shortell looked good and the Pass Defense looked bad. The first should be an "Up" the second has no business being a "Down". That stock hasn't moved for years, it's always been awful. It wouldn't be on the Dow, it's a penny stock. Lamanzer, Karon and Willie, those are the only guys who ever moved that stock at all.
 

Our pass defense was pretty good. USC threw 45 times (62% of their plays) and we held them to only 6.8 yards per attempt. Our DBs were fast enough to contain some plays that looked like they were going to be longer. We certainly could have done even better if we played the first half like we did the second. Minnesota gained more per attempt (7.4 yards) than USC and all of our receivers gained over 10 yards per reception. Another stat is that Minnesota gained 13.7 yards per reception and USC only 8.9. Of course, we only threw 26 times so the total yards aren't close to USCs. Even though in many categories we had a better pass defense than USC, no one is criticizing USC.

I do understand that giving up 3 passing TDs and 75% completion percentage is going to get some complaints, it's just a not bad showing, and certainly not like some people are making it out to be.
 

" Even though in many categories we had a better pass defense than USC, no one is criticizing USC."

There certainly were critics of the USC Fourth Quarter Pass Defense in Los Angeles, WAG!
 



What I did like about our pass defense was the tackling after the catch. In many instances, with the exception of the times Wooids got free in the 1st half, the d-backs did a good job closing.
 

For the stock to be down on the Gophers pass defense, wouldn't the pass defense have to have performed worse than expected? Just what did they expect?
 

Iceland12 said:
Yep, Shortell looked good and the Pass Defense looked bad. The first should be an "Up" the second has no business being a "Down". That stock hasn't moved for years, it's always been awful. It wouldn't be on the Dow, it's a penny stock. Lamanzer, Karon and Willie, those are the only guys who ever moved that stock at all.
Click to expand...

LOL. Sadly, I agree. Things are going to get better, because I think Kill is going to go all "mad scientist" in order to improve things, but we've had four decades of lead-footed LBs, CBs with vertigo, Ss who would get lost in a revolving door and, with the exception of John Schlect, very little inside pass rush. Add to it a reluctance of any D-coordinator to ever change anything (but jumping around on the sidelines with reckless abandon) and we've got what we've got.
 



I personally thought the gophers pass defense did pretty well considering they faced the second best QB in college football and would be the best QB any other year if it wasn't for Andrew Luck. Barkley is a top 5 pick next year and Woods is certainly at top 10 pick. How does that result in the stock going down especially how they played in the second half?
 

The DBs didn't play well, that's for sure. Anytime you give up 17 receptions to one guy that's not good. However, the DBs did tackle well limiting the yardage somewhat.

USC is going to do that to a lot of teams this year. They have a future NFL, probably 1st round pick, QB and probably an NFL caliber WR. I didn't expect them to dominate USC's passing game. So while it wasn't a good performance it's hard to tell if this will be a huge problem the rest of the season or just that USC's passing game is that good. Probably a mix of both.
 

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