First Quarter Woes

Donate To GopherHole
Gopher07

Gopher07

Captain of Awesome
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
9,008
Reaction score
16
Points
38
Here's our first quarter points this year:

vs TCU 0
@ Colorado State 0
vs Kent State 3
vs Ohio 0
@ Northwestern 0
@ Purdue 0

That's an average of 0.5 points per first quarter, and good for 126th in the country (ahead of just Louisiana-Monroe and Boston College, neither of whom have scored in the first quarter this year). Last year they weren't great, but still averaged 6.1 points per first quarter, and the year before, again, pretty poor but came in at 3.2 points per first quarter over the course of the full year.

While any team likes to jump out to an early lead, our team - with a great defense and an offense built around eating clock and ball control - can really gain from scoring early and putting pressure on the opponent (going back to the start of the 2013 season, when Minnesota scores in the first quarter, they are 14-3, when they don't, they are 6-9).

So what's the issue - is it early-game play calling, bad luck, players not making plays, the fact that they do score more frequently on time-consuming drives that go into the 2nd quarter, all of the above? It's painful to watch as a fan, and I hope it turns around on Saturday. Would feel great to have the home crowd into it from the early going.
 

Frankly, I get a little nervous watching our DEFENSE open up. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems that our opponents often
cruise down the field on the opening possessions of our games. Its almost like we're conceding (funny word) tactically the
opening drive to see what they have, and we clamp down from there. Kinda makes it hard to get the shut-out.

Oh well.....
 

Offense for sure has issues there. Although we almost had points at Purdue and let the clock run and eventually scored in the 2nd.

Defense too tends to seem to have the other team drive pretty quickly down the field and then clamp down. Kinda weird too, but obviously not nearly as big an issue as the offense.
 

Limegrover is incredible at scripting the opening series is my takeaway.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Offense for sure has issues there. Although we almost had points at Purdue and let the clock run and eventually scored in the 2nd.

Defense too tends to seem to have the other team drive pretty quickly down the field and then clamp down. Kinda weird too, but obviously not nearly as big an issue as the offense.
Click to expand...

Defense ranks 62nd in points allowed in the first quarter at 5.5. Not as bad as the offense but does lend itself to teams seeming to do well in their first drive against the D before adjustments are made and they clamp down on things.

The offensive slow starts are definitely more troubling. Most programs spend the week leading up to the game developing an offensive script that can exploit the other teams Defense in the first few drives of the game. That would flow with what teams do against our offense early. The flip side is that our offense has either been unable to script or execute the plays to get early points against other teams.

For the most part we have been able to survive the slow starts so far but if we run up against a team that is able to jump out to a few quick scores on our defense before they adjust we could find ourselves in a lot of trouble.
 


It feels like its been an issue for the past few years. I don't have the data, but my friend said it to me during the TCU game as if it is a multi year trend. Play ultra conservative and then make adjustments.
 

And they've scored 40 in the second, 45 in the third. Making adjustments win football games.
 

We're a horrible first quarter team. Have been for years.

After halftime = TracyTime
 




That's the gopher way. Give up a TD first possession then go lights out
 


e.bigelow said:
He is really good at drawing up 3 and outs for the opening series of every game.
Click to expand...

Limegrover on the eve of the game...

"Stay with me, guys. Here's what I'm thinking. For the first play of he game, I've drawn up a little something special for Nebraska that I like to call, "Run up the middle."
 

Studwell55 said:
We're a horrible first quarter team. Have been for years.

After halftime = TracyTime
Click to expand...

Very true - we're a horrible first quarter offense, that is for sure. Last year we notched points in 9 of 13 games in the first stanza, in 2013 in 7 of 13 games, and 2012 in 8 of 13. All not good compared to other teams but this year is starting to look like an even worse outlier ... on track for 2 of 12 games. Ew.
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom