Going Forward


Colorado looks like a decent G5 team. They'll get trounced against A&M and be licking their wounds when Minnesota rolls into town. 38 - 13 IMO.
 

Colorado and Purdue on the road are 50/50....If we had a better defense I would be more confident but our safeties are not B10 level as is Sori-Marin.
+1000
Colorado and Purdue on the road are 50/50....If we had a better defense I would be more confident but our safeties are not B10 level as is Sori-Marin.

Colorado and Purdue on the road are 50/50....If we had a better defense I would be more confident but our safeties are not B10 level q
 

Look - maybe the Gophers' defensive problems were due to facing a team with a bunch of 4* and 5* exceptional athletes. But, you don't have to be a superior athlete to know your assignments and understand defensive positioning.

Other teams may not have as many great athletes as Ohio State - but they all have at least some really good athletes.

stating the obvious - a team cannot give up multiple 50+ yard TD's and be competitive. if that means dropping the safeties and CB's deeper, so be it. I'd rather give up a bunch of 10 & 15-yd plays as opposed to the 50, 60- and 70-yard bombs. Plays like that empower the offense and deflate the defense. they're momentum killers.

so color me very concerned until I see evidence to the contrary.
 

Look - maybe the Gophers' defensive problems were due to facing a team with a bunch of 4* and 5* exceptional athletes. But, you don't have to be a superior athlete to know your assignments and understand defensive positioning.

Other teams may not have as many great athletes as Ohio State - but they all have at least some really good athletes.

stating the obvious - a team cannot give up multiple 50+ yard TD's and be competitive. if that means dropping the safeties and CB's deeper, so be it. I'd rather give up a bunch of 10 & 15-yd plays as opposed to the 50, 60- and 70-yard bombs. Plays like that empower the offense and deflate the defense. they're momentum killers.

so color me very concerned until I see evidence to the contrary.

I agree with your basic premise, but the bolded part was actually proved false on Thursday night.

The Gophers gave up multiple big plays, yet they were extremely competitive against an Ohio State team that was ranked #4 in the country, and is probably the best team in the B1G.

We'll be fine.
 


Look - maybe the Gophers' defensive problems were due to facing a team with a bunch of 4* and 5* exceptional athletes. But, you don't have to be a superior athlete to know your assignments and understand defensive positioning.

Other teams may not have as many great athletes as Ohio State - but they all have at least some really good athletes.

stating the obvious - a team cannot give up multiple 50+ yard TD's and be competitive. if that means dropping the safeties and CB's deeper, so be it. I'd rather give up a bunch of 10 & 15-yd plays as opposed to the 50, 60- and 70-yard bombs. Plays like that empower the offense and deflate the defense. they're momentum killers.

so color me very concerned until I see evidence to the contrary.
I agree wholeheartedly, and given the defensive woes early last year I think it's right to be concerned. One thing I'll point out is that part of the problem was the complete lack of pass rush...and that was totally attributable to an OSU OL full of future NFL draft picks. Some of those routes were LONG developing and wouldn't be as likely against teams with lesser OLs. Mafe didn't have much of an impact last week, but he will moving forward...
 

Was already said ... but repeating for correctness:

Nebraska #48 ... Illinois #73 ... :unsure:
 

That said, there's a very reasonable chance to win the next five.

Maryland could potentially be a scary one, and they just seem to have our number some years.

NW I say the jury is still out, need more time to see if Fitz can figure something out or not.
 

At this point, the Gophers could be favored in all of their next 8 games, just going by ESPN's Power Index. Gophers are #39.

Schedule going forward:
Miami Ohio #108
Colorado #75
Bowling Green #126
Purdue #61
Nebraska #48
Maryland#65
Northwestern #50
Illinois #73
Iowa #15
Indiana #45
Wisconsin #23

ESPN Power Index
So no real change from the week before? Projected W-L is 7-5.
 



I'm hoping that the traffic prior to the game was simply due to the staff at the ramps trying to work out first game kinks. The line to get into the actual stadium was surprisingly quick.
 





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