Read parts of a Ryan Burns article—those not behind a paywall. Among the things that struck me about the Cal game (I was there) was that we had awful field position for the start of almost all drives. And Cal had pretty good field position all night. Burns’ article asserts that the Giphers have gone 47 Quarters without out a drive starting at or inside our opponents’ 45 yard line. That is an amazing stat. Good offenses feast on short fields; the Gophers don’t ever see short fields.
Our defense, also per Burns, has forced only one turnover in our past five FBS games. Winning teams force turnovers. (Burns is counting only fumbles and interceptions as turnovers, not turnovers on downs.) This season, the Gophs also are very, very low on the totem pole in explosive plays (over 20 yards) … and we got a lot of them against Northwestern State.
Our pass defense looked horrible against Cal. AK and Rutgers, I suspect, are good for 28 points against the Gophers. Our special teams will, if history holds, contribute 0 at best and more likely a negative factor. So our offense, which if history holds will operate at a significantl field position disadvantage most of the game, will have to score 28+ points. It will have to scord TDs in multiple 75+ yard drives yard drives with the majority of plays being 3-4 yard runs. That’s how things look with PJ’s “knife fight in a phone booth” style of careful, plodding offense.
It would be great to see some turnovers that give our O a short field in Rutgers territory; to see some explosive plays that move drives along smartly; to see a punt that flips field position; to see a creative offense that mentally-stressed the Rutgers defense; and to see a pass rush that forced AK out of his comfort zone. But I’ve seen too many years of PJ’s prudent, risk averse game plans. Got a bad feeling. I really hope I’m wrong.
Go Gophers!
. Buffalo looks to be weak also. Gophers are not that good this year folks. Hopefully Perich doesn’t find a way to screw us against Rutgers too
