Gophers Offense Change Not Imminent Now - Per Greder Tweet

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The great thing about the 2019 offense it was simple yet effective. There were several route combinations that each fed off the other. If people tried to take away one aspect of our offense we had something to counterbalance this. This offense does not see to have a holistic strategy to it. There are too many runs, too many batted balls (which you get when you pass 16 times and 50% are slants) and nothing to really catch a defense off guard. Simply throwing in a long ball pass literally got us a win against Purdue. Will be interesting to see if we can come up with a game plan that keeps defenses off guard. Would love to see a drive where we pass the ball 8 plays in a row to help set up the run.
 


60's Guy said:
There is plenty of evidence pointing toward replacing the OC being a sound decision. One example of many:
If the only time you bring in Kramer he keeps the ball and runs, that's not good football.
Sure, if you keep doing it and now he finally does pass once, then the pass play has an excellent chance to fool your opponent and be very positive if you execute. But there are more efficient ways to achieve the same result. It is the same with much of what the OC does.
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I don't think Sanford is our best choice next year. But I agree with his developing Wildcat and Kramer gradually. He ran two great plays against BG and several plays, some successful, against Purdue. The obvious next stage is to mix in handoff to RB and short passes to defeat defense stacking box.

We need to see if Sanford makes Wildcat more sophisticated as Kramer grows in the role.
 


forever a gopher said:
Really the only difference in the Purdue game was more deep shots. Otherwise, pretty similar. RUTM, RUTM, pass, punt happened on too many drives.

As mentioned above, Purdue seemed to have much less trouble completing passes in the rain, so I'm not ready to just give an outright pass due to the weather conditions.

This team desperately needs an intermediate passing game. A screen or two to a RB wouldn't kill them, either.
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I can't say for certain they were RUTM but your scenario occurred twice. They had 3 "three and outs" and one of them was Run, Pass, Pass.

The same Run, Run, Pass to start a drive occurred 0 other times, so maybe that formula was moved away from as both occurred in the first half.
 

swingman said:
three balls went through his hands...a nice slant came in hot from Tanner, but if he grabs it he might go for 50 and a TD....had a deep pass that would have been a 40 yard gain, iirc...
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Yes, he had his hands on all three and from what I remember none of them were balls that he had no business catching. Or, in other words, I was very surprised he didn't hang on to them as they basically went right through his hands.
 


forever a gopher said:
This has lead to much of the QB pressures/sacks. Tanner dropping back with 1 or 2 (while in heavy formation) or 3 receivers going deep mean that when they blitz or get quick pressure, there is no quick place for Tanner to throw the ball. So he eats the ball, or tries to run.
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We threw the ball out of heavy packages all the time in 2019. We threw more slants. Holding the ball too long is often a problem with going through too long of a progression.

The heavy formation isn't new. Our route tree is.

Fixed - Misread your post
 



Gopher 461 said:
Copy that. Though the OC doesn't seem to want to run those plays. At 6'7" SF is a good target.
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We've seemed to run into more issues the more and more our OC relies on getting the ball to our TEs.
 

bamor5229 said:
Purdue also played in the same conditions and completed 34 of 52 passes for 371 yards. Not hard to figure out that it wasn't the weather.
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Purdue also gave up 4 sacks, an INT, and fumbled.

When you dink and dunk the ball 50 times in a game, you'll likely have decent numbers. You're also more likely to have bad things happen.
 


I didn't read the article, but was Greder actually implying there was a solid chance Sanford would've been shown the door with a poor showing on Saturday...or pure speculation a la GH?

FWIW, I thought Sanford did a better job taking what the D was giving. Like most teams, Purdue was loading the box and their safeties were FLYING up to play run. That does two things: 1) helps stop the run (obviously) and 2) takes away a lot of the short passing game because that space behind the LB's is suddenly filled by a S. What's left? Lots of single coverage deep downfield which is what we saw the Gophers trying to exploit time and time again.
 



MGGopher said:
I didn't read the article, but was Greder actually implying there was a solid chance Sanford would've been shown the door with a poor showing on Saturday...or pure speculation a la GH?

FWIW, I thought Sanford did a better job taking what the D was giving. Like most teams, Purdue was loading the box and their safeties were FLYING up to play run. That does two things: 1) helps stop the run (obviously) and 2) takes away a lot of the short passing game because that space behind the LB's is suddenly filled by a S. What's left? Lots of single coverage deep downfield which is what we saw the Gophers trying to exploit time and time again.
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I wouldn't be surprised....but I think it is just speculation.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
I’m happy with the win, but our offense wasn’t much better than the Bowling Green game and wasn’t the reason why we won the game.
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In fairness it was better. OL was much better in pass blocking. Gave up no sacks and Morgan had time for deep routes. But you are right they share credit with good defense and brilliant punting which kept Purdue in long field and allowed bend don't break pass defense.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
My issue is with the construction of the passing game. there seem to be almost no short-to-moderate distance routes - a 10-yd out pattern - a 12-yard-curl - a drag route over the middle at the 10-12 yard mark- a simple down-and-out at 12-15 yards. Even the hard inside slant that helped send Tyler Johnson to the NFL.

The Gophers "route tree" seems to be missing some limbs.......

with the Gophers, it's either a dump-off to the TE or a deep pattern down the sidelines.

and the more predictable the offense becomes - the easier it becomes to defend against.
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Passing game plan for Purdue: Dump off on third and long. Otherwise, only throw it deep with only two receiving options.
 

Fleckoff said:
It's not great, but playing Purdue on the road in pouring rain is a few notches up from clear sunny skies at home against the doormat of the MAC
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Doesn’t matter too much, but I don’t think BG is a doormat this year.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Quick question - Would you rather have 20 points, 0 turnovers and 300 yards of offense

or

13 points, 2 turnovers, and over 400 yards of offense?

CRAB dropped a couple of passes that would have gone for big yards and made the total look a little better. Offense wasn't great on Saturday but in bad conditions they took care of the ball and put enough points on the board to get the win. That is a big step up from the terrible performance against BG but there is still work to do.
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They took care of the ball (program) and executed in a tight game. Even under adversity. If the program is lucky enough to slow the injury bug, we will see a very good team before 2021 is over.

Focus is on Nebraska. Take care of the football, win turnover battle, win time of possession, and have special special teams play and the team will walk off of the field with a W.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
I’d make a change now. Use the bye week to fix this offense.
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Either that or go Clockwork Orange on Sanford and have him watch the Auburn and OSU game film on loop for a week straight till he is conditioned to mixing up the plays properly despite the personnel on the field.
People can’t develop if they aren’t put in the right conditions to excel.
 

Otis said:
Either that or go Clockwork Orange on Sanford and have him watch the Auburn and OSU game film on loop for a week straight till he is conditioned to mixing up the plays properly despite the personnel on the field.
People can’t develop if they aren’t put in the right conditions to excel.
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I'm not saying torture works but there is no evidence it doesn't.
 

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