Gophers open as (+6.5) point underdogs at Penn State

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Gophergrandpa said:
Illinois in a sense stopped the run by (1) jumping out to a 10 - 0 lead (which is essentially insurmountable in the PJ era, except for the Auburn bowl game) and (2) holding us to only 42 plays and 19:56 TOP. Forced us to pass to try to “catch up.” On Mo’s 15 runs, he averaged 8.5 yards, but we can’t just run Mo every play when playing catch-up.

No one has stopped Mo this year, but against good teams running Mo just isn’t enough. Chase Brown ran for 180 against us, but that wasn’t enough for Illinois to beat us. Not near. DeVito complemented the run game with 25-32, 250 and 1 TD, and Illinois’ D finished us with 3 interceptions.

We can probably run against Penn State for 150 yards, and that alone might give us a respectable loss. Absent a complementary, successful passing game, and with a defense that seemingly never turns the ball over at critical junctures, we will lose. I think Athan can rejuvenate the passing game, but he is just getting his feet wet and will make some rookie mistakes as he gets used to the speed of the top college teams. Next week might be too soon, against too talented a team, to expect a turnaround led by Athan.

Our RBs, receivers, defense and STs must lead; Athan must make our passing game respectable. Then we are in the game.
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I admire your fan love for Mo! He is pretty freaking awesome! However…

Illinois forced Mo to imitate Barry Sanders.

Short gains on most of his 16 carries combined with a 44 yard run and another 21 yard gain. In other words not a typical Mo day where he consistently gains 6.5 yds/carry with no long runs, punishing the defense, moving the chains and keeping the defense fresh. Yeah Mo got 127 yards but we got very few first downs and were horrible on third down conversions.

Like i said, Barry Sanders Mo. so look at that 8.5 yard avg as much as you like. But if that was a true avg maybe you should be wondering why we didn’t give him a Kent Kitzman amount of carries.

You can’t stop Mo, you can only hope to contain him. Illinois did just that.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Illinois in a sense stopped the run by (1) jumping out to a 10 - 0 lead (which is essentially insurmountable in the PJ era, except for the Auburn bowl game) and (2) holding us to only 42 plays and 19:56 TOP.
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Actually, we weren't down 10-0 to Auburn in the bowl game. On our first series, Auburn had an interception but they were held to a field goal for a 3-0 lead. We tied it shortly after. Then, Auburn ran back a kick for a touchdown and a 10-3 lead. Again, we tied it 10-10 shortly after (16 yard TD run by Mo) and we didn't trail for the remainder of the game although Auburn tied it two more times.
 

Some guy said:
You disagree? What game did the defense play worse in the previous 16 games?
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Was replying to your Don't Care comment. Was not a comparably good performance, but the ineptness of the offense definitely impacted it. Fleck said as much himself. Just as we have seen when Gophs do it to others, defenses will tire and breakdown being on the field that amount of time. It’s weird how many posters on the board just can't bring themselves to acknowledge that point, given how many times they have seen the Gophers do exactly the same to other teams.

To your post #30, I agree, it was average.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Was replying to your Don't Care comment. Was not a comparably good performance, but the ineptness of the offense definitely impacted it. Fleck said as much himself. Just as we have seen when Gophs do it to others, defenses will tire and breakdown being on the field that amount of time. It’s weird how many posters on the board just can't bring themselves to acknowledge that point, given how many times they have seen the Gophers do exactly the same to other teams.

To your post #30, I agree, it was average.
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Don’t care about the offense when I said the defense played it’s worst game since Ohio state 2021

Offense certainly could’ve helped the defense. But it still was the worst game by the defense in quite a while.
 

Yah-E said:
I like our odds with AK & Knuth at the helm. Let’s skip TM and focus on future Gophers! TM can be a coach for our QBs while he rests his head, neck, and shoulders.

Ciarocca dummy’s up the playbook, do short passes (ie short curls, slants, tight ends straight up the field, WR screens, etc) so our rookie QBs can actually deliver the ball to our WRs & TEs AND our WRs and TEs can actually catch the ball. Also this way, our OL don’t have to hold their DL too long. Then just feed the shit out of MO!

TM in, we lose
AK or Knuth, we win
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Hot take!
 



Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
As far as giving up explosive plays, Iowa last year!
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That would be the other contender.
Defense gave up 277 total yards.
71 rushing yards
Iowa was 4/12 on third down and 1/1 on 4th down.

I personally think the defense was worse against Illinois than Iowa last year. But I think you could make the case and be reasonable.
 

Some guy said:
That would be the other contender.
Defense gave up 277 total yards.
71 rushing yards
Iowa was 4/12 on third down and 1/1 on 4th down.

I personally think the defense was worse against Illinois than Iowa last year. But I think you could make the case and be reasonable.
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Gophs would have won that game if it wasn't for three plays! Very frustrating to watch!
 

cjbfbp said:
Actually, we weren't down 10-0 to Auburn in the bowl game. On our first series, Auburn had an interception but they were held to a field goal for a 3-0 lead. We tied it shortly after. Then, Auburn ran back a kick for a touchdown and a 10-3 lead. Again, we tied it 10-10 shortly after (16 yard TD run by Mo) and we didn't trail for the remainder of the game although Auburn tied it two more times.
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You are right. I misspoke.
 



Otis said:
I admire your fan love for Mo! He is pretty freaking awesome! However…

Illinois forced Mo to imitate Barry Sanders.

Short gains on most of his 16 carries combined with a 44 yard run and another 21 yard gain. In other words not a typical Mo day where he consistently gains 6.5 yds/carry with no long runs, punishing the defense, moving the chains and keeping the defense fresh. Yeah Mo got 127 yards but we got very few first downs and were horrible on third down conversions.

Like i said, Barry Sanders Mo. so look at that 8.5 yard avg as much as you like. But if that was a true avg maybe you should be wondering why we didn’t give him a Kent Kitzman amount of carries.

You can’t stop Mo, you can only hope to contain him. Illinois did just that.
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You are right. Because so many Mo runs were contained, and we couldn’t pass to save our lives, we couldn’t move the chains. Game over.
 

FWIW:

The Gophers 4 wins are over teams with a combined record of 6-20.

MSU 3-4
N Mex St 2-5
Colo 1-5
W. Ill 0-6

their losses are to
Illinois 6-1
Purdue 5-2

that does NOT mean that the Gophers cannot be a good team. It does mean that the Gophers have not defeated a good team this season.

at some point, if you want to be a good team, you have to defeat another good team.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
FWIW:

The Gophers 4 wins are over teams with a combined record of 6-20.

MSU 3-4
N Mex St 2-5
Colo 1-5
W. Ill 0-6

their losses are to
Illinois 6-1
Purdue 5-2

that does NOT mean that the Gophers cannot be a good team. It does mean that the Gophers have not defeated a good team this season.

at some point, if you want to be a good team, you have to defeat another good team.
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Gonna be tough to know because they could finish 9-3 and not defeat a good team LOL
 

Some guy said:
Don’t care about the offense when I said the defense played it’s worst game since Ohio state 2021

Offense certainly could’ve helped the defense. But it still was the worst game by the defense in quite a while.
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I don't care that you don't care.
 



PMWinSTP said:
I don't care that you don't care.
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You clearly do because you’ve responded to it, twice


“I am going to take the time to respond to a comment I don’t care about twice”
-PMWinSTP
 

Some guy said:
You clearly do because you’ve responded to it, twice


“I am going to take the time to respond to a comment I don’t care about twice”
-PMWinSTP
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Brilliant.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Good one. This defense playing an average game against Illinois should be a very winnable game, no?
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4
Correct.
Defense played well enough to win and the loss is on the offense.
Still was the worst defensive performance in 16 games with the only competition being Iowa game

My take isn’t that controversial and somehow you want to pick a fight even though you don’t care
 

Some guy said:
4
Correct.
Defense played well enough to win and the loss is on the offense.
Still was the worst defensive performance in 16 games with the only competition being Iowa game

My take isn’t that controversial and somehow you want to pick a fight even though you don’t care
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Not picking a fight, I don't care, and have been entertained with the back and forth.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Not picking a fight, I don't care, and have been entertained with the back and forth.
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What game do you think the gophers have played worse on defense in in the last 16?

Any contenders other than Iowa?
 

Some guy said:
What game do you think the gophers have played worse on defense in in the last 16?

Any contenders other than Iowa?
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sometimes, you do have to give the other team some credit. Illinois did things that made the Gophers' defense look bad - or at least not as good as they typically are.

in the end, it's all about matchups, schemes and personnel. if you get the right matchups, with the right schemes and the right personnel, you can make almost any defense look bad at times, and vice versa. find a weakness, and exploit it.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
sometimes, you do have to give the other team some credit. Illinois did things that made the Gophers' defense look bad - or at least not as good as they typically are.

in the end, it's all about matchups, schemes and personnel. if you get the right matchups, with the right schemes and the right personnel, you can make almost any defense look bad at times, and vice versa. find a weakness, and exploit it.
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For sure.
No one else since 2021 Ohio state has been able to do it at that level. That’s nice by Illinois’ offense
 

Yah-E said:
I like our odds with AK & Knuth at the helm. Let’s skip TM and focus on future Gophers! TM can be a coach for our QBs while he rests his head, neck, and shoulders.

Ciarocca dummy’s up the playbook, do short passes (ie short curls, slants, tight ends straight up the field, WR screens, etc) so our rookie QBs can actually deliver the ball to our WRs & TEs AND our WRs and TEs can actually catch the ball. Also this way, our OL don’t have to hold their DL too long. Then just feed the shit out of MO!

TM in, we lose
AK or Knuth, we win
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This is Big Ten Football its not that simple, IMO we don't need to change the playbook its already pretty simple with the RPO game, my worry would be how young QBs handle a hostile enviroment and can they check us into good plays. Yes i don't think Morgan is very good but the advantage of having a veteran QB is checking us into better run plays and correct pass protections.
 

Otis said:
I admire your fan love for Mo! He is pretty freaking awesome! However…

Illinois forced Mo to imitate Barry Sanders.

Short gains on most of his 16 carries combined with a 44 yard run and another 21 yard gain. In other words not a typical Mo day where he consistently gains 6.5 yds/carry with no long runs, punishing the defense, moving the chains and keeping the defense fresh. Yeah Mo got 127 yards but we got very few first downs and were horrible on third down conversions.

Like i said, Barry Sanders Mo. so look at that 8.5 yard avg as much as you like. But if that was a true avg maybe you should be wondering why we didn’t give him a Kent Kitzman amount of carries.

You can’t stop Mo, you can only hope to contain him. Illinois did just that.
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Taking away top runs to deflate an average makes no sense. Why don’t you throw out the shortest runs too? That’s not how football works.

Even if you take away the 44 yard run, he still averaged 5.9 yards per carry.

Take away the 44 and 21, he still averaged a very good 4.76 yards per carry.

Mo is a game changing beast.
 

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