Hard Nosed Gophers Present Challenge On The Ground

[Iceland12]

Maybe this should have gone in the "Cobb up the middle" thread?

“They do what they do,” Purdue defensive coordinator Greg Hudson said of what makes Minnesota’s rushing attack successful. “They’re not afraid to call the same play two, three, four times in a row. We’re going to get our oil checked playing run defense.”

Cobb has gotten touches on about 43 percent of the Gophers’ snaps, which goes hand-in-hand with Minnesota’s more one-dimensional offense (73 percent running plays).

“They have a good back. They have a lot of experience on the left side of the line,” senior safety Landon Feichter said of the Gophers. “They’re just a physical, power-nosed football team.”

Quarterback Mitch Leidner hasn’t thrown a large volume of passes for Minnesota, probably a correlation to the Golden Gophers holding leads and not having to throw the ball to win. In the one game they did need to pass (a 30-7 loss to TCU), Leidner completed less than 50 percent of his passes and threw three interceptions.

“They do some play-action passes and some bootlegs, a few screens. So they try to keep you off balance a little bit,” said Feichter. “If we could limit Minnesota to passing the ball, I think that would be in our favor.”

“They have a bunch (of formations) – I, weak and strong I, they got one back with the fullback and the second tight end motioning everywhere,” Hudson said. “It’s a pro formation offense, a lot of what you see on Sundays. They’re good at it.”

All things considered, Hudson thinks that the unit will be able to hold tough against the Gophers..

http://www.purdueexponent.org/sports/article_0968ceff-6199-5736-8e13-7e0d0e2f791e.html

 

[jaymil]

“There’s some things that they give you in the passing game that you can take advantage of, and we better understand where those things are.”

Expect Purdue to try and dink and dunk their way down the field.

 

[killme]

“There’s some things that they give you in the passing game that you can take advantage of, and we better understand where those things are.”

Expect Purdue to try and dink and dunk their way down the field.

I can't remember now what they did against MSU, but I hope they dink and dunk because it forces an inexperienced QB to make too many plays per drive and I think that bodes well for us.

Their HC was almost a little too confident in his remarks for my liking. I know he has to project that, but I think he thinks he's going to win in the trenches on both sides of the ball. JK has said their OL is a strength. If we want more than just powder puff wins, we have to figure out how to handle mismatches. Edge: Gopher coaching staff.

 

[MNGoldenGophers1]

I would not want to play chess with Claeys especially all things being equal talent-wise. He'll almost always figure out what the offense is doing and make the necessary adjustments to stop it. It is for this reason I never panic anymore when the opposing team scores first. Claeys always seems to figure it and more often than not, the Gophers shut it down.

Last week NW appeared to a good job of switching things up offensively throughout the game to keep our defense guessing a bit thereby keeping it close. Unless they can execute a limited offensive game plan almost to perfection, I think Purdue will have to change things up as the game goes on to have a chance.

Of course, TO's, penalties, and field position will be significant factors too. Barring major mistakes going against us, I think our defense is just too good and our offense will do just enough to win.