How huge would this game be if we had beat Illinois?

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Man, that would have been sweet. We were so fricking close.

I say this would have been the craziest Gopher game since That Michigan Game.

Discuss.
 




corcoran1 said:
We didn't
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And we played North Carolina at home or some other cupcake instead of TCU.
 



Well let's put it this way. If we win out, we'll be talking about how we were one fumble away from playoff consideration. That's kinda mind boggling. Which gets back to a point brought up on this board before. It's not out of the question that one fumble, one turnover, one big penalty, one dropped pass, in the middle of a season, could have HUGE implications for a team. Which is why I really like Coach Kill. He's very aware of how one mistake can cost a game, a season, a championship, several recruits, etc. He really seems to know and focus on what's critically important in football. It's not about flash or showmanship. It's discipline and concentration.
 



What if OSU hadn't lost to the Hokies, or what if they had to PSU?
College football is never predictable, and there are always strange upsets, even with the best teams.
 

Our goal is to win the division at this point. We must beat Nebraska and Wisconsin and we are west champs. the game on Saturday is a Bowl position game.
 

Could you imagine if Minnesota had beaten Illinois and TCU? It would've been just like if Minnesota had beaten Michigan and Iowa last year before hosting Wisconsin!
 

Imagine if we would have had a decent Passing Game against WI and MSU last season. Or if we had any Defense against Michigan in the 4th Quarter in 2003? Or if the f-ing blind refs had called half the holding calls committed by Purdue in '99. Or if a coach had told the punter to take the safety if he had trouble with the snap against Wisconsin in 2005? Or if Santoso missed that 52 yarder against Purdue?

No, strike that last one.

You're right about Illinois Replacement, we've just had way to many "what ifs".
 



Not sure it we would've seen 51-14 vs. Iowa if we had beaten Illinois. I think the team had lost their chip on their shoulder a bit after Michigan. Didn't play great vs. NW, Purdue, or Illinois. Sometimes it takes an kick in the gut, not just a close call, to wake a team up. Coaches can preach that we need to show up to beat anyone, but it's really hard to actually convince the players of it sometimes.

I think we're better now because of the Illinois loss. It also gives the staff a game to look back at for the next 4 years of guys that remember that game and how poorly we played and that anything can happen on any given Saturday.

With Iowa being a rivalry game, I'm confident we would have been up for it and ready to go, but I don't believe we put the beatdown on them like we did. That was a different team, a pissed off and very confident team, that we saw last Saturday. I'll take some more of that, please!!
 

The excitement would be even less had Wisconsin not lost to Northwestern. Because of that game and others, we still hold a key to winning the division.
 

Iceland12 said:
Imagine if we would have had a decent Passing Game against WI and MSU last season. Or if we had any Defense against Michigan in the 4th Quarter in 2003? Or if the f-ing blind refs had called half the holding calls committed by Purdue in '99. Or if a coach had told the punter to take the safety if he had trouble with the snap against Wisconsin in 2005? Or if Santoso missed that 52 yarder against Purdue?

No, strike that last one.

You're right about Illinois Replacement, we've just had way to many "what ifs".
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Thing I hate about these what if scenarios is that people only point out the ones that would make the season even better but don't factor in that a small tweak the other way and things could look totally different. For example, what if Santoso misses the field goal against Purdue, what if Myrick doesn't return the kick for a TD.....it goes both ways and every team can throw out a million different scenarios.

So while it is fun to speculate on how close we could be to being undefeated at this point it is also worth keeping in the back of your mind that we could also very easily be sitting far closer to .500.

Great scene from Mighty Ducks where Coach Bombay is talking to Charlie about missing the game winning shot and he says something to the effect of "1/4 inch" the other way and we would have won, to which Charlie responds yeah but a 1/4 inch the other way and you would have missed everything.....
 

I like 7-2, still in the hunt for a B1G crown and ranked in the top 25 in November for the first time in a decade. Could care less about the what ifs when the what is is so freaking awesome!
 


RunGopherRun said:
Not sure it we would've seen 51-14 vs. Iowa if we had beaten Illinois. I think the team had lost their chip on their shoulder a bit after Michigan. Didn't play great vs. NW, Purdue, or Illinois. Sometimes it takes an kick in the gut, not just a close call, to wake a team up. Coaches can preach that we need to show up to beat anyone, but it's really hard to actually convince the players of it sometimes.

I think we're better now because of the Illinois loss. It also gives the staff a game to look back at for the next 4 years of guys that remember that game and how poorly we played and that anything can happen on any given Saturday.

With Iowa being a rivalry game, I'm confident we would have been up for it and ready to go, but I don't believe we put the beatdown on them like we did. That was a different team, a pissed off and very confident team, that we saw last Saturday. I'll take some more of that, please!!
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Great post. Very much agree. However, it is still so hard for me to let the Illinois game go. For better or worse, I always think about the what ifs.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Man, that would have been sweet. We were so fricking close.

I say this would have been the craziest Gopher game since That Michigan Game.

Discuss.
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Good point, but it might have led to overconfidence. No doubt the media would have made this a HUGE event, the biggest game for MN, as you say, since Michigan in '03. Needless to say, even losing the last three, we should have won at Illinois and would be much better off if it had happened.
 

We're better off with the IL loss ..... It's a brick. Part of the learning curve... How to handle winning etc.... Didn't want it but part of growth....
 

MNVCGUY said:
Thing I hate about these what if scenarios is that people only point out the ones that would make the season even better but don't factor in that a small tweak the other way and things could look totally different. For example, what if Santoso misses the field goal against Purdue, what if Myrick doesn't return the kick for a TD.....it goes both ways and every team can throw out a million different scenarios.

So while it is fun to speculate on how close we could be to being undefeated at this point it is also worth keeping in the back of your mind that we could also very easily be sitting far closer to .500.

Great scene from Mighty Ducks where Coach Bombay is talking to Charlie about missing the game winning shot and he says something to the effect of "1/4 inch" the other way and we would have won, to which Charlie responds yeah but a 1/4 inch the other way and you would have missed everything.....
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Your Mighty Ducks quote is spot on. I can't stand it when we play the "what if" game, and the "what if" turns out to be "what if everything that has gone wrong, had instead not gone wrong, but at the same time, everything that went right stayed the same?" Lot's of teams had great years in that scenario.
 


GopherinPhilly said:
I like 7-2, still in the hunt for a B1G crown and ranked in the top 25 in November for the first time in a decade. Could care less about the what ifs when the what is is so freaking awesome!
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Ranked in November for the first time since last year.
 


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