Illinois Game Positives

[Gophergrandpa]

So much was awful in the Illinois game—38 yards passing, only 4 yards to WRs, a defense that both bent and broke—that it seems Pollyana-ish to look for positives. But there were a few.

First, Quentin Redding, RFrosh, 5-7 155 lb KO return man breaking off a big one. For so long the Gophers have simply fair caught everything, KOs and punts. Playing “not to lose.” With Quentin, it looks as though our STs might now again be playing to win. That is great.

Second, Mo. We ran so few offensive plays and fell far enough behind (forcing us toward a futile passing game) that Mo’s contribution faded. But 15 runs for an 8.5 yard average against the nation’s best defense is very positive … esp. for a RB coming off an ankle injury. Mo sliced through the Illini on several plays. But with a TOP of 19:56, we just ran way too few plays in the game.

Third, Safety Tyler Nubin. He had a great game. He was all over the field. His intensity level, speed and IQ are really special.

Too bad all these good things are masked by the worst passing performance I have ever seen by a Gopher team. Worse than in the Bowling Green game. Much worse than in the Illinois game last year. Significantly worse than the awful passing game of the Colorado offense against us in 2021. Such is life.

 

[RememberMurray]

So much was awful in the Illinois game—38 yards passing, only 4 yards to WRs, a defense that both bent and broke—that it seems Pollyana-ish to look for positives. But there were a few.

First, Quentin Redding, RFrosh, 5-7 155 lb KO return man breaking off a big one. For so long the Gophers have simply fair caught everything, KOs and punts. Playing “not to lose.” With Quentin, it looks as though our STs might now again be playing to win. That is great.

Second, Mo. We ran so few offensive plays and fell far enough behind (forcing us toward a futile passing game) that Mo’s contribution faded. But 15 runs for an 8.5 yard average against the nation’s best defense is very positive … esp. for a RB coming off an ankle injury. Mo sliced through the Illini on several plays. But with a TOP of 19:56, we just ran way too few plays in the game.

Third, Safety Tyler Nubin. He had a great game. He was all over the field. His intensity level, speed and IQ are really special.

Too bad all these good things are masked by the worst passing performance I have ever seen by a Gopher team. Worse than in the Bowling Green game. Much worse than in the Illinois game last year. Significantly worse than the awful passing game of the Colorado offense against us in 2021. Such is life.

Those are really good points.

It is almost unbelievable that Mo could be as productive as he was against a defense that is statistically among the best in the country — especially when we had no passing game at all to balance things. And Tyler Nubin was everywhere, all the time.

I felt coming into 2022 that our toughest competition in the West would not be Iowa and Wisconsin (the traditional West powers) but instead be Purdue (who was 9-4 in 2021) and Illinois (who was the only team to physically dominate the Gophers in 2021).

We could have, and maybe should have, beaten Purdue. That was a close, hard-fought game.

But, Illinois? An entirely different matter. The Illini clearly were, and are, the better team. More talent. Better coaching.

THAT is discouraging. I really thought it was our turn.

The West division appears to have been flipped upside-down, almost. Right now it is pretty apparent that we are third in the Top Three: Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota — in that order.

This game Saturday against Penn State will be telling. Two teams who formerly had high hopes but who now stand bloodied. How will the Gopher coaches and players respond?

 

[NotAFanOfBecky]

“The West division appears to have been flipped upside-down, almost. Right now it is pretty apparent that we are third in the Top Three: Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota — in that order.“

I think that Iowa might have something to say about that. They played Illinois tough, Minnesota not so much. Unfortunately, I don’t know if we come in 3rd. Man, it pains me to say that.

 

[RememberMurray]

“The West division appears to have been flipped upside-down, almost. Right now it is pretty apparent that we are third in the Top Three: Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota — in that order.“

I think that Iowa might have something to say about that. They played Illinois tough, Minnesota not so much. Unfortunately, I don’t know if we come in 3rd. Man, it pains me to say that.

Illinois was forced to play their backup QB for most of their game against Iowa. There is a big drop-off in that situation.

It's hard to believe now, looking back, but Minnesota actually had a (brief) lead against Illinois in the second half, and that was with DeVito at QB for the Illini. Perhaps a bit flukey, but it happened.

 

[Governor Sibley]

Nubin = NFL

 

[FullBanana]

Fourth: Goldy didn’t have to do too many push-ups.

 

[Panthadad2]

So much was awful in the Illinois game—38 yards passing, only 4 yards to WRs, a defense that both bent and broke—that it seems Pollyana-ish to look for positives. But there were a few.

First, Quentin Redding, RFrosh, 5-7 155 lb KO return man breaking off a big one. For so long the Gophers have simply fair caught everything, KOs and punts. Playing “not to lose.” With Quentin, it looks as though our STs might now again be playing to win. That is great.

Second, Mo. We ran so few offensive plays and fell far enough behind (forcing us toward a futile passing game) that Mo’s contribution faded. But 15 runs for an 8.5 yard average against the nation’s best defense is very positive … esp. for a RB coming off an ankle injury. Mo sliced through the Illini on several plays. But with a TOP of 19:56, we just ran way too few plays in the game.

Third, Safety Tyler Nubin. He had a great game. He was all over the field. His intensity level, speed and IQ are really special.

Too bad all these good things are masked by the worst passing performance I have ever seen by a Gopher team. Worse than in the Bowling Green game. Much worse than in the Illinois game last year. Significantly worse than the awful passing game of the Colorado offense against us in 2021. Such is life.

Illinois, like Purdue, blitzed 6 on 5 blockers or 7 on 6 often, then played aggressive man to man with the DBs. If the RB was able to get past the first defender, which Mo usually does, he's got a nice gain. It's really a shame the pass game wasn't working to compliment Mo's ability to exploit that defense.

 

[RogueGopher]

-Gophers first team to score a TD on Illinois at home, scored 2.
-BSF had a nice basketball rebound catch over an Illinois player.
-Our best players played well besides TM, who is really at the mercy of the WR who couldn't get separation. Mo, JMS, BSF, Tyler Nubin, TTime. Although TM had a nice TD run.

A lot of credit to Illinois, I underestimated them, they are damn good team at their best.

 

[Gold Rush]

Finding positives is certainly tough after the last couple games but if anything they provided coaches and fans a spot on vision of where we are at as a program and as a team. We are NOT an elite team going to a New Year's bowl, we are NOT a team that will win the Big Ten West and if they play like they have they may not even make a bowl game. Our offense has to be able to take advantage of teams stuffing the box to stop the run because they will see this the rest of the season. This means our receivers have got to find ways to get open and heaven forbid catch the damn ball when it is in their hands, too. Our defense has got to get better at defending both the run and pass. They have got a tough game vs. Penn St. this week and I imagine they will get hammered by 3 TD's but after that the schedule gets a little easier for them.

Gopher coaches have to get a little better at coaching this team, too. Fleck was outclassed by Bielema and was simply outcoached, just as he was outcoached the week before vs. Purdue. They need to rally the troops and try to save the season or the wheels could fall off the cart. Funny, it is a lot easier to go from the top to the bottom than from the bottom to the top.

We aren't where we want to be or need to be.

 

[Dances With Gophers]

 

[Willwin40]

I thought Joyner looked like he could be good. I’d like to see him get more playing time.