Indiana stopping the Gophers

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It sounds like Vegas thinks the Hoosiers have "the" plan and you can already score this a W. 9 1/2 points is huge and a bit insulting. That aside, perhaps the oddsmakers think we'll have a letdown.

In order to stop the Gophers - prepare for our bi-polar offense. The hot-hand will get the call at QB.

Defense - Much more than just Hageman. LB play improving each week.

My prediction for the Hoosiers: PAIN!
 


Rescooter said:
It sounds like Vegas thinks the Hoosiers have "the" plan and you can already score this a W. 9 1/2 points is huge and a bit insulting. That aside, perhaps the oddsmakers think we'll have a letdown.

In order to stop the Gophers - prepare for our bi-polar offense. The hot-hand will get the call at QB.

Defense - Much more than just Hageman. LB play improving each week.

My prediction for the Hoosiers: PAIN!
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LOL! You're darn right! I loved this! :clap: :clap: :clap:
 

I would not be upset at all if ML started again. I think if we get some ground and pound out of him and get a couple early TD's that might be the recipe for success.
 


It is not going to be easy, but keeping their high scoring offense off the field AND shutting them down quickly when they have the ball will be the key to victory. I am talking SJSU in the third quarter type of shutting down. If we even give them a fraction of the chance we gave Nebraska, I think they burn us.

Our offense cannot come out sleeping in this game. Take every second off of the clock, and produce point every time we have the ball. I am no football expert, but I think keeping all the motion in the game plan like we did last week will be huge since IU still doesn't know what defense means
 

I love the dynamic that Leidner would give us in this game. I just hope that if we do ask him to drop back and pass, that he passes the damn ball and doesn't tuck it and run for a 2 yard gain after seeing his first option is covered.
 

Rescooter said:
It sounds like Vegas thinks the Hoosiers have "the" plan and you can already score this a W. 9 1/2 points is huge and a bit insulting. That aside, perhaps the oddsmakers think we'll have a letdown.

In order to stop the Gophers - prepare for our bi-polar offense. The hot-hand will get the call at QB.

Defense - Much more than just Hageman. LB play improving each week.

My prediction for the Hoosiers: PAIN!
Click to expand...

 

Rescooter said:
It sounds like Vegas thinks the Hoosiers have "the" plan and you can already score this a W. 9 1/2 points is huge and a bit insulting. That aside, perhaps the oddsmakers think we'll have a letdown.

In order to stop the Gophers - prepare for our bi-polar offense. The hot-hand will get the call at QB.

Defense - Much more than just Hageman. LB play improving each week.

My prediction for the Hoosiers: PAIN!
Click to expand...

A bit off topic, but against IU I do not see our LB's playing too much. Obviously we will have 1 or 2 on the field, but this will not be like the Nebraska game where the LB unit is on the field all that much.

It will be interesting to see if Claeys incorporates the 3-1-7 defensive look that they gave to SJSU for a good portion of the 2nd half. If Derrick Wells is healthy, we have 9 DB's who have rotated in and seen significant time. 10 if you count M. Jones, but he has not played on D in about a month or so.

Vareen
Murray
Johnson
Thompson
Travis
Levine
Shabazz
Baltazar
Wells
 



Nate said:
Prediction - pain.wmv
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See, when I think of the Indiana game I just think of this video, but when Daniel Day Lewis says "Draiiiiiiiiiinage" I just imagine him saying "Balllllllllll control! Indy, ball control!"


"If you have a football, and I have a football, and my halfback gains 4.5 yards per carry, I CONTROL YOUR FOOTBALL INDY!"
 


afurry91 said:
I love the dynamic that Leidner would give us in this game. I just hope that if we do ask him to drop back and pass, that he passes the damn ball and doesn't tuck it and run for a 2 yard gain after seeing his first option is covered.
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It is going to be interesting what 'direction' we go with our offensive game plan. Do we see an offense with multiple movements and shifts like last week (albeit, still heavily run orientated), or, do we see a line-up and run straight down hill like v. SJSU?
 

e.bigelow said:
It is going to be interesting what 'direction' we go with our offensive game plan. Do we see an offense with multiple movements and shifts like last week (albeit, still heavily run orientated), or, do we see a line-up and run straight down hill like v. SJSU?
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It would seem to me that you don't go away from what worked last week. Shift guys around, but ultimately end up back in your typical power-running formations. 4 yards in a could of dust with some efficient, down the field play action worked into the game. Nelson showed some promise throwing the football against Nebraska. If that continues, this offense could be tough for Indiana (and maybe Penn State) to handle.
 



e.bigelow said:
It is going to be interesting what 'direction' we go with our offensive game plan. Do we see an offense with multiple movements and shifts like last week (albeit, still heavily run orientated), or, do we see a line-up and run straight down hill like v. SJSU?
Click to expand...

Interesting discussion - perhaps we'll see more of the "Golden I".

I really liked their option, but Indiana's defense is a different animal. I think we grind it out between the tackles, until the screens open up.
 

We need to keep pouring it on. We shouldn't take much out of the gameplan and I hope we see more things this week that we haven't seen before. Keep expanding our menu of plays a bit each week it'll make us overall tougher to defend. That said, I think as long as we don't have things like the two drops and the Nelson misfire we had in this past game we'll be OK. We can't afford to miss opportunities late in the game as it'll eventually catch up to us.
 


I fully expect on offense that do what we do, run hard and up the middle. If NE with 9 in the box couldn't stop us IU has no chance. It will come down to turnovers...we don't and they are in trouble.

On defense we will see what Claeys rolled out in the second half against NE. Dime package, corner blitz, zone blitz from the LBs and four man rushes under control. I agree with the posters that lots of screens/draws could slow down our pass rush, so safety and LB tackling will be very important to allow us to keep pressuring the ball.

3 Key stats:

Turnover Margin - We must be plus 1 or 2
Time of Possession - Anything under 40 minutes and we are in trouble
Red Zone Offense (80% TD) - We must score touchdowns not field goals and at least 4 of them to win.

Key Players for Gophers:

QBs - I think both will play and must play well. IU is going to do everything they can to force our QBs to beat them on the ground and in the air. Time for these two to step up with a huge game. Move chains. Also manage game, snap at 5 seconds or less, keep in bounds, complete passes, no turnovers or penalties.

Cedric Thompson - He is the key to making our defense work against a team like this. He has to make takles, come up with big plays and pick off a pass or cause a fumble.

D-Line - Stats wont necessary tell the tale here...they must contain the IU QBs and stop the run when they do. If IU gets multi-dimensional it could spell doom. If we can get IU in 3rd and long and use our pass rush to force plays, we get turnovers and punts. If its 3 and 3, they become so much tougher to defend.
 

I think needing 40 minutes of possession is a stretch - I could go with 35-37 and still feel OK. Michigan has had the best TOP against Indiana at 38 minutes this year, 40 would mean we're throttling them IMO (because their defense would be absolutely gassed, and their offense wouldn't be on the field enough to score more than 17-24 points).
 

Gopher07 said:
I think needing 40 minutes of possession is a stretch - I could go with 35-37 and still feel OK. Michigan has had the best TOP against Indiana at 38 minutes this year, 40 would mean we're throttling them IMO (because their defense would be absolutely gassed, and their offense wouldn't be on the field enough to score more than 17-24 points).
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The difference is scUM wasn't focusing on time of possession. They just had that much offense against IU. We will use the clock as a weapon - snap the ball under 5 seconds and focus on running clock whenever possible. If we execute our offense and run with a 5+ yard average, we can absolutely hold the ball for 40 minutes.

Plus I don't think our D is going to slow down their attack...they could average under 3 minutes per scoring drive against us. That said, if they score more than 24 points, I don't think we win. So we are not in disagreement.
 

"Hageman and Cockran will both be playing on Sunday’s for many years"

that is generous for Theiren, what do you guys think, it would be awsome if that turns out true
 



die hard gopher said:
"Hageman and Cockran will both be playing on Sunday’s for many years"

that is generous for Theiren, what do you guys think, it would be awsome if that turns out true
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He has two more years. He's improved a good amount since last year. If he continues that, he could be one of the top DE in the conference.
 

die hard gopher said:
"Hageman and Cockran will both be playing on Sunday’s for many years"

that is generous for Theiren, what do you guys think, it would be awsome if that turns out true
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If Cockran can continue to add size without losing speed and he can improve his technique...he has a good shot.
 

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