Is it Sanford???

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Gosh, I'd love to see the breakdowns for our personnel groupings. I feel like we're in these dumb condensed sets with 2 TE's 90% of the time.

And did Kieft even play tonight? I don't think I saw him out there. So why go with those heavy sets when you don't have your only true Ass-Kicker Ko Kieft? Gophers best personnel set last year was 3 WR and 1 TE...aka the 11 Personnel
 

Face The Facts said:
I think they've gone Vikings / Zimmer style.

Worried about the defense so offense has to play slow, own time of possession.
Also, O-line is missing some people, so keep things simple. Simple pass protection. Simple run plays.

Try to get a lead and kill the clock.
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That's the way we play and I am totally cool with that. My issue is when it comes to third and short.

Maryland could not stop us unless they stacked the box. They should have lined up in a normal set, if they stacked the box, passed it to one of the wideouts and if they didn't stack the box, they should have ran. It's precisely why I was never annoyed about Ciarrocca not getting the ball to the TE. . . why? Keeping it simple would work against most teams.
 

KoolAid said:
Gosh, I'd love to see the breakdowns for our personnel groupings. I feel like we're in these dumb condensed sets with 2 TE's 90% of the time.

And did Kieft even play tonight? I don't think I saw him out there. So why go with those heavy sets when you don't have your only true Ass-Kicker Ko Kieft? Gophers best personnel set last year was 3 WR and 1 TE...aka the 11 Personnel
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I don't remember seeing him.
In a typical year you would suspect it was for discipline reasons, but this year it could be for having a sore throat.

Or maybe he's got a tweak.
 

They ran on 1st and 2nd down every series of 4th qtr except one. On that one, they got their only 1st down of the qtr. 100% played not to lose. Can’t remember seeing a Fleck team ever be so conservative. I’m not a Sanford fan so far, at all. Want more Simon!!!!!
 
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Fire his no good ass. The guy can't coach and clearly can't read a defense.
 

Sanford was a very questionable hire in my mind at the time, especially in light of how the offense played in the bowl game under Simon alone, but I've been of a mind to give P.J. the benefit of the doubt...at least until it becomes obvious a mistake was made. He himself recognized his mistake hiring Smith, and I'm hopeful he'll come through again when the time is right.
 


The offense went into kill the clock mode a lot last year too except they won a lot of games. Look at how the penn state game ended I believe with 3 straight 3 and outs with hardly any time of possession. They scored 85 points in the fourth quarter of big ten and bowl games. Of those 35 of them can against Rutgers and Maryland. They scored 304 total points in those games with 94 coming against Rutgers and Maryland. They just seem to go into the prevent offense very early in the 4th quarter and can’t seem to get out of it if they need a big conversion.
 





Some Day...Maybe said:
Is that why they’re running all the time? Afraid to pass in the 4th quarter? They have Morgan, Bateman, and Autman Bell!!!!! The play calling seems out of rhythm. Morgan seems frustrated. I’ll call it now, Simon becomes sole full time OC in the next year or two.
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There was definitely a fear of passing, a caution, passing on third down when MD knew it was coming. Did they ever pass on first down? Offense not balanced in either game and doesn't look like that of the last two years. Defense horrible, shades of Salem in '83 and Wacker in the '90s..
 

noamfromm said:
Nathan Boe didn't look great once Ruschmeyer went out.
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Is that actually true? What makes you say this. I did not concentrate on Boe, but I have a feeling he's going to be the starter for at least a couple weeks. Hope Axel is ok.
 



We were capable of scoring points, all game. The problem is not the offense.
 

Face The Facts said:
The offense went into kill the clock mode with the lead because they were scared of our defense.
It's that plain and simple.

Whether that was PJ's call or Sanford's, I don't know.

Also, with CAB, #0, and even Daniel Jackson looking good, how you don't show a bit more balance on first down, I don't know.

Unless if you are scared your O-line can't protect.
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The o line didn’t protect against Michigan
 

MplsGopher said:
Is that actually true? What makes you say this. I did not concentrate on Boe, but I have a feeling he's going to be the starter for at least a couple weeks. Hope Axel is ok.
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He missed a couple blocks and got pushed around on the line of scrimmage, though he did have a key block on one of Mo's runs. To the bolded part, it seems like in some of your responses you question the validity of the poster while also admitting you weren't paying attention to the topic at hand.
 

noamfromm said:
He missed a couple blocks and got pushed around on the line of scrimmage, though he did have a key block on one of Mo's runs. To the bolded part, it seems like in some of your responses you question the validity of the poster while also admitting you weren't paying attention to the topic at hand.
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How do you differentiate from a "genuine" question, vs. a "questioning the validity" question?

My post was a genuine question. I just wanted to hear your reasons for saying it. You've shared them now, and I believe you.
 

MplsGopher said:
We were capable of scoring points, all game. The problem is not the offense.
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Except we weren't capable of scoring points all game as evidenced by the 0 on the board in the 4th quarter when Maryland made their comeback. Obviously the defense was the major problem in this one but the offense failed to even sustain a drive at the biggest point of the game allowing Maryland to make the comeback.

Last night actually gave me flashbacks to the Mason years. Offense looked great until it suddenly didn't and things just fell apart leading to the team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Bottom line though, if we lose and Morgan only attempts 15 passes then the offensive coaches messed up. Morgan makes great decisions with the ball, let him put it in the air safely as opposed to just turning and handing it to Mo over and over and over and over and over again.

Against Michigan we were afraid to take a shot downfield, and against Maryland they were begging us to throw and we wouldn't.

We don't need an air raid offense chucking it all over the field. But turn Morgan loose and let him do what he did last year when the offense was dominating teams. We have too many weapons on offense to get shut down for an entire quarter by a team like Maryland. That just shouldn't happen.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
The offense went into kill the clock mode a lot last year too except they won a lot of games. Look at how the penn state game ended I believe with 3 straight 3 and outs with hardly any time of possession. They scored 85 points in the fourth quarter of big ten and bowl games. Of those 35 of them can against Rutgers and Maryland. They scored 304 total points in those games with 94 coming against Rutgers and Maryland. They just seem to go into the prevent offense very early in the 4th quarter and can’t seem to get out of it if they need a big conversion.
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Correct. I thought we would have learned our lesson, but apparently not.

We went conservative against Iowa, end of Penn State, punting at Wisconsin 37.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Except we weren't capable of scoring points all game as evidenced by the 0 on the board in the 4th quarter when Maryland made their comeback. Obviously the defense was the major problem in this one but the offense failed to even sustain a drive at the biggest point of the game allowing Maryland to make the comeback.

Last night actually gave me flashbacks to the Mason years. Offense looked great until it suddenly didn't and things just fell apart leading to the team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Bottom line though, if we lose and Morgan only attempts 15 passes then the offensive coaches messed up. Morgan makes great decisions with the ball, let him put it in the air safely as opposed to just turning and handing it to Mo over and over and over and over and over again.

Against Michigan we were afraid to take a shot downfield, and against Maryland they were begging us to throw and we wouldn't.

We don't need an air raid offense chucking it all over the field. But turn Morgan loose and let him do what he did last year when the offense was dominating teams. We have too many weapons on offense to get shut down for an entire quarter by a team like Maryland. That just shouldn't happen.
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nah let's run 50 times instead.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Except we weren't capable of scoring points all game as evidenced by the 0 on the board in the 4th quarter when Maryland made their comeback. Obviously the defense was the major problem in this one but the offense failed to even sustain a drive at the biggest point of the game allowing Maryland to make the comeback.

Last night actually gave me flashbacks to the Mason years. Offense looked great until it suddenly didn't and things just fell apart leading to the team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Bottom line though, if we lose and Morgan only attempts 15 passes then the offensive coaches messed up. Morgan makes great decisions with the ball, let him put it in the air safely as opposed to just turning and handing it to Mo over and over and over and over and over again.

Against Michigan we were afraid to take a shot downfield, and against Maryland they were begging us to throw and we wouldn't.

We don't need an air raid offense chucking it all over the field. But turn Morgan loose and let him do what he did last year when the offense was dominating teams. We have too many weapons on offense to get shut down for an entire quarter by a team like Maryland. That just shouldn't happen.
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Good points. I guess I tend to think more of scheme and personnel, when people are really critiquing the play calling.

But either way, we went right back to converting a TD in the OT.

So it makes me think they just wanted (maybe a team decision by Fleck, Sanford, and Simon?) to grind it out with the lead?
 

No screen passes, no jet sweeps, no reverses or any type of counter or boot action. MD sold out on the run in the 4th Q and we never made them pay by exploiting that. That’s coaching. That’s strategy. That’s football. Our O strategy late really hurt us and that’s all on Fleck. We know the D is bad, but the O doesn’t have to be. That was a choice.
 

MplsGopher said:
Good points. I guess I tend to think more of scheme and personnel, when people are really critiquing the play calling.

But either way, we went right back to converting a TD in the OT.

So it makes me think they just wanted (maybe a team decision by Fleck, Sanford, and Simon?) to grind it out with the lead?
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Grinding it out is not a bad strategy with a 17 point lead the problem is you still have to be somewhat productive and move the ball. 11 plays for 17 yards with just 1 first down isn't going to get it done. One or two more first downs and there is no way Maryland comes all the way back even if we don't score a single point. Short quick hitting passes, make them pay for stacking the line of scrimmage.

4th quarter series
Run - Run - Pass - Punt
Run - Run - Sack - Punt
Run - Pass (only first down) - Run - Run - Run - Punt
 

I think this is PJ insiting on bleeding the clock. I'm seeing flashbacks to Mason in the fourth quarter. When a team sells out to stop the run you need to pass early to loose them up. Mason didn't do that and I'm seeing that in PJ in the fourth quarter with a lead.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Grinding it out is not a bad strategy with a 17 point lead the problem is you still have to be somewhat productive and move the ball. 11 plays for 17 yards with just 1 first down isn't going to get it done. One or two more first downs and there is no way Maryland comes all the way back even if we don't score a single point. Short quick hitting passes, make them pay for stacking the line of scrimmage.

4th quarter series
Run - Run - Pass - Punt
Run - Run - Sack - Punt
Run - Pass (only first down) - Run - Run - Run - Punt
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When you frame it that way, it does seem rather blatant of an error.
 

MplsGopher said:
We were capable of scoring points, all game. The problem is not the offense.
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I agree with you overall, the problem is we knew going into the game that our D was bad. And we definitely knew at halftime that the offense had to win the game for us. There was no reason to take our foot off the gas in the 4th. Sure we can let the play clock burn a little more between plays, but you should still be throwing the ball on 1st or 2nd down if the defense is giving you that. And obviously the third down play calling was questionable. We went into a 4-minute offense with 12 minutes to play.

I think these guys are aware enough to make those changes on offense going forward where that won't happen again. We have a very talented offense.

The defense is a different story. If this is how we look all year are we thinking about a DC change? I just don't know how much better it can get. It's a shootout year.
 
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While the defense is far from good, they did manage to hold Maryland without a score for 2 straight quarters. Then in the fourth when the defense needed some help, the offense did nothing. Primarily, IMO, because Sanford had used up Ibrahim. 40 runs in a game is far too many. If Ibrahim had run 20-22 times in the first three quarters he could have run more "effectively" for" 6-8 times in the fourth.

By the time Ibrahim had run 20 times I was thinking they had to use the other rb's or go to the pass. And that is what Sanford should have done.
 


It's also disappointing that for how bad the defense was, and how questionable the play-calling was early in the 4th, we had the ball and a chance to drive down to win the game when it was tied up at 38. Looking back on that is ridiculous. I really don't know how we don't win that game. So brutal. That Maryland defense is bad.
 

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