Keys to Beating Indiana

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Gold Rush

Gold Rush

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Indiana has really struggled this year and they are down to their third string QB, but keep in mind this was a team that finished 9-3 last year and was ranked #17 pre-season so you know they have some talented athletes on both sides of the ball. They were ripped apart by Rutgers last week, but coach Tom Allen should get them playing harder and better this week on Senior Day in Indiana.

- The Gophers need to hit them hard right away and get off to a good start. Hit them in the mouth as hard as you can and it will take out some of the fight. You jut might get them to fold if they feel they are in for a war against a superior opponent. If Indiana hangs around and keeps it close you will get a team that gains confidence and starts playing like it's their Super Bowl.

- The Gophers need to respect Indiana just like they SHOULD have respected Bowling Green and Illinois. They have the superior talent, but they have proved -twice- they can lose to the worst teams in the country if they do not play hard and play focused. No "let's run up the middle 40 times because we are so much better than they are" game planning. I want to see a game plan like they showed vs. Iowa. Mix it up with some balance.

- The Gophers need to play like it is their toughest game of the season because it is the only game that matters right now and quite frankly, we really need this one. They should be angry at what happened the last couple weeks vs. Illinois and Iowa but not demoralized because we are better than that and if we play hard and stay focused the entire game we will win. Just as the Hoosiers will benefit and gain confidence if they can jump out early, I think the Gophers could use a little shot of confidence, too. That big, experienced offensive line needs to take control of this game and dominate like everyone knows they can. No more excuses or finding who is to blame for the team's shortcomings.

Let's go get it - and then we can talk about Wisconsin.
 



Gold Rush said:
Indiana has really struggled this year and they are down to their third string QB, but keep in mind this was a team that finished 9-3 last year and was ranked #17 pre-season so you know they have some talented athletes on both sides of the ball. They were ripped apart by Rutgers last week, but coach Tom Allen should get them playing harder and better this week on Senior Day in Indiana.

- The Gophers need to hit them hard right away and get off to a good start. Hit them in the mouth as hard as you can and it will take out some of the fight. You jut might get them to fold if they feel they are in for a war against a superior opponent. If Indiana hangs around and keeps it close you will get a team that gains confidence and starts playing like it's their Super Bowl.

- The Gophers need to respect Indiana just like they SHOULD have respected Bowling Green and Illinois. They have the superior talent, but they have proved -twice- they can lose to the worst teams in the country if they do not play hard and play focused. No "let's run up the middle 40 times because we are so much better than they are" game planning. I want to see a game plan like they showed vs. Iowa. Mix it up with some balance.

- The Gophers need to play like it is their toughest game of the season because it is the only game that matters right now and quite frankly, we really need this one. They should be angry at what happened the last couple weeks vs. Illinois and Iowa but not demoralized because we are better than that and if we play hard and stay focused the entire game we will win. Just as the Hoosiers will benefit and gain confidence if they can jump out early, I think the Gophers could use a little shot of confidence, too. That big, experienced offensive line needs to take control of this game and dominate like everyone knows they can. No more excuses or finding who is to blame for the team's shortcomings.

Let's go get it - and then we can talk about Wisconsin.
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Fast start is always key with our team. When they get out front they can suffocate a team with the running game. When playing from behind we really struggle.

My only quibble with your post is that I don't think they overlooked Illinois. There may have been a little bit of a trap game aspect there, but Illinois has proven to be a difficult opponent for a number of teams.
 

Quite simply:

- don't "Bowling Green" it
- don't "Illinois" it


Literally don't do those. You win.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Fast start is always key with our team. When they get out front they can suffocate a team with the running game. When playing from behind we really struggle.

My only quibble with your post is that I don't think they overlooked Illinois. There may have been a little bit of a trap game aspect there, but Illinois has proven to be a difficult opponent for a number of teams.
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UGH!!! Illinois was an ugly game, for sure. I thought the play calling was poor in that one. Their might have been "trap game" looking ahead to Iowa -- but they were favored by 2 TD's and you simply have got to put those in the win column!!
 

Gold Rush said:
UGH!!! Illinois was an ugly game, for sure. I thought the play calling was poor in that one. Their might have been "trap game" looking ahead to Iowa -- but they were favored by 2 TD's and you simply have got to put those in the win column!!
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Agree that is a game you need to win but I just don't look at Illinois and BG the same. Losing to BG was a massive disappointment and should not have happened. I put a ton of blame for that one on the coaches.

Losing to Illinois was frustrating but they have shown they can be pesky this year. Interesting nugget with Illinois is that since week 4, neither team in any of their games has managed to top 25 points. They have played a lot of low scoring close games with the exception of Wisconsin when the Illinois offense got destroyed and couldn't do anything at all. They are not a great team by any stretch of the imagination but they are also not a bad team.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Agree that is a game you need to win but I just don't look at Illinois and BG the same. Losing to BG was a massive disappointment and should not have happened. I put a ton of blame for that one on the coaches.

Losing to Illinois was frustrating but they have shown they can be pesky this year. Interesting nugget with Illinois is that since week 4, neither team in any of their games has managed to top 25 points. They have played a lot of low scoring close games with the exception of Wisconsin when the Illinois offense got destroyed and couldn't do anything at all. They are not a great team by any stretch of the imagination but they are also not a bad team.
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I will buy that. Their defense did a great job of faking blitzes from all over the place. Morgan would be running all over the place trying to change the offense, then they would come in from somewhere else. You have to recognize this and realize this is not working. We had a great video analysis from Ryan Burns showing we were running plays that had little to no chance of working both running and passing. It was like the coaches did not know the difference between a cover 2 and cover 3. I do not know who was up in the booth but their failure to make adjustments and running or passing into the teeth of the Illini defense really hurt the team. They were cheating all over the place and we didn't take advantage - we just didn't game plan that one well at all.
 




I can almost promise you'll see EXACTLY what you've seen all year. Rutgers only threw it 15 times (?) against IU and demolished them. PJ was probably drooling when he saw that stat line. MN will mix up the run/pass game in the first half just to keep IU honest, but at the end of the day I'll be shocked if Morgan throws more than say 17 times. The REAL test of offensive creativity and approach will come in two weeks against Wisconsin. Minnesota almost can't win using the strategy they've been using. Definitely need to be more aggressive throwing it downfield and in "gadgety" sorts of ways IMO.
 

MGGopher said:
I can almost promise you'll see EXACTLY what you've seen all year. Rutgers only threw it 15 times (?) against IU and demolished them. PJ was probably drooling when he saw that stat line. MN will mix up the run/pass game in the first half just to keep IU honest, but at the end of the day I'll be shocked if Morgan throws more than say 17 times. The REAL test of offensive creativity and approach will come in two weeks against Wisconsin. Minnesota almost can't win using the strategy they've been using. Definitely need to be more aggressive throwing it downfield and in "gadgety" sorts of ways IMO.
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We tried to "keep it simple" against BG, to not show on film for Purdue.
We tried to "keep it simple" against ILL, to not show on film for Iowa.

We tried to "keep it simple" against IU, to not show on film for Wisc ........................
 

G-D

My Minnesota sports fan spider sense is tingling ....
 




metrolax said:
The Gophers will need to fight like the third monkey at the ark....and its starting to rain
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Not sure what that means. But I do know that the Gophers will have to strap it up against an Allen lead Indiana team. Can’t hold anything back-as in save for Wisconsin. That’s bs, win this game then worry about Bucky. After all BG and I’ll. are still fresh in our mind. (Excluding Iowa)
 


The key is going to be simply show up and do your job. If they can't do that against Indiana, then we really have problems.
 

Key to success: score more points than the other team. PJ had his group of factors that lead to wins 78% of the time. I’m suggesting a single factor that leads to wins 100% of the time. Get greedy and aggressive on offense. Score early. Score often. When you get a lead, pour it in, don’t dial it back. Attack the end zone relentlessly. This is the formula to beat Indiana (and the formula that would have beaten BG and IL).
 



#2Gopher said:
The key is going to be simply show up and do your job. If they can't do that against Indiana, then we really have problems.
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Unfortunately that didn’t work against BG.
I have no idea what to expect. Would be great if we set the tone and returned the opening kick and/or punt.
 

Gold Rush said:
UGH!!! Illinois was an ugly game, for sure. I thought the play calling was poor in that one. Their might have been "trap game" looking ahead to Iowa -- but they were favored by 2 TD's and you simply have got to put those in the win column!!
Click to expand...
Statistically there are no such things as trap games. I wish I saved the article…but teams with a game against a top 15 game in two weeks actually lose to unranked teams the week before at a lower rate than would be mathematically expected
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Unfortunately that didn’t work against BG.
I have no idea what to expect. Would be great if we set the tone and returned the opening kick and/or punt.
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You think they showed up and did their jobs?

He didn’t say the key was saying they were going to show up and do their jobs…he said the key was doing it.


I agree with your broader point though. It’s a recipe for letting a worse team hang around
 

Gold Rush said:
Indiana has really struggled this year and they are down to their third string QB, but keep in mind this was a team that finished 9-3 last year and was ranked #17 pre-season so you know they have some talented athletes on both sides of the ball. They were ripped apart by Rutgers last week, but coach Tom Allen should get them playing harder and better this week on Senior Day in Indiana.

- The Gophers need to hit them hard right away and get off to a good start. Hit them in the mouth as hard as you can and it will take out some of the fight. You jut might get them to fold if they feel they are in for a war against a superior opponent. If Indiana hangs around and keeps it close you will get a team that gains confidence and starts playing like it's their Super Bowl.

- The Gophers need to respect Indiana just like they SHOULD have respected Bowling Green and Illinois. They have the superior talent, but they have proved -twice- they can lose to the worst teams in the country if they do not play hard and play focused. No "let's run up the middle 40 times because we are so much better than they are" game planning. I want to see a game plan like they showed vs. Iowa. Mix it up with some balance.

- The Gophers need to play like it is their toughest game of the season because it is the only game that matters right now and quite frankly, we really need this one. They should be angry at what happened the last couple weeks vs. Illinois and Iowa but not demoralized because we are better than that and if we play hard and stay focused the entire game we will win. Just as the Hoosiers will benefit and gain confidence if they can jump out early, I think the Gophers could use a little shot of confidence, too. That big, experienced offensive line needs to take control of this game and dominate like everyone knows they can. No more excuses or finding who is to blame for the team's shortcomings.

Let's go get it - and then we can talk about Wisconsin.
Click to expand...
This is not a team that finished 9-3 last year?

this is a team that finished 6-2 last year and didn’t beat a single team with a winning record. In fact, in Tom Allen’s tenure they have never beaten a team that finished the season with a winning conference record….

although they might get it done this year as Western Kentucky will become the first


If we lose this game it should be embarrassing. This is the third worst team we have played.
Maybe second worst
 

The Gophers should do to the Hoosiers what Illinois just did to Hawkeyes. Open up the passing game to spread the field and the defense. Use it to set up the run game.

Get out of the reliance on the unidimensional TOP game. Get into the killer instinct mindset.
 

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