Kicking game killed us

[GO4INLALALAND]

If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win. On top of that, the two misses were flat out ugly. I could have kicked the ball better than Hawthorne. The kicking game needs to get fixed quickly.

 

[Gopher Gold]

I'm pretty sure both kicks were tipped at the LOS. Am I right or mistaken?

 

[lugnard]

I'm pretty sure both kicks were tipped at the LOS. Am I right or mistaken?

That's what announcers said - my guess is Kill & his ST coach will be on that - seems fixable.

 

[nc2mn]

Punting was miles better than last year.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

I'm not going to blame a college kid for missing a 51-yarder. If USC was coached by an actual football coach, they'd have had 21 points.

 

[year of the gopher]

Look, Hawthorne was thrown in for a 51 yd field goal on his first attempt of the season. I will cut him slack on that one. The 42 yarder appeared to be a line drive that he didn't get enough loft on allowing it to be blocked (based on live action look, I haven't watched replays or slo-mo). Seems like a fixable thing. I'm not worried. The Gophs had a few chances that would have won the game today, but I think the type of loss that they had will make them hungry the next few weeks....imho.

 

[diehard]

Hawthorne is going to be a great kicker. We needed him to be one today. He wasn't.

 

[cncmin]

If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win. On top of that, the two misses were flat out ugly. I could have kicked the ball better than Hawthorne. The kicking game needs to get fixed quickly.

Let's say Hawthorne makes one of the two long FGs (and yes, a 42-yarder is long, especially outdoors). Then how do you know how the game would have shaken out? Would USC have continued to flounder offensively or would Kiffin have got a brain and done something different? Would the Gophers have played with more or less confidence and hustle? None of these things are known, so "If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win," is simply false.

Missed field goals at the end of games are the only ones that actually win or lose games.

All that said, I'd like to see a better kicking game, too; but the 25-yarder from the hash (quite an angle) was right down the pipe.

 

[GO4INLALALAND]

Let's say Hawthorne makes one of the two long FGs (and yes, a 42-yarder is long, especially outdoors). Then how do you know how the game would have shaken out? Would USC have continued to flounder offensively or would Kiffin have got a brain and done something different? Would the Gophers have played with more or less confidence and hustle? None of these things are known, so "If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win," is simply false.

Missed field goals at the end of games are the only ones that actually win or lose games.

All that said, I'd like to see a better kicking game, too; but the 25-yarder from the hash (quite an angle) was right down the pipe.

In light of the fact that we held sc scoreless in the second half, I think, with reasonable certainty, that had we made one of the two fg's we would have won the game.

 

[cncmin]

In light of the fact that we held sc scoreless in the second half, I think, with reasonable certainty, that had we made one of the two fg's we would have won the game.

Very good point, since USC didn't even cross the 50-yard line in the second half while having only 13 total yards. They moved backwards as much as forwards, and had not even a sniff of a scoring opportunity in the second half, being thoroughly and destructively dominated by our defense.

You are 100% correct - anything that happened earlier in the game would have zero effect on the remainder of the game. And I agree with you that the kicker is to blame for missing two very easy kicks in the first half. Want to grab torches and pitchforks with me?

 

[Killjoy]

Hey Chicken Little

If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win. On top of that, the two misses were flat out ugly. I could have kicked the ball better than Hawthorne. The kicking game needs to get fixed quickly.

The only thing that needs to get fixed is your inane comments. Our kicking game is going to be just fine. I guess some people just are not happy unless they have somebody to blame.

 

[EG#9]

I said it in another post, you have to make a 42 yard field goal on the road. You just can't miss that against a team like USC. I think the Gophers win if they make that fg, but nothing is certain. A 42 yard FG is not a long FG, especially on a nice day with little wind.

 

[sonnygarcia]

I said it in another post, you have to make a 42 yard field goal on the road. You just can't miss that against a team like USC. I think the Gophers win if they make that fg, but nothing is certain. A 42 yard FG is not a long FG, especially on a nice day with little wind.

Again, didn't both attempts get deflected? The 42 yarder did forsure.

 

[Gophers09]

In light of the fact that we held sc scoreless in the second half, I think, with reasonable certainty, that had we made one of the two fg's we would have won the game.

Assuming the changed score wouldn't have affected any of the play going forward (which is absurd) I'm pretty sure USC wouldn't have punted on 4th and short at the Gophers 32 with a few minutes to go trailing 20-19 (or would they have? Kiffen does seem like a moron but that's a stretch). Obviously it would've been nice to make the kicks.

 

[Gophers09]

Very good point, since USC didn't even cross the 50-yard line in the second half while having only 13 total yards. They moved backwards as much as forwards, and had not even a sniff of a scoring opportunity in the second half, being thoroughly and destructively dominated by our defense.

You are 100% correct - anything that happened earlier in the game would have zero effect on the remainder of the game. And I agree with you that the kicker is to blame for missing two very easy kicks in the first half. Want to grab torches and pitchforks with me?

Haha - well said.

 

[Gophers09]

Again, didn't both attempts get deflected? The 42 yarder did forsure.

That's what I thought.

 

[GO4INLALALAND]

The only thing that needs to get fixed is your inane comments. Our kicking game is going to be just fine. I guess some people just are not happy unless they have somebody to blame.

Did I say the sky was falling? No!! But the kicking game does need to be fixed. I guess some people just can't face certain facts.

 

[RedPoo]

Did I say the sky was falling? No!!

No, but you did say "If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win" which is assuming an awful lot, at best (and downright wrong at worst). I suspect, had we made one of those, USC probably still would have won. Someone already pointed out the punt when they were in long FG range, not to mention the fact that the entire drive was basically them killing time, running the ball instead pushing the ball downfield through the air, which is where most of their offensive success had come the entire game.
I agree that the kicking game needs improvement, but there wasn't a single aspect of the teams performance that wouldn't benefit from a little improvement.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

That's what I thought.

Hawthorne really had 1 bad kick. The 42 yarder was tipped but it was partially because the ball and if we want to win tough games on the road, those need to be made more often than missed.

That said, the kid hit the other FG and I was actually confident in him kicking it (what a weird feeling). His kickoffs were better than anything we had last year.

I would never blame a kicker for getting one 40 yard FG tipped on the road. I do realize that it was largely his own fault but from the bit i've seen from Hawthorne (practices and even at times today), I think he'll be just fine.

On a side note, Orseske was booming the ball today. Part of the reason we were in this game was that Orseske/Hawthorne and the coverage units played pretty well.

 

[GO4INLALALAND]

It looks like UCLA kicker Kip Smith (a former MN commit who later withdrew his commitment due to Goldy mocking a PSU player praying) not only had a rough day kicking, but is also a big baby according to TJ Simmers at the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-simers-ucla-houston-20110904,0,6800900.column

 

[TheGopher]

Just to rub a little more salt in the wound... Tom Obarski, who was clearly the best MN high school kicker last year in our own recruting backyard, made 56 and 47 yard field goals in his colliegiate debut for Concordia-St. Paul.

 

[josh087]

Assuming the changed score wouldn't have affected any of the play going forward (which is absurd) I'm pretty sure USC wouldn't have punted on 4th and short at the Gophers 32 with a few minutes to go trailing 20-19 (or would they have? Kiffen does seem like a moron but that's a stretch). Obviously it would've been nice to make the kicks.

You'd also have to believe USC would have gone for it on 4th and 1 up 19-13 rather than kick a 38 yard FG to go up 9 late in the 3rd quarter. Kiffin is dumb, but not that stupid.

But hey, why let facts get in the way?

 

[Lincoln gopher]

kicking game

I agree that it is impossible to determine what making kicks early in the game would have done to the result of the game, but saying that the two long kicks are too long or hard is laughable. There are kickers all over the country, high school and college, making those kicks. I am not saying that the Gopher kicker won't make a few of them in the future, but he needed to make one of those in this game.

 

[paulser21]

Last year we wouldn't have even attempted those field goals because we didn't have any faith in our kicking game. This year, we actually believe our kicker can nail a 50+ yard kick.

Hawthorne is going to be a great kicker. He has now at total of 4 college field goal attempts. Everyone can jump all over the kid for missing two long field goal attempts which some are saying both were tipped/blocked. Some are saying he needs more loft on his kicks. How do you expect him to make a 50+ yard field goal while putting extra loft on the kick?

 

[Word]

Just to rub a little more salt in the wound... Tom Obarski, who was clearly the best MN high school kicker last year in our own recruting backyard, made 56 and 47 yard field goals in his colliegiate debut for Concordia-St. Paul.

Impressive, but is it the same kicking against Minot State as it is kicking at the Coliseum vs USC?

Who knows though, if Obarski impresses this year at Concordia maybe the Gophers will try to get him to transfer.

Regarding the premise of this thread - Yes, you should be able to make a 41 or 42 yard field goal, but you can't say it's _the_ thing that made us lose. Lack of offense in the first half, blown coverages all contributed to the loss. You can't pin it on one player.

 

[highwayman]

If we make one of the 2 missed field goals, we win. On top of that, the two misses were flat out ugly. I could have kicked the ball better than Hawthorne. The kicking game needs to get fixed quickly.

Assuming the changed score wouldn't have affected any of the play going forward (which is absurd) I'm pretty sure USC wouldn't have punted on 4th and short at the Gophers 32 with a few minutes to go trailing 20-19 (or would they have? Kiffen does seem like a moron but that's a stretch). Obviously it would've been nice to make the kicks.

GO4--you likely could not get the ball over the LOS, let alone with a rush on. That's probably a fact more than my opinion. I have kicked. It's the most complicated part of football. This was a combination of poor blocking and kicking, and will get fixed.

Both of you--a football game is linear. Like any series of linear events, every (EVERY EVERY EVERY) event occuring is based on the preceding event. You can't say that event #10 happened because of event #1, and skip events #2-9. To say that a missed FG in the first half resulted in a 19-17 loss an hour and a half later is ridiculous. You're ignoring every event in between.

Just to rub a little more salt in the wound... Tom Obarski, who was clearly the best MN high school kicker last year in our own recruting backyard, made 56 and 47 yard field goals in his colliegiate debut for Concordia-St. Paul.

And yet, he is at Concordia-St. Paul.