Lucky? Really?

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Ogee Ogilthorpe

Ogee Ogilthorpe

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Mildly disturbing that some of our fans think the fumble, and therefore the win, was a result of luck. The timing of the IU fumble is what makes it look like luck.

The Gophers turned it over on their own 20 in the first half, handing IU an easy TD. Both teams turned it over once.

If IU turns the ball over the same way on their drive to take the lead, with about 6 minutes left for example, the Gophers likely take it down and score and put the game put of reach.

Lucky win? Good grief... I hope I'm never that kind of fan
 

Scoring 42 points is not lucky.

Winning three straight Big Ten games and two on the road is not lucky.

Go Gophers!!
 

I think some fans are misusing the term 'luck' because history tells us that we couldn't possibly be the beneficiary of such a play. But you are right, the timing was everything. In the end it was IU's inability to execute in a key moment that hurt them. Not bad luck (or good luck, depending on your perspective).
 

You're kidding me, right?

Indiana scores in that position 95 out of 100 times (FG or TD). When's the last time you've seen a game end on a backwards pass ruled a fumble? Their quarterback intentionally threw it backwards. Our player made a good play on the ball. No luck with either of those.

But VERY lucky that the game ended like it did. I bet before they snapped that ball that you thought we had them right where we wanted them, right?

"Fortunate"? Is that a better word?
 

You know if the Gophers lost the way Indiana lost, we wouldn't be called lucky.

For the amount of bizarre losses in Gopher history, when we have an odd play (but one that required a ton of hustle and mental preparation by Aaron Hill) go our way it isn't luck. It's football. We won, we deserved to win and fumbles are part of the game.
 


574 yards is not lucky. Scoring 28 straight points is not lucky. Our Senior LB knowing it was a fumble and the 11 members of the opposing team not knowing it was a fumble is not lucky. It's preparation.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Mildly disturbing that some of our fans think the fumble, and therefore the win, was a result of luck. The timing of the IU fumble is what makes it look like luck.

The Gophers turned it over on their own 20 in the first half, handing IU an easy TD. Both teams turned it over once.

If IU turns the ball over the same way on their drive to take the lead, with about 6 minutes left for example, the Gophers likely take it down and score and put the game put of reach.

Lucky win? Good grief... I hope I'm never that kind of fan
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+1
 

Backwards pass is a backwards pass and live ball. Nothing was ruled a fumble. It was a muffed backwards pass.
 

BarnBoy said:
You're kidding me, right?

Indiana scores in that position 95 out of 100 times (FG or TD). When's the last time you've seen a game end on a backwards pass ruled a fumble? Their quarterback intentionally threw it backwards. Our player made a good play on the ball. No luck with either of those.

But VERY lucky that the game ended like it did. I bet before they snapped that ball that you thought we had them right where we wanted them, right?

"Fortunate"? Is that a better word?
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Our player made a play, their 11 players didn't. Fumbles or muffed backwards passes are not luck. Recoveries maybe are if it's a dog pile. In this case, there was no luck. None. Their QB and RB made a double-sh!tty play. Our SR LB made a great play.
 



Good teams find a way to win and bad teams find a way to lose, end of story.
 

Saying we got lucky at the end doesn't discount many of the things we did right. We were winning, after all.

But we also were fortunate. They looked like they were going to score.

Incredibly, we won. Welcome to college football.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Backwards pass is a backwards pass and live ball. Nothing was ruled a fumble. It was a muffed backwards pass.
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Poor word choice by me on the "ruled a fumble".

Can all of you "we had them right where we wanted them" people at least admit that we were fortunate that a backwards swing pass was called on the last defensive play of the game" that resulted in a bonehead Indiana play (half of you are saying it was a terrible call by IU)?

Our stats still count. Our players still played hard. We still deserved to win. I am still jumping for joy that we did win. But Jeebus Christmas, we snuck out a win there.
 

BarnBoy said:
You're kidding me, right?

Indiana scores in that position 95 out of 100 times (FG or TD). When's the last time you've seen a game end on a backwards pass ruled a fumble? Their quarterback intentionally threw it backwards. Our player made a good play on the ball. No luck with either of those.

But VERY lucky that the game ended like it did. I bet before they snapped that ball that you thought we had them right where we wanted them, right?

"Fortunate"? Is that a better word?
Click to expand...


I don't know if you know the definition of luck.

Simply because something is unexpected doesn't make it lucky. For instance, going into the Nebraska game I thought we would lose that game by 10 points. That is what I thought all, it was an unexpected result. However, we certainly weren't lucky to beat Nebraska.
 



Luckily Indiana's coach is likely getting drilled for playing the wrong QB for 1/2 the game.
 

BarnBoy said:
Poor word choice by me on the "ruled a fumble".

Can all of you "we had them right where we wanted them" people at least admit that we were fortunate that a backwards swing pass was called on the last defensive play of the game" that resulted in a bonehead Indiana play (half of you are saying it was a terrible call by IU)?

Our stats still count. Our players still played hard. We still deserved to win. I am still jumping for joy that we did win. But Jeebus Christmas, we snuck out a win there.
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I truly believe the coaching, playing hard, and preparation leads to luck, ball bouncing your way, etc..., The QB had to throw sooner than he wanted, looking back at the play. A good defensive call by Claeys aided the lucky play.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if you know the definition of luck.

Simply because something is unexpected doesn't make it lucky. For instance, going into the Nebraska game I thought we would lose that game by 10 points. That is what I thought all, it was an unexpected result. However, we certainly weren't lucky to beat Nebraska.
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IT WAS A VERY UNEXPECTED VICTORY. WE ARE VERY FORTUNATE. OUR PLAYERS PLAYED HARD AND DESERVED TO WIN. I LOVE MY GOLDEN GOPHERS JUST AS MUCH AS YOU ALL.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Luckily Indiana's coach is likely getting drilled for playing the wrong QB for 1/2 the game.
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Eh, backups (especially with completely different styles) always have a huge advantage. We were playing soft coverage and had game planned for Roberson. It reminds me of the Gray-Shortell thing, Max often looked much better in relief of Gray than he did when the other team prepped for him.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I truly believe the coaching, playing hard, and preparation leads to luck, ball bouncing your way, etc..., The QB had to throw sooner than he wanted, looking back at the play. A good defensive call by Claeys aided the lucky play.
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It was also a really nice play leading up to the incomplete backwards pass (I might just keep calling it a fumble).

Vereen read the play perfectly and hit the RB as he was trying to bring it in.
Hill hustled to the ball. He was mentally prepared (read the situation) and he hustled the entire way.
 

The win, with Indiana in a position to kick a field goal to tie or TD to win. Indiana had the ball 1st and Goal from the nine yard line. Mental Toughness. Confidence, Composure, Commitment, and Concentration were key to the defense. Which no one gives any credit. On first down Martez Shabazz breaks up the pass to Cody Latimer. Minnesota takes a time out. There were about 24 seconds left, and they probably reiterated it would be a pass. Indiana had success with the screen pass and their outside speed. I am only supposing these were the ideas for the second down from the 9. This team is finally demonstrating the idea of making the next play count. When Indiana's QB stepped up and threw back outside, he and the Indiana Bench knew it was live. Coleman, the Indiana back spent the critical seconds either cursing the QB, or kicking himself for not catching it. Even if he had caught he would have lost yardage to about the 15. Hill who has made big plays all year, made another. It was a play by Hill, there was no luck.
 

The better you are, the luckier you get. I don't care about the circumstances surrounding a win as along as that the number in the W column gets bigger.
 

We are fortunate that Indiana could not execute a fairly simple play that cost them the game. Can you all at least admit that?

I only replied to this thread because I find it a little offensive that the OP bashes fans (some of whom bleed Maroon & Gold) whose initial reaction may have been "wow, we got away with one there".

So if you're initial reaction to a really strange play that ended the game in our favor wasn't "all part of the game plan, hard work. preparation", you're not a real fan???

Guys, some of you have blinders on right now. It still counts as a victory, even if it was very a fortunate, low-probability ending.

And again, i'm not going to pursue this in other threads. I don't want to become "that guy". Look at my post history. Only defending my so-called "disturbing actions". Enjoy the victory!

Ski-U-Mah!
 

I would say if you look at the entire game it was not luck, if you look at that very last play it was luck for the gophers but not unlucky for the Hoosiers if that makes sense, it was Indianas fault that that happened they controlled that, not the gophers, the gophers did nothing to cause IU to make that mistake which makes that play lucky for us but not unlucky for them since of course it is their fault it happened, it is however lucky for us that IU coaches actually called that play, but overall the better team won as we had more rushing yards and passing guards then IU
 


Call it whatever you want... "luck" has been against us for nearly 40 years... it's about time some of those bounces starting coming our way...
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Mildly disturbing that some of our fans think the fumble, and therefore the win, was a result of luck. The timing of the IU fumble is what makes it look like luck.

The Gophers turned it over on their own 20 in the first half, handing IU an easy TD. Both teams turned it over once.

If IU turns the ball over the same way on their drive to take the lead, with about 6 minutes left for example, the Gophers likely take it down and score and put the game put of reach.

Lucky win? Good grief... I hope I'm never that kind of fan
Click to expand...

Well, in the sense that it wouldn't be expected to happen it's lucky. But you are absolutely right: it's only the timing that makes it stand out. I'm sure Indiana got 'lucky' on at least a half dozen earlier plays where we usually execute but did not and it cost us potential points, or led to them getting points. Bonehead plays, bad bounces, etc. happen all the time in every game. In that sense luck is simply the randomness that happens all the time.

The way I look at it (and at life in general), is that 'luck' plays a big part. That said, the REAL test is if you put yourself in a position to GET lucky. If you don't work your butt off to get into positions where luck can go your way, it doesn't happen very often. The Gophers did that by not panicking and rolling over. And that's why they deserved to win.
 


tato2001 said:
Well, in the sense that it wouldn't be expected to happen it's lucky. But you are absolutely right: it's only the timing that makes it stand out. I'm sure Indiana got 'lucky' on at least a half dozen earlier plays where we usually execute but did not and it cost us potential points, or led to them getting points. Bonehead plays, bad bounces, etc. happen all the time in every game. In that sense luck is simply the randomness that happens all the time.

The way I look at it (and at life in general), is that 'luck' plays a big part. That said, the REAL test is if you put yourself in a position to GET lucky. If you don't work your butt off to get into positions where luck can go your way, it doesn't happen very often. The Gophers did that by not panicking and rolling over. And that's why they deserved to win.
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I agree.

I remember watching Kevin Dyson stretch out his hand to get the Titans so close to a Super Bowl tie/victory - only to be down at the 1/2 yard line. Mike Jones was fortunate to tackle Dyson where he did. But if fortunate or "lucky" connotates an "inferior, less-deserving, losers" mentality I'll agree with the OP.
 

I have to back up BarnBoy. It wasn't really luck.....as much as it was a fortunate turn of events. We outplayed Indy and deserved to win. However.....with first and goal at our nine yard line.....and with the way they were moving the ball.....tell me how many of you thought to yourselves, "same old Gophers". They made a bad play and we capitalized on it. AWESOME! I don't care that it came down to that point....the win matters more than anything.

However. We all have to look at the fact that most rational coaches would not have run a play like this at that point in the game. I'm not trying to take anything away from the win.....but we caught some fortune towards the end.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Backwards pass is a backwards pass and live ball. Nothing was ruled a fumble. It was a muffed backwards pass.
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That's not the case at all. When you throw it backwards, it's not a pass, it's a run. It's no different than a pitch. It's not a muffed backwards pass, it's absolutely a fumble and was DEFINITELY ruled a fumble.
 

A pitch is a backward pass that remains live like any other. A fumble is a player losing possession. Definitions are in the FB rule book.
 

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