My recap of last night's game

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dpodoll68

dpodoll68

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- Bennett from last year to this year is night and day. Probably a combination of returning from illness and simplified/more well-coached scheme. Hits the hole, lowers his shoulder, fights through tackles. Less-than-ideal vision and no 5th gear are what separates him from backs like Barberoney.

- Weber. Well, everything that can be said already has been on here since last night's game. Brewster is playing our Boeckman instead of our Pryor. Actually, I'd kill for Todd Boeckman right now. Since respectful criticism of players is not allowed on this forum, I will stop there and proceed no further.

- "Tommy" Olson, other than completely getting his ass handed to him on the one sack, played quite respectably for a RS freshman making his first start. His run blocking far exceeds his pass right now. Difficult to find tackles who can get to the second level like he can.

- "Kirkland" has a bright future. (Thank you, Anish Shroff, for calling him that every single time. How an ESPN producer didn't correct him via earpiece is beyond me.) He's essentially a bigger Bennett with more power. Has the same weaknesses as Bennett as well, though his vision may be a little better, especially when taking disparate experience levels into consideration.

- Can't comment on WR/TE. They didn't want to open up the playbook, and thankfully they didn't need to. Saw a lot of Collin McGarry and Curtis Hughes - did Eure see the field?

- Teams may have success rushing to the perimeter against us, but will not be able to run up the middle. Edwards and Kirksey are legit. They play with great leverage and keep their pads low. Kirksey has a surprising amount of lateral coverage ability for a DT.

- Rallis was all over the place at first, and then seemed to disappear. The LBs will be ok this year, but Butler/Lee/Cosgrove need to have them (and most of the defense, really) working on wrapping and form tackling. Proper tackling may have prevented MTSU from scoring at all.

- Manuel showed flashes and played serviceably well for a true freshman playing in the secondary. Lewis seemed overmatched for a JuCo. That being said, we will be much better off when Royston and Theret return. I'm excited about this defense when that happens.

- How many snaps did Hageman take? I was looking for him and didn't see him even once.

- The first miss by Ellestad was forgiveable. The second, especially considering that it was in almost identical field position to the first, even left hash and everything, was inexcusable. A senior placekicker cannot miss the exact same kick, especially when it had plenty of leg, the exact same way twice. As someone else has already posted, I'm worried that we will lose a game this year based on turnovers when we go for it on 4th and 5 from the 23 instead of kicking the figgie.

- Take out a 10-minute span in the second and third quarters, and we actually won this game 31-0. People marginalizing this victory and/or MTSU as a team need to get a clue.
 

I agree with almost everything (of course we disagree on the QB situation). I think that by the time we hit the Big Ten this will be a totally different defense. Not just the returning safties, but 4 full games of experience will really help our youth.
 

Good points, I agree on the Bennett assessment, he looked great and here's hoping for a big season from him.

I saw Eure in there a few times if I remember correctly (isn't he #86) don't recall him doing anything special though.

Ed Olson played pretty well and I thought Wills played a solid game too. I remember one play where Bennett got stacked up a yard or two short of the first down and Wills seemed to push the entire pile for the first down. Hopefully the weight loss helps him get to the second level to do things like that.

Tackling must improve and I'm hoping getting Royston/Theret back at some point will help the defense adjust better in scenarios like when MTSU ran their hurry up offense.
 

I saw Hageman going towards the sideline on one play, didn't really notice him other than that. Every end was a ghost last night. Gotta get pressure.
 

I was just glad everyone got out of there alive. At one point 3 of our helmets had melted due to the heat, and I think I saw at least 4 guys on the sidelines convulsing with apparent heat stroke. It was dangerous out there last night.
 


great info.

though i have to disagree about 'respectful criticism' of players on this board. i don't think i have ever seen 'respectful criticism' of any players on this board.

weber will improve as the year goes on.
 

josh087 said:
I was just glad everyone got out of there alive. At one point 3 of our helmets had melted due to the heat, and I think I saw at least 4 guys on the sidelines convulsing with apparent heat stroke. It was dangerous out there last night.
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It's so damn hot! Milk was a bad choice!!
 


Gopher53 said:
I remember one play where Bennett got stacked up a yard or two short of the first down and Wills seemed to push the entire pile for the first down. Hopefully the weight loss helps him get to the second level to do things like that.
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My favorite play of the game. Wills gave him at least an extra 3 yards on that play. Loved it.
 



I think everyone on the team should get one of those iRenew bracelets. Could you imagine a whole team of guys wearing those things? Unstoppable.
 


Gopher024 said:
I think everyone on the team should get one of those iRenew bracelets. Could you imagine a whole team of guys wearing those things? Unstoppable.
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Between that and their new Tuck-Your-Tummy (or whatever they were called), they'd be undefeated!
 

Those shirts looked so much easier than losing weight. I've 10 coming for only three easy payments of 19.95!
 



Good post, dpodoll68

A few additions:
-I think the defense at times lacks discipline (talking breaking down, assignments, etc., not penalties), but they play SO much faster than any Gopher defense that I can remember. If they can maintain some game discipline, they can be good.
-One of Weber's strengths, to me, is his ability to sell the play action. When some plays develop, he can make plays (Lair's two catches & Gray's reception). Hopefully the offense can build as the season goes along.
-The run game was encouraging. Obviously, things may get difficult as the season goes along, especially against the Buckeyes & Hawkeyes. But it appears that we now at least have an identity. The key is to keep improving. And there will be some times that it looks bleak. But I like that we may have an identity.
-The only thing worse than having to watch your game on ESPNU is listening to Dave Lee. The announcers were terrible, and having to watch the same informercial commercials over the breaks made me want to jam a fork into my eyes & ears. I was kind of used to it since it's the same way when I'm watching the NCAA hockey tournament on the U, but truly awful.
-The penalities got better the last two games last year against Iowa (4) & Iowa State (1). They have improved on that since that MSU game a ton.
-Seemed to have so much less confussion on offense & the O was in control, from huddle to snap.
-MTSU was a much better team than Syracuse was last year....this was a much better win than the win over the Orange last year.

Get better & improve for South Dakota!
 

That is a pretty fair assessment. I agree. It will be fun to watch this team get better this year. One question to ask ourselves is this: Overall, do we think the Gophers are better than Hawaii? If so, there is a chance the USC game will be closer than a lot of people think.
 

Schnauzer said:
That is a pretty fair assessment. I agree. It will be fun to watch this team get better this year. One question to ask ourselves is this: Overall, do we think the Gophers are better than Hawaii? If so, there is a chance the USC game will be closer than a lot of people think.
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I forgot to mention I only said the nice things ("fair assessment, I agree") because I really am just looking for friends.
 

Not so fast firedavelee

While I would vote for your moniker as the best in the hole. I differ with your opinion,

"One of Weber's strengths, to me, is his ability to sell the play action. When some plays develop, he can make plays (Lair's two catches & Gray's reception). Hopefully the offense can build as the season goes along"

Weber's ball faking and timing in play action is below par. The constant pounding, makes any action seem good. But the ball fakes are minimal, the timing, oh my. He looks, he holds it, he dances, he throws. Why fake it, just drop back. Or better yet sprint out. At least the sprint out would open the sprint draw.
 


husker70 said:
While I would vote for your moniker as the best in the hole. I differ with your opinion,

"One of Weber's strengths, to me, is his ability to sell the play action. When some plays develop, he can make plays (Lair's two catches & Gray's reception). Hopefully the offense can build as the season goes along"

Weber's ball faking and timing in play action is below par. The constant pounding, makes any action seem good. But the ball fakes are minimal, the timing, oh my. He looks, he holds it, he dances, he throws. Why fake it, just drop back. Or better yet sprint out. At least the sprint out would open the sprint draw.
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Perhaps I try to emphasize what I think he does well over others, so it seems good to me. And I do think he holds the fake sometimes too long, but I've always thought that he sells it well
 

Hey... the double post was to 1001 (and this one brings me to 1002). But, I may see if I can get to 1500 just posting in this thread today.
 

Schnauzer said:
That is a pretty fair assessment. I agree. It will be fun to watch this team get better this year. One question to ask ourselves is this: Overall, do we think the Gophers are better than Hawaii? If so, there is a chance the USC game will be closer than a lot of people think.
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Happy 1,000! Are you going to frame this post?

41518-eipc_balloons_screensaver_audio___multimedia_other.jpeg
 

FireDaveLee said:
-MTSU was a much better team than Syracuse was last year....this was a much better win than the win over the Orange last year.
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+1

MTSU is a far more dangerous team than Syracuse on both sides of the ball. Last year we jumped out to what appeared to be a solid lead, but then let them back in and had to go to overtime. Add to the mixture the repressive heat and I for one come away much more confident in this team over last year's squad. With Royston and Theret back in the line-up our defense will be better. Still Manual is an incredible athlete.

They say teams improve the most between the first and second game. I expect to us to rush for more yards next week and see 'improved' tackling.
 

Schnauzer said:
That is a pretty fair assessment. I agree. It will be fun to watch this team get better this year. One question to ask ourselves is this: Overall, do we think the Gophers are better than Hawaii? If so, there is a chance the USC game will be closer than a lot of people think.
Click to expand...

Hawaii, at least in the first half, didn't look very good but they ended-up putting 36 on the board. They TV guys kept talking about USC's "lack of depth" and the Warriors Coach after the game was quoted as saying "With USC's depleted roster, Hawaii coach Greg McMackin said he could tell the Trojans were "gassed," so the Warriors kept rotating in fresh players.

The Trojans scored 49 against a bad defense, so how knows what happens in two weeks. I do know that the first half Weber can't be the Weber that shows up on 18th for the Gophers to make a game of it.
 


Schnauzer said:
That is a pretty fair assessment. I agree. It will be fun to watch this team get better this year. One question to ask ourselves is this: Overall, do we think the Gophers are better than Hawaii? If so, there is a chance the USC game will be closer than a lot of people think.
Click to expand...

I don't think we're significantly better than Hawaii. Our offense is completely different and will likely be much easier to shut down. Hawaii couldn't stop USC on offense at all, which we may or may not. I'm not sure we could beat Hawaii either. Luckily we don't have to. We always have a chance, but I don't like our chances. Their studs are so much better than our best players. But let's see how much better we look against South Dakota before we worry about USC.
 

Sparlimb said:
I don't think we're significantly better than Hawaii. Our offense is completely different and will likely be much easier to shut down. Hawaii couldn't stop USC on offense at all, which we may or may not. I'm not sure we could beat Hawaii either. Luckily we don't have to. We always have a chance, but I don't like our chances. Their studs are so much better than our best players. But let's see how much better we look against South Dakota before we worry about USC.
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Well, we certainly would have trouble with Hawaii without Royston or Theret. I think there are plenty of opportunities to exploit with USC but at this point I agree that our O won't be able to keep up with their playmakers unless we A) control the ball for 45 minutes again while scoring on a good number of the drives or B) Weber really steps up his game.
 

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