My theory on the loss to Purdue

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diefirma

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It was Homecoming. Some/many of the players had buddies, who had graduated, come back to campus. The players got together with their buddies and perhaps had a beer or two, then some more buddies showed up and it called for another beer/shot or two. Then, before they knew it - it was late - very late.

They game was very early, 11AM. The players were very tired, some even might have been hung over. It showed in their game. They looked tired and unenthusiastic.

Just a theory
 


More likely scenario:

Offensive line and receivers read too many articles about Gophers being favorites to win the west. Then they couldn’t block as effectively or catch balls thrown into their bread basket. Dropped first down dropped touch down that became an interception! Unable to make holes in line because it was slightly harder.

Coaches get too cute and go for it with slow developing Qb run instead of hammering forward in a quick hitter on 4th and 1!

Get rid of those boneheaded moves and who knows what the score would have been. The first down drop ended a drive and let them score first. The dropped td would have seriously changed the game dynamics.

Can’t blame the defense even if they gave up the long run at the end.

Execution on offense failed to allowGophers to live up to their ranking.
 




BigGopher69 said:
Good teams don't make excuses, they win regardless of circumstance
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Kinda, but when they lose they ALWAYS have excuses.

Or with winning teams are they called explanations?:unsure:
 






Anybody who has ever played competitive sports knows from experience: sometimes, the other team comes up with an exceptional effort, and you lose a game you should have won. It happens. People aren't perfect, and life has ups and downs.

But, hey: anyone who feels a deep need to respond to Saturday's loss by indulging in a little scolding and shaming, have at it. It's a free country.
 


Here is my theory why we lost the game.

Ibrahim allegedly practiced all week and according to the announcers looked fine in walk through on Friday. On Saturday Fleck/trainers held him out. Fleck is notoriously quiet on injuries - most on the team were expecting Mo to play.

Team was expecting Mo to play then Mo doesn't play and results in whole team in a funk.
 

the players are human. they hear all the talk about ratings, favorites to win the West, even pundits talking about the Gophers as a possible National Playoff team.

it's a small step from that to thinking, "We're better than Purdue."

and then, sub-consciously, there is just a little less drive - a little too much self-satisfaction - and the team doesn't produce the same effort that helped them look so good in the first 4 games.

well, now the team has been humbled. we'll see how they look against Illinois.
 



Here's what happened:

— Purdue had a well-designed game plan, and executed it to a "T". They aren't a better team than the Gophers, but they're a decent team and they out-played Minnesota on this particular day. THEY DESERVE SOME CREDIT.

— We dropped a certain TD pass, and deflected said pass into the hands of a defender for a turnover. If we catch that ball it's 7 points. If we drop it and it hits the turf, we get another chance to score in the red zone.

— We inexplicably miss a chip-shot FG.

That's the story of the game. NOW, WE MOVE ON.
 

Here's a theory: We are not much more talented than Purdue, if at all. Both teams are comparable, even having the same record last year. Purdue is better than us in some areas, we are better than them in some. On Saturday, we made more mistakes than them and they won. Doesn't have to be some grand explanation behind it all.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Here's a theory: We are not much more talented than Purdue, if at all. Both teams are comparable, even having the same record last year. Purdue is better than us in some areas, we are better than them in some. On Saturday, we made more mistakes than them and they won. Doesn't have to be some grand explanation behind it all.
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Bingo. Some are pointing to the spread but a lot of that was driven by the uncertainty surrounding O'Connell playing for them and Mo playing for us. Would have been much tighter to even off the board if it was known that O'Connell was going to play and Mo wasn't.

Where I think some are getting hung up is in the idea that saying we played poorly means that you are giving Purdue no credit which is just absurd.

Purdue played very well, especially on defense. But they also benefitted from us making a bunch of critical unforced errors, the biggest of which was the dropped TD that turned into a pick. We have all seen it play out millions of times in football. The team that makes the fewest mistakes usually comes out on top. Saturday was no exception. Just sucks that we were the team making the huge mistakes as opposed to our opponent.
 

Otis said:
More likely scenario:

Offensive line and receivers read too many articles about Gophers being favorites to win the west. Then they couldn’t block as effectively or catch balls thrown into their bread basket. Dropped first down dropped touch down that became an interception! Unable to make holes in line because it was slightly harder.

Coaches get too cute and go for it with slow developing Qb run instead of hammering forward in a quick hitter on 4th and 1!

Get rid of those boneheaded moves and who knows what the score would have been. The first down drop ended a drive and let them score first. The dropped td would have seriously changed the game dynamics.

Can’t blame the defense even if they gave up the long run at the end.

Execution on offense failed to allowGophers to live up to their ranking.
Click to expand...
Missed a chip shot FG.
 

Otis said:
More likely scenario:

Offensive line and receivers read too many articles about Gophers being favorites to win the west. Then they couldn’t block as effectively or catch balls thrown into their bread basket. Dropped first down dropped touch down that became an interception! Unable to make holes in line because it was slightly harder.

Coaches get too cute and go for it with slow developing Qb run instead of hammering forward in a quick hitter on 4th and 1!

Get rid of those boneheaded moves and who knows what the score would have been. The first down drop ended a drive and let them score first. The dropped td would have seriously changed the game dynamics.

Can’t blame the defense even if they gave up the long run at the end.

Execution on offense failed to allowGophers to live up to their ranking.
Click to expand...
You can blame the D for poor tackling on first drive and long run late.
 



Going for it on 4th down. Tanner Morgan was pleading to Fleck on the sidelines to go for it. I think Fleck wanted a confidence boost at that point in the game and it was early enough in that if it failed, they would still be in it. The play was called in late and was a horrific situation to swap out Morgan for Kramer and the wildcat package out of shotgun. I actually thought as the play ultimately failed "Morgan wanted to go for it so badly and was repaid by being replaced by Kramer, how sad."

I also think that Oliver's late hit was a boneheaded penalty that led to a Purdue extended drive that ended in points.

Missing the chip shot was not elite.

MBS dropping the pass sucked, but had it not landed in the arms of the defender, the Gophs would have been in good position to score.

OL not getting ANY push was disheartening. I couldn't stand seeing Potts crash right into the teeth of the Purdue DL for 0 gain over and over.

Even in the 4th, I thought, "well, Purdue has the ball but they can't run the ball, and even if they do, our D will stop them." Next play, Purdue runs the ball for a million yards through countless arm-tackles.
 


RememberMurray said:
Here's what happened:

— Purdue had a well-designed game plan, and executed it to a "T". They aren't a better team than the Gophers, but they're a decent team and they out-played Minnesota on this particular day. THEY DESERVE SOME CREDIT.

— We dropped a certain TD pass, and deflected said pass into the hands of a defender for a turnover. If we catch that ball it's 7 points. If we drop it and it hits the turf, we get another chance to score in the red zone.

— We inexplicably miss a chip-shot FG.

That's the story of the game. NOW, WE MOVE ON.
Click to expand...
Purdue looked like it was playing the old 4-4-3 defense. They had scouted us very well and were determined to not only stop the run, but really mess up slants and inside/outs to Spann-Ford.

Our brain trust seemed to think Morgan is more mobile than he is. On the first INT that was tipped by the defender chasing Morgan, the guy was right on him and Morgan couldn't get around him. I know the angle favored the defender, but Morgan couldn't elude him at all. That's not to criticize Morgan. I like the guy. Just thought it was an odd application of Morgan's talents.
 

diefirma said:
It was Homecoming. Some/many of the players had buddies, who had graduated, come back to campus. The players got together with their buddies and perhaps had a beer or two, then some more buddies showed up and it called for another beer/shot or two. Then, before they knew it - it was late - very late.

They game was very early, 11AM. The players were very tired, some even might have been hung over. It showed in their game. They looked tired and unenthusiastic.

Just a theory
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A common refrain in the stands - for sure. Even my buddy and I joked about it.

I'll bite - I just feel like wouldn't the partying be mostly reserved for saturday? Like, win the big game and then go out and party?

That said, I def would party both friday and saturday when I was in college....I just would think they'd be smarter than that! Eeeeeeek.

I suppose this argument is sort of akin to the "they were busy reading their own headlines" sorta argument- impossible to quantify, but not without possibility.

Party on Wayne!
 



Mr. 131 said:
A common refrain in the stands - for sure. Even my buddy and I joked about it.

I'll bite - I just feel like wouldn't the partying be mostly reserved for saturday? Like, win the big game and then go out and party?

That said, I def would party both friday and saturday when I was in college....I just would think they'd be smarter than that! Eeeeeeek.

I suppose this argument is sort of akin to the "they were busy reading their own headlines" sorta argument- impossible to quantify, but not without possibility.

Party on Wayne!
Click to expand...
Curious what you think the team does on Friday nights at the team hotel with meetings and a team meal. Think a bunch of dudes just got hammered in the hotel? They don’t just sit in the dorms or at their apartments/houses. This isn’t high school
 

My theory is KC mistakingly pulled out the playbook binder from 2017. Looked like it. :unsure:
 

Every team has down games. Sometimes there's enough of a talent gap to overcome it, like Georgia almost losing to Mizzou, or Bama almost losing to a pedestrian Texas squad. It happened in 2019 when the Gophers could have lost to any of their non-P5 foes, but didn't because there was just enough of an edge.

Minnesota doesn't have enough of a gap over Purdue to:

a. be missing their RB1 and WR1
b. give away 10 easy points on a dropped TD and short FG
c. turn the ball over 3 times
d. have a call go against them that cost 4 more points
e. come out visibly flat

...and still win the game.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Here is my theory why we lost the game.

Ibrahim allegedly practiced all week and according to the announcers looked fine in walk through on Friday. On Saturday Fleck/trainers held him out. Fleck is notoriously quiet on injuries - most on the team were expecting Mo to play.

Team was expecting Mo to play then Mo doesn't play and results in whole team in a funk.
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That seems plausible. 1st play from scrimmage, 5 yd loss on the ground. Ruh, roh.
 

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