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Doc1001

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I shouldnt be worrying after a win but all the gophers need to do is face a team that shuts down the run---and many of our upcoming foes can do that--and we will sit there again with a non performing offense. You just cant be one dimensional and win in the big ten or anywhere if you want to reach the top.
 

Yes, we shouldn't even play those games against teams that are good against the run.
 

I agree Doc. We were able to run on Purdue so we didn't need any contribution from the passing game. This was more to do with Purdue's poor tackling than anything we were doing (yes, I am very impressed with Brook's running) and those who believe the passing game was better yesterday need to watch the game again. It is very unlikely we will have the same level of success against any of our remaining opponents. In a few weeks, many will be scratching their heads wondering what happened to the offense we saw at Purdue.
 

Just play the backup with a 43.8 completion percentage and all will be solved.
 

I'm horrible at prognostication so I don't even try anymore. I will watch as the season unfolds and hope for some surprises. Some day I might get to the level of many on here who understand much more quickly how the season will play out - sometimes in as few as a game or two. I remember a couple years ago when they told me the season was over after we went to Iowa and got crushed. Same thing last year after we played a non-competitive game at TCU and got crushed again. And here we are again. I heard how we were lucky to win any of the non-conference games against teams we were supposed to blow out. And finally our inept offense showed how the season would play out as Northwestern completely shut us down. And of course there's no reason to get excited about yesterday's game. That was just Purdue. No way we can beat anyone else on the schedule as they are all capable of just shutting down the run game leaving us with no offense at all. There's always the slim hope our defense can pull out a game or two on their own. Do I have that right?
 


GolferKill said:
I agree Doc. We were able to run on Purdue so we didn't need any contribution from the passing game. This was more to do with Purdue's poor tackling than anything we were doing (yes, I am very impressed with Brook's running) and those who believe the passing game was better yesterday need to watch the game again. It is very unlikely we will have the same level of success against any of our remaining opponents. In a few weeks, many will be scratching their heads wondering what happened to the offense we saw at Purdue.
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We hear this theory every year, it's just a bunch of BS negativity.
Every game in COLLEGE football can be a new and crazy event.
This team can do exactly what it did yesterday to anyone in the B1G.
 

GolferKill said:
I agree Doc. We were able to run on Purdue so we didn't need any contribution from the passing game. This was more to do with Purdue's poor tackling than anything we were doing (yes, I am very impressed with Brook's running) and those who believe the passing game was better yesterday need to watch the game again. It is very unlikely we will have the same level of success against any of our remaining opponents. In a few weeks, many will be scratching their heads wondering what happened to the offense we saw at Purdue.
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It is a valid concern in that Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin are the top 4 defenses in the conference against the run through 6 games. 3 of those are holding opponents under 100 rushing yards a game on average. It isn't exactly a secret that the way to stop our offense is to stop the run. When the running game is working we are tough to beat, when it gets shutdown the offense is dead in the water. That has been the case the past few seasons and doesn't really seem any different this season.

The good news is that most of the teams on our schedule outside of Ohio State don't look all that scary on offense so our defense should be able to keep things close which will allow the offense to focus on getting the running game going.
 

Old Goph said:
I'm horrible at prognostication so I don't even try anymore. I will watch as the season unfolds and hope for some surprises. Some day I might get to the level of many on here who understand much more quickly how the season will play out - sometimes in as few as a game or two. I remember a couple years ago when they told me the season was over after we went to Iowa and got crushed. Same thing last year after we played a non-competitive game at TCU and got crushed again. And here we are again. I heard how we were lucky to win any of the non-conference games against teams we were supposed to blow out. And finally our inept offense showed how the season would play out as Northwestern completely shut us down. And of course there's no reason to get excited about yesterday's game. That was just Purdue. No way we can beat anyone else on the schedule as they are all capable of just shutting down the run game leaving us with no offense at all. There's always the slim hope our defense can pull out a game or two on their own. Do I have that right?
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I realize your shtick is bad sarcasm (are you Spoofins dad?) but I don't see anyone being a Debbie Downer. Everyone says we had a good day yesterday and with a good defense we have a chance in every game, even OSU. If you refuse to admit there are some ongoing problems on the offense then that's the definition of head in sand.

Nothing wrong with being irrationally optimistic, and nothing wrong with voicing valid concerns and discussion.
 

This has been the story surrounding the Gophers offense the past 3 seasons. It's all fun and games until we play a team with a stout run defense. Then the game falls in the hands of the passing game, and we all know what happens then
 



Old Goph said:
That was just Purdue. No way we can beat anyone else on the schedule as they are all capable of just shutting down the run game leaving us with no offense at all. There's always the slim hope our defense can pull out a game or two on their own. Do I have that right?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have those same memories of recent years, too, but that doesn't prevent me from thinking we will have a very difficult time in the remaining games if we don't pass for more than 82 yards. Of course, I believe that we will in some of them (as inconsistent as Leidner has been, he has passed for over 200 yards in two games this season). We don't have a 300+ rushing yard performance against any other Big Ten team over the last two years so we can't expect to be generating this much territory by the run alone. Given our schedule for the remaining games I can understand just going with whatever is working in the quest to get 6 or 7 hard fought wins. The good news going forward is that we've had two of our biggest Big Ten rushing games (271 and 284 yards respectively) over the last two years against Nebraska.
 

We will live and die by the right arm of Mitch Leidner, complimenting the run game. Or Croft. Or Perra. They are going to have to hit some big passes. History suggests we will have some great games (Iowa 2014) and some awful games (TCU, WI 2014 spring to mind).
 

They other major problem to solve is the slow starts. Game after game they are playing from behind. At this point it has become a serious issue.
 

Same thread, different season

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The key to our season is the OL. The OL is the key to both the running and passing game. Getting JC and Lauer back healthy is big. Mitch has not been good, but he can be effective enough if we give him a clean pocket. Purdue is bad, but our oline still played well. That's very encouraging.
 


Ole said:
We hear this theory every year, it's just a bunch of BS negativity.
Every game in COLLEGE football can be a new and crazy event.
This team can do exactly what it did yesterday to anyone in the B1G.
Click to expand...

+1 Yep - That is what our Gopher Hole experts so best. Football is a highly emotional game and the ball takes crazy bounces. As a result I say to hell with our resident Chicken Littles. Go Gophers!
 

Section2 said:
Mitch has not been good, but he can be effective enough if we give him a clean pocket. Purdue is bad, but our oline still played well. That's very encouraging.
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Also, watching MSU vs. Rutgers last night, I couldn't help thinking how much better Mitch might look if he had MSU's receivers. Connor Cook is good but those receivers make his passing stats better than they would be with average receivers.
 

Gophers Win Game: posters say "they beat a bad team. They'll be lucky to win another game."

Gophers Lose Game: posters say "they stink. They'll be lucky to win another game."

Look- I'm not saying the Gophers are a powerhouse, or they're going to dominate any of the remaining games. But, I am saying that they can be competitive in the remaining games. The doom and gloom on this board is getting out of hand.

Before the season, a few people were making lofty predictions, but others were looking at the schedule, looking at the graduation losses, and predicting 7 or 8 wins. Well, right now, the Gophers are still on pace to win 7 or 8 games. This season may not be the glorious breakthrough that some were hoping for, but it's not going to be the unmitigated disaster that others keep predicting.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Gophers Win Game: posters say "they beat a bad team. They'll be lucky to win another game."

Gophers Lose Game: posters say "they stink. They'll be lucky to win another game."

Look- I'm not saying the Gophers are a powerhouse, or they're going to dominate any of the remaining games. But, I am saying that they can be competitive in the remaining games. The doom and gloom on this board is getting out of hand.

Before the season, a few people were making lofty predictions, but others were looking at the schedule, looking at the graduation losses, and predicting 7 or 8 wins. Well, right now, the Gophers are still on pace to win 7 or 8 games. This season may not be the glorious breakthrough that some were hoping for, but it's not going to be the unmitigated disaster that others keep predicting.
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To the first part in bold - Where are people saying this? The fact of the matter is that we did beat a bad team, that is undeniable, we also played very well against that bad team as opposed to the way we looked against Kent State for example. But the other part is being invented by the handful of vocal posters that see anything even slightly negative and translate it to the sky is falling, gophers suck, can't win....even if that is not anywhere close to what the poster said.

To the second part in bold, this is exactly how the rational posters on this board feel. Most of those rational posters also see where the holes on this team are, namely the passing game, so they want to discuss the team both good and bad. Unfortunately nearly every thread on this board gets hijacked by the sunshine and unicorns crowd that gets totally bent out of shape the second they see anything that doesn't fall along the lines of the "Gophers are great, they can do no wrong".

If you could just weed out the insanely positive and insanely negative posts this would be a great fan board....it would be short on posts....but they would be interesting.
 

Now that Tyler Moore and Conner Mayes are anchoring the middle of the OL, maybe the Gophers can have some stability to open up more offensively.

What is truly worrisome is the decimation of players with injuries this early.

The Bye Week could not have come at a better time. The team needs to heal and regroup.

Although recruiting is steadily getting better year to year, the Gophers can ill afford to have a 1-7 B1G finish. That will not be good for recruiting.

They have to prove they can win consistently, and the recruiting talent level will take care of itself.

What worries me is the the passing game. We've got to get Gentry and others involved, and we need Snelson and other like him to come here. When the Demry Croft and Tony Poljan era arrives, we need these higher skilled level WRs & TEs in addition to a great running game to be in contention with the big boys.
 

Well Purdue played one good half of football this year ( MSU) Take that for what it is worth. Boiler fans don't think they will win another game.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Gophers Win Game: posters say "they beat a bad team. They'll be lucky to win another game."

Gophers Lose Game: posters say "they stink. They'll be lucky to win another game."

Look- I'm not saying the Gophers are a powerhouse, or they're going to dominate any of the remaining games. But, I am saying that they can be competitive in the remaining games. The doom and gloom on this board is getting out of hand.

Before the season, a few people were making lofty predictions, but others were looking at the schedule, looking at the graduation losses, and predicting 7 or 8 wins. Well, right now, the Gophers are still on pace to win 7 or 8 games. This season may not be the glorious breakthrough that some were hoping for, but it's not going to be the unmitigated disaster that others keep predicting.
Click to expand...

Hey, look, I think the posters here are overwhelmingly pleased after yesterday's victory, but the next six games are tougher than the first six so I wouldn't say that we are on pace to win 8 games. Hard to imagine gaining anything close to yesterday's rushing yardage in many of the remaining games. Nebraska seems the most likely bet as we put up big rushing games against them the last two years. Illinois held us to 171 rushing last year (although they did give up 278 to Iowa yesterday). Yesterday's game was a lot of fun to watch after the frustration of the season so far, but the previous rushing high was 204 yards against Ohio.

Kill doesn't want to throw the ball 30 times per game but he may have to. Michigan has allowed 397 yards rushing in 6 games. Iowa has only allowed one rushing game over 100 yards and that was in a blow out win over North Texas. The remaining opponents are more vulnerable to the run to one degree or another but it's hard to imagine winning at OSU. I'd be happy enough if the Gophers won three more games (and probably satisfied enough if they won only two) but we're going to have to throw more often than we did yesterday to give ourselves a fighting chance in all of the remaining games.
 

hungan1 said:
The Bye Week could not have come at a better time. The team needs to heal and regroup.
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You do realize that we do have one more game until the bye week? The injury riddled roster will have to gut it out one more time before it gets a rest.
 

Ole said:
We hear this theory every year, it's just a bunch of BS negativity.
Every game in COLLEGE football can be a new and crazy event.
This team can do exactly what it did yesterday to anyone in the B1G.
Click to expand...

This is just a bunch of BS positivity, and you know it in your soul.
 

Killjoy said:
+1 Yep - That is what our Gopher Hole experts so best. Football is a highly emotional game and the ball takes crazy bounces. As a result I say to hell with our resident Chicken Littles. Go Gophers!
Click to expand...

Insinuating that you, and a select few who share your opinions, are the real experts? Ha. Rich.
 

TheBulldog said:
This is just a bunch of BS positivity, and you know it in your soul.
Click to expand...

Yeah because we've never ran the ball on good defenses in the Jerry kill era before.
We followed the gameplan yesterday that has lead to back to back 8 win seasons.
If we can get the defense healthy again we will be just fine.
 

Games aren't played on paper. Because Team A beat Team B doesn't guarantee how Team C will do. Stats are fun and good for discussion, but too many here base their posts on those measurable things. Often the "eye test" is cited to refute what the stats and scores predict.

There are teams that run predictable offenses (option) that are really tough to stop because of their execution. The Gopher offense was guilty of trying to be something they are not and struggled. Kill recognized that and we got back to who we are.

Due to injuries our experience has been diminished. But, because of better recruiting success, our talent may be improving. It's a trade off that bodes well since the youth has had some time to adjust. We'll face good teams in the second half of our season there's no reason to think we won't have a chance to beat them all, no matter what the numbers say.
 

hungan1 said:
Now that Tyler Moore and Conner Mayes are anchoring the middle of the OL, maybe the Gophers can have some stability to open up more offensively.

What is truly worrisome is the decimation of players with injuries this early.

The Bye Week could not have come at a better time. The team needs to heal and regroup.

Although recruiting is steadily getting better year to year, the Gophers can ill afford to have a 1-7 B1G finish. That will not be good for recruiting.

They have to prove they can win consistently, and the recruiting talent level will take care of itself.

What worries me is the the passing game. We've got to get Gentry and others involved, and we need Snelson and other like him to come here. When the Demry Croft and Tony Poljan era arrives, we need these higher skilled level WRs & TEs in addition to a great running game to be in contention with the big boys.
Click to expand...

Snelson will not be a Gopher. We cannot pass this year, we won't be able to pass next year. When a head coach says we are a running team, then why would you want to play for that team as a highly touted WR if the team isn't a perennial Big Ten contender?
 


Doc1001 said:
I shouldnt be worrying after a win but all the gophers need to do is face a team that shuts down the run---and many of our upcoming foes can do that--and we will sit there again with a non performing offense. You just cant be one dimensional and win in the big ten or anywhere if you want to reach the top.
Click to expand...
Kill was quoted somewhere yesterday as saying he'd just as soon not throw a single pass. Something like that worked for Woody Hayes and Murray Warmath, but it doesn't work anymore. It's the "There are three things that can happen with a forward pass and two of them are bad" philosophy. If Kent State could shut down our run, so will Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
 

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