***OFFICIAL BUFFALO AT MINNESOTA 2025 SEASON OPENER, FLECK YEAR 9 IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

[upnorthkid]

Seriously do you think the OL will improve? It is not the kids dummy, it is the coaching and the recruiting. Looked to me like they played up to their abilities. Just not B1G linemen.

this is a take...

These guys have had tons of P4 offers, Roy was a top 300 national recruit, Johnson a top 500, Dylan Ray started multiple games at multiple P4 schools, and you have multiple other guys who have started for us.

Buffalo's defense is going to be pretty good (and is the reason they're a pick to win the MAC). I won't be surprised if Murdoch is the MAC defensive POTY if he stays healthy. we put up 445 yards of offense playing slow for the last 9.5min and kicked 3 short FGs while dropping at least 6 passes,

was it rough? yeah
The angst i think we're getting a little too worried off this game. Let's see how they look next week. That was a very aggressive blitzing/slanting defense. That's a tough week one opponent.

 

[swede2]

He had 141 yards.

It was a slow start but there were at least two runs early where DT tried to stretch the D and missed his hole.

 

[WAGopher]

Seriously do you think the OL will improve? It is not the kids dummy, it is the coaching and the recruiting. Looked to me like they played up to their abilities. Just not B1G linemen.

Our O line always improves. They are young with new starters. And our blocking scheme can be complicated, although last night it looked pretty vanilla. It’s hard watching the lines on TV, so I may have missed some things.

 

[Gopherchase]

Our O line always improves. They are young with new starters. And our blocking scheme can be complicated, although last night it looked pretty vanilla. It’s hard watching the lines on TV, so I may have missed some things.

I thought our OL looked pretty athletic. They did have some glaring misses from time to time. Not to beat a dead horse as I mentioned it in another thread, but I don’t get the 3 inch splits. It seems like the OL are lining up literally right next to each other and then we try to run right up the middle where everyone is stacked in — doesn’t seem to make any sense to me a little more room to run if you spread things out some. I don’t remember our OL being lined up like this before our current OC took over but I could be wrong.

 

[MinnGopher]

That MAC team could probably hold their own against the bottom third of our conference with their returning talent. Plus, it's the first game. Nebraska and wisconsin looked far worse than we did. We'll be fine.

Fair point, Buffalo is going to have a good year and first game of the year is always a mixed bag. The world isn’t ending and we’re still going to have a solid year, but to get above 8 wins we’re probably going to need to progress on the OL. We lost a stud in Ersery and 3 multi year starters. I do agree that we will improve as the year goes on but do we think we are going to take a big enough step to win games against tough B1G opponents like we want them to?

I’m only being critical because I want us to take that next step and have a shot to make it to Indy or the playoffs. We are still on a solid arc.

 

[upnorthkid]

Fair point, Buffalo is going to have a good year and first game of the year is always a mixed bag. The world isn’t ending and we’re still going to have a solid year, but to get above 8 wins we’re probably going to need to progress on the OL. We lost a stud in Ersery and 3 multi year starters. I do agree that we will improve as the year goes on but do we think we are going to take a big enough step to win games against tough B1G opponents like we want them to?

I’m only being critical because I want us to take that next step and have a shot to make it to Indy or the playoffs. We are still on a solid arc.

I mean, it's game one and we just saw Rutgers give up 450 yards of offense to Ohio, Nebraska hang on to beat a Cinci team most pick to be about 7-5 in a terrible B12, WI put up 17 points on a MI of OH team that looked like they forgot how football worked on offense, and we also play Purdue and NW.

The table is there to beat all these teams who have clear warts plus NW St and Cal and we'll see what the rest trot out this weekend. OSU has a brand new QB, so does Oregon and Mich St and Iowa were perfectly mediocre last year.

I was actually quite encouraged last night as the most important thing that was the biggest question was Lindsey and he certainly looks like he has all the tools (and benefited a ton from learning from Brosmer for a year). Line looks big and athletic and you have some guys on it that have played P5 games that came in as replacements rather than guys new to CFB mixed with some highly recruited young guys. Think they'll get better and better as they gel vs real competition.

 

[mngg11]

I mean, it's game one and we just saw Rutgers give up 450 yards of offense to Ohio, Nebraska hang on to beat a Cinci team most pick to be about 7-5 in a terrible B12, WI put up 17 points on a MI of OH team that looked like they forgot how football worked on offense, and we also play Purdue and NW.

The table is there to beat all these teams who have clear warts plus NW St and Cal and we'll see what the rest trot out this weekend. OSU has a brand new QB, so does Oregon and Mich St and Iowa were perfectly mediocre last year.

I was actually quite encouraged last night as the most important thing that was the biggest question was Lindsey and he certainly looks like he has all the tools (and benefited a ton from learning from Brosmer for a year). Line looks big and athletic and you have some guys on it that have played P5 games that came in as replacements rather than guys new to CFB mixed with some highly recruited young guys. Think they'll get better and better as they gel vs real competition.

I feel much, much more confident with an 8 win baseline this year.

 

[Unregistered User]

Our O line always improves. They are young with new starters. And our blocking scheme can be complicated, although last night it looked pretty vanilla. It’s hard watching the lines on TV, so I may have missed some things.

Don’t feed the trolls

 

[GophersInIowa]

I thought our OL looked pretty athletic. They did have some glaring misses from time to time. Not to beat a dead horse as I mentioned it in another thread, but I don’t get the 3 inch splits. It seems like the OL are lining up literally right next to each other and then we try to run right up the middle where everyone is stacked in — doesn’t seem to make any sense to me a little more room to run if you spread things out some. I don’t remember our OL being lined up like this before our current OC took over but I could be wrong.

I didn't get the tight splits either. I wonder if Derek Burns will do a breakdown of the game like he's done before. If he does, try to see if we can get his thoughts about the splits.